New Year. Same tendencies for trouble.
Not a surprise.
The lack of understanding of brands and the disregard for brand-building growth and maintenance principles continue to plague organizations, leading to unprofitable, short-term performance.
Forget, for the moment, the amazing digital, technical, and AI disruptions and innovations: there are basic brand principles that must not only be observed but also acted upon at your peril to enduring profitable growth. There are overarching problems that happen when these principles are ignored. The size and reputation of your brand do not matter. Big or small, mass or niche, unless you properly manage your brands, your brand will disappoint and potentially linger on the edge of obscurity.
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Brands can live forever. There is no inevitable brand death. Brands find themselves in trouble and, sometimes, die due to the self-inflicted actions of their owners.
Brands as different as Vera Bradley, designer of those floral and paisley-patterned, quilted satchels, and Kraft Heinz’s famous, yet flailing, Kraft mac & cheese, are suffering from troubling brand mismanagement behaviors. These death-wish behaviors occurred because management either did not know or chose to ignore brand basics.
Vera Bradley 1) lost focus on its core customers. As a public company, Vera Bradley 2 ) focused on analyst satisfaction rather than on customer satisfaction.
These two tendencies for trouble are absolute “stop-now” behaviors. Thankfully, Vera Bradley is changing its strategies to focus on its core customer base and what these core customers love about the brand.
Loyal customers are much more valuable than those who just consider your brand. Losing a small percentage of core customers will account for a disproportionate share of the brand’s lost income. Losing even a small percentage of core customers will also erode your brand’s image and reputation. As the CEO of Vera Bradley told investors, “We lost track of what made Vera Bradley special and unique and what customers loved about us.”
Moving away from, rather than modernizing, its brand essence angered loyal customers while attempting to please those who did not love the brand. It is possible that Vera Bradley’s youth-focused approach might have worked. But the evidence was not apparent.
In a world where immediacy is idolized, the fact that younger customers were not at once giddy about Vera Bradley may have indicated that it might take additional resources to convince these new potential customers of the brand’s value. The strategy was just taking too long; a worrisome omen.
Analysts and investors want profitability now. The idea that a new customer might be a more profitable customer than Vera Bradley’s “aging” core surely delighted Wall Street. But the loss of the “aging” core customers tore into performance numbers. Without financial evidence that the strategy was working, Wall Street seemed to lose confidence. At the same time, the core customer was at a loss.
Additionally, to boost declining performance, Vera Bradley resorted to promotions. Some of these promotions were as high as 50% to 80% off the retail price. For example, in March of 2025, a Vera Bradley Glenrose Family Tote – not quilted but plastic – in green paisley print went for $35 instead of its $75 price. (The tote is now available at the outlet and other online sites for $37.50.)
Vera Bradley’s CEO told analysts that in addition to losing focus on core customers, Vera Bradley relied on promotions to make up for the loss the core customer dollars. Forgetting that deal loyal customers are not real loyal customers is another brand mismanagement behavior.
Kraft Heinz, now a poster child for miserable brand management due to its long love affair with zero-based budgeting, which strangled the life out of its major brands, is now attempting to resuscitate the iconic Kraft Mac & Cheese. The company’s split into two entities after all the hoopla about the merger of ketchup and American cheese slices is an indication of Kraft Heinz’s dire straits.
Three of the tendencies for trouble that Kraft Heinz ignored and that seriously hurt the Kraft Mac & Cheese brand are 1) the belief that what worked yesterday will work today, 2) the failure to innovate, and 3) disregard for the changing world.
Yes, these three behaviors are connected. But the arrogance of Kraft Heinz’ deliberate focus on a) not changing anything that was generating cash, b) not making changes to this cash cow, and c) not recognizing changing customer tastes has pushed Kraft Mac & Cheese’s market share down to 39% according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2022, the brand’s market share was 45%. The cost cuts associated with zero-based budgeting affected not only managers but also market researchers and market research.
In its exposé about the Kraft Mac & Cheese debacle, The Wall Street Journal indicates that when it came to renovating the Kraft Mac & Cheese brand, Kraft Heinz executives “were in no hurry,” as sales were $1 billion a year.
Why fix what is not broken?
Except Kraft Mac & Cheese was broken. New brands with innovations in tastes and ingredients were making inroads into Kraft Mac & Cheese’s market share. Rather than risk alienating its core customers through renovation or innovation, Kraft Heinz stuck with its original formulae.
It is a mistake to think that current customers do not want renovations or innovations. Renovation and innovation are the lifeblood of brands. After the recent ado at Cracker Barrel, it turns out that those avid core customers who viscerally, vocally, and virally disliked the new Cracker Barrel marketing still think the Cracker Barrel food needs fixing.
One of the sad issues with Kraft Heinz executives was the disregard for the renovation and innovation ideas of Kraft Mac & Cheese brand teams. Internal pleas for brand changes went unheeded. Kraft Mac & Cheese teams even indicated that the brand, which was built on having a lot of cheese, needed more cheese to compete.
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When a brand becomes complacent in the face of existential threats, such as new competitive products, the Grim Reaper is near. Electrolux AB, the global appliance manufacturer, did not view Dyson as a threat in the early 1990s as the Dyson brand grew. Years of being a vacuum leader led Electrolux AB to believe that customers would reject bagless vacuums, as they believed bagless vacuums meant poorer suction. Wrong. Electrolux AB also believed that the sound of Dyson’s vacuums was too loud. Wrong again. Users perceived the Dyson sound as powerful.
Dyson became a market threat and leader because the brand solved two basic, ongoing, exceptionally irritating customer problems with one innovation: a bagless vacuum. Shopping for vacuum cleaner bags and emptying those filled dust bags were, and are, perceived as unbearable activities, especially since each vacuum model has its own bespoke bag, which is always the one not on the shelf.
Brands need people who understand and can act upon the basic brand principles. Unfortunately, our universities do not offer “brand management” courses. One might think that analysts, investors, and all of Wall Street should pressure business schools to actually invest in brand management classes.
Why?
Because there is no shareholder value without customer brand value. Without customer brand value, there is no quality revenue growth, leading to enduring profitable growth. It is all about the money. A poorly managed brand is usually one with declining customer brand value. Yet the business community continues to treat brand management as less important than digital advertising or spreadsheets. If this continues, the MBA degree will start to mean Murderer of Brand Assets.
In this New Year, let’s make a resolution. Let’s ask universities to offer courses in brand management. The lack of education in brand management is affecting brand performance. Now is the time to make changes.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define and articulate what makes them competitive and valuable at pivotal moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth, and Brand Education
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