It happens to nearly every popular brand which leadership lucks a understanding of basic product and brand management. A failure to establish and adhere to a strategic brand vision the brand is allowed to meander and grow on the own without any thought to how may may possibly lead to its demise or at least its transformation into something unplanned.
It then develops a small, but loyal following, gains momentum through the world of mouth and marketing, becoming More popular, grows in status, grow in specialty outlets, grows even more popular, moves into even more more mainstream, loses some of its cache now that everyone has it, show at Wal-Mart, becomes a commodity and now you & # 39; re just another shelf item to the consumer. And, your original customers have now probably left you.
But it 's not great, for example, if you originally wanted to be considered the highest quality provider of widgets Why do not you like something like that? s sakeway along with the way the lure of big memorandum with a lot of more resistant companies abandon whatever strategy they have and end up just another item on the wall.
When happy to Columbia Sportswear was considered to be a bit of a status brand? When Eddie Bauer was considered high-end? When an Ironman mean 140.6 miles? There & # 39; s not a right or wrong here , just a choice. Do you want to be Calvin Klein who sells their products in TJMaxx or do you want to be rented only in the higher ends stores?
A Who would you prefer? A Chevy or a BMW? A Baume & Mercier or a Seiko? You & # 39; s not. There 's a position in minds of the consumers. 39 why? In truth, there & # 39; sa slightly small difference in what you & # 39; re buying. They both tell you what time it is and can get you to But we still love our brands. We are still in the best parties.
An established brand or mark allowed a company to communicate tons of information with a simple name or In marketing terms, this reduces the noise and problems for the clarity of message.
Looking at Apple logo and you 'll think of quality, iPad , uniqueness, cutting edge design, modern, reliable, expensive, Steve Jobs, iPhone, market leadership, etc No lot of important data in that little piece of fruit.
Ironman. Ironman meets all the people I have the most marketing people behind us, I turn to the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). Most people have never heard of this organization, but I bet most people have at least heard of their most popular brand; As covered in How Did This Ironman Thing Ever Get Started, this small, local event held in Hawaii the late 70 & # 39; s has turned into a mega marketing machine which carries its brand mark Is the Ironman name a brand or a product or a just an event - or all three? The fact that it & # 39; s up for discussion should tell you there is a problem.
This is perfectly acceptable as many company start this way and are forever associated with their first product. Your favorite soft drink company is a good example of this. They created not bells. They did not sell them as Coke Fanta or Coke Sprite. Can you imagine the confusion of standing in the grocery store looking at at 40 's and 50' s. There is no scumbled. No doubt; there & # 39; s certainly a lot in a name.
Much like the half marathon craze, this has opened up a whole new audience to ultra- distance triathlons and introduced a lot of athletes to the Ironman brand. And in another positive move for the growth of the sport, WTC has stuck a plan to create an Olympic distance series of races.
The WTC is making millions off race licensing, franchise, race entry fee and television contracts with NBC / Universal Sports. I am all for making money and kudos to WTC for taking The brand has lost its way.
Perhaps a simple lack of foresight or maybe an attempt to take advantage of the brands popularity, the WTC named its 70.3 mile series "Ironman 70.3". So now it & # 39; s common to hear things like: What is an Ironman? "Is Ironman event? Who are all the events called Ironman?" Oh, you did Ironman Florida - did not you finish in finance do one in in Orlando last weekend ?. The Ironman name has become diluted and now communicates such little exacting information that even It 's just like the story in the grocery store with every beverage labeled Coke. It' s lost its punch.
If you buy a brand; you care. For kind of luckadaisical If you buy a brand; you care. attention that WTC has given the Ironman brand will cause it dangerous territory for the organization that ties heavily on overpriced entry fees and merchandise sold entirely around the brand 's lofty position and strength.
This disconnect was exacerbated recently by two marketing mistakes by the WTC. First, they tried to sell special access to services through a program that had little real value and then priced it at $ 1000 / per year (this program was dropped within a few days after a surge of complaints). Secondly, their lack of control of the brand was on full display when the 2010 Miami Ironman 70.3 ran out of water early in the race, changed the run route right before the start and routed cyclists through traffic-congested WTC offered free entry into 2011 IM 70.3 races, Miami roads with little oversight. They had sold the name to a local race director who did a poor job planning the race. but I doubt that helps a lot of people who traveled there and trained for much of the year around this event.
From hardcore athletes to weekend warriors, I hear rumblings that indicating a growing disenchantment with the brand as it wanders off into heavy merchandising, mass marketing and The true Ironman distance athletes. These athletes (the core customer for Ironman) are beginning to look for non-Ironman events. In essence, they & # 39; re looking for the old Ironman experience .
The customers who buy Lexus expect a different experience than who who is a path to redemption. When you use the Ironman brand for all of the races you deny everyone as you are to associate with the wTC. Likewise, the 70.3 distance racers have to constantly explain that they did not actually do an an "Ironman", they did half an Ironman and so on ... it & # 39; s really irritating.
I've gotten a lot of trouble with Ironman (thank goodness). They & # 39; ve named the circuit "5150 Triathlon Series" cleverly using the "I" from Ironmanan instead of the number one in the 5150. Hopefully, they & # 39; ll avoid the use of the M - Dot and reserve that for their premier event the 140.6 mile Ironman distance.
I am not in the business Call it something totally different and tie in the master brand in some passive way. Either way, and I & # 39; ll say it again, find a new naming convention due 70.3 miles simply is not an Ironman.
The Ironman brand is all grown up and lives. Hopefully, the 5150 series is the start of a proper way to manage such a coveted name.
