A very, very short history of brands that made it and didn’t

Aurora Magazine (January 2009)

The road to success is littered with the rotting carcasses of great failures. This has been the story the world over. Thousands of brands launched with great flourish have not survived the market place and are now consigned to the dustbin of failure, some on a grand and most on a modest scale. For the ones that made it and those that went on to become household names – the ultimate dream of all companies, there are far too many that did not. Experts say that there are valuable lessons to be learnt in why some failed and some succeeded but people don’t take readily to history particularly when it contains embarrassing truths. It’s one way to live but it may not be a great way if you are responsible for the success or failure of the brand.

The stories of failure are legendary and make for fascinating reading but it is a vast field of glaciers and deep crevices that needs time before you can cross it. Looking back at our own past and talking to some practitioners of the ancient and much reviled witchcraft that is also called advertising, there were names popping literally out of the woodwork. Brands that promised the moon but delivered nothing. These went on to become classic failures and were the toast of our marketing gurus and excited clients. It is not possible after so many years to actually determine why the failures occurred because the reason for their demise, are not known. Neither are there people who can actually fill in the blanks with what really went on and why the numbers didn’t add up at the end of the day.

There was Zedol. It was touted as magical hair oil that would miraculously grow luxuriant hair in a trice on the most slippery head. All you had to be was bald. The baldies, desperate for a growth flocked to buy the product but as bottle after bottled was liberally applied to shining pates, there wasn’t even a flicker of a solitary hair. In the end the sales went for a nosedive, the oil sort of evaporated and the baldies turned to miracle soothsayers. I recall a cricket match where a bald man walked in front of the General Stand and was greeted by shouts of ‘Zedol,’ followed by guffaws of laughter. It had become a household name but for all the wrong reasons. Zedol failed because it built its appeal on a lie. Sooner or later, it was going to be exposed. Did the owners make money before they disappeared? We’ll never know.  Sattar Khan remembers another oldie called Panama Cotton which had a catchy jingle that went, ‘pan-ama panama kabhi na bhulan.’ The jingle was a hit. The cotton fabric wasn’t. Panama drowned in a shallow canal never to surface again. Here was a product that built a promise but did not live up to its jingle-popularity. A nice jingle is a nice jingle but it can’t sell something that simply has nothing unique to offer.

It was probably Barbra Sharif’s first commercial and the product was ‘Jet Washing Powder.’ Babs sang and danced amidst the clotheslines (they still are using the same scenario), fresh as a daisy and wooed everyone with ‘Jet hamara jet tumara,’ but in the end the jet simply plummeted down to earth and not even in the Hudson River. Babs was bewitching, but couldn’t fly a jet. From what one recalls, the product was a great seller in its time but whether it made serious money remains a mystery. The Saigols were a little ahead of their time and launched a number of fashion products with in-your-face visuals and catchy lines. Smartelle was created by Tarfa Saigol who was Lebanese by descent (I think) and ‘Smart, Smarter, Smartelle’ was the rage till the brand disappeared without trace. Had it run out of steam? Along with Smartelle there was a men’s range shirt material called Fabron that featured a getaway gal (Naveen Tajik) in a train and a young Abbas Kazim father of Juggun Kazim watching her go wistfully, replaced later with a desi version of Ogilvy’s ‘The Man in the Hathaway Shirt’ eye patch and all, was The Kohinoor Shirt. That too was not to last long. Fashion is a cruel business and fads come and go.

In the cigarettes, our history of brands that came and most went is a long one. Red & White outlasted many – Sipra’s famous line ‘Come for the Style, Stay for the Taste,’ or ‘Move up to Red & White – that’s where you get satisfaction,’ are still recalled. Clifton, a rich Pakistan national green colour pack of 20s was the rage – but just for a while till it went off the radar. Three Castles was the great favourite amongst the upper crust and Woodbine came and went the way of others. K-2 reinvented itself, got the picture of the famous mountain out of context, added filters and remains today in the market. Wills too stuck to the consumers with ‘Wills & Filter go together,’ showing zany people doing outlandish things and having a ball on beaches and up mountain tops. It was the free easy mixing of the sexes with everyone puffing for dear life till a killjoy from the Nine Party political alliance that stood up to ZAB, Prof. Khurshid if I recall rightly, who marched to PTV and pulled off just about all the ads. on grounds of obscenity and lewdness. Where did the cigarettes go wrong? All offered the good life, the promise of fun on the side, of with-it girls and not-a-care-in-the-world young men. Surely some of these brands made money but we have no records available and in that sense and sheer longevity, many cannot be called ‘failures,’ but products that came, stayed awhile and disappeared.

In soaps, the history is longish indeed. Ferozsons Labs were credited with Dew toilet soap ‘Let’s Dew it,’ long before Mountain Dew was even dreamt of and the poorer line ‘Do the Dew.’  707 soap lasted a long time thanks to the immortal ‘Hum tu janay seede baat, saban ho to 707,’ and a very comely Babs who was the star in one of the commercials. Khanum Carbolic soap disappeared and Sunlight soap quickly turned to Sundown but whether these two brought in money is not known. Soaps offered the usual promises – great skin, natural radiance and for the clothes washing line, great performance but this was before the ‘miracle powders’ started to appear and made washing and scrubbing by hand look archaic and slavish. Lux that probably no film star worth her name has ever used became the preferred brand and Capri followed a race that lives on today though it would be safe to say that Lux has stepped up and away.

The Toyota Corona and the Isuzu Bellet were two cars that one can recall that were advertised and publicized along with a sporty car from Italy the Fiat 124, later the 125. But while the Corona lives through a large limo model that bears no resemblance to its predecessor, the other two brands are history. Revo, Pakistan’s pathetic answer to a local and affordable car has come and gone in a trice. And in the dairy business where to fail seems to require little effort, other than Nurpur, Milkpak and much later Haleeb which now looks like the grandma of all milks, the failures have been swift and ruthless. Milko the first UHT milk is a museum piece today. So are Milk Bell that rang for just a while and Milk Time that stopped. Green’s Dairy once home to many products is now history. Haleeb’s ‘Candia Milk’ of more recent memory is dust. Where did they go wrong? Milkpak has continued to survive and even grow thanks to Nestle and a collection system that backs it, but did the others make promises that they really did not keep? After all, other than a good healthy life and strong bones, most milk as a commodity is losing out in the global market in spite of some creative work ‘Milk Moustache’ and ‘Gotcha Milk,’ that featured anybody who was anybody as long as he or she were stars. Nestlé’s line of failures barely whispered let alone mentioned are the Maggi Ketchups and Sauces that had embarrassing runs before being abandoned. Another failure was make customers prepare their own sweets in a country where consumers buy from thousands of preferred outlets. A ‘Penacolada’ has met the same Waterloo at Nestle it is said. Amongst minor stars of another kind were brands like Hyesons Bulbs and lights, ABC Wool, Diplomat After Shave Lotion and shaving cream, 7 O’clock blades (haven’t seen any – maybe the Taliban bought the whole stock,) Patra Perfume, An Evening in Paris, Old Spice (haven’t seen that red thing again) and Lawrencepur’s famous Lyla ‘Lyla is a Lady’ – JJ’s alliteration outpouring. Savannah from the same mills is nowhere to be found and if in all this anyone has spotted Pancho Beans, I would like a few.

Brands fail for any amount of reasons. Gurus advise many ways to avoid failure. Don’t over reach. Don’t promise the moon. Don’t build unpopular brand associations. Don’t fall into a nostalgia trap unless you have solid evidence it will work. Watch the competition closely. If the name doesn’t work, change it. Concentrate on the brand not the products. They come and go but brands can stay. Don’t follow a failing formula and have a logical brand association. Acknowledge cultural differences. Don’t disregard market realities and listen to your inner voice not the boardroom babble. In these lessons may lie that narrow road to great success.