Brand Failures_ The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time - Matt Haig [118]
The following decades saw the brand slide back towards a conservative image, as the age of the average customer grew older. By the start of the 1990s its ‘granny image’ was being commented on by certain British journalists. When SmithKline Beecham bought the company in 1990 for £110 million, it embarked on numerous attempts to spruce up the brand’s identity.
In 1997, the company changed its advertising model from actress Helena Bonham Carter to supermodel Linda Evangelista. One of the adverts showed her shackled in chains and handcuffs – a long way from grannies and green wellies. But the multi-million pound advertising campaign failed to work. In fact, it served only to alienate the brand’s most loyal customers.
On 26 August 1998 the company went into receivership with debts of about £120 million. The brand eventually found a buyer in the form of German hair care giant Wella, which was itself bought out by Procter & Gamble in 2003. It remains to be seen whether it will be possible to modernize the Yardley brand.
Lessons from Yardley
Don’t neglect your core customers. Brands must try to change over time without neglecting their traditional customers.
Remember that historical brands carry historical baggage. The Yardley brand identity had evolved over more than two hundred years. It couldn’t be erased with one advertising campaign.
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