Branding has become an invaluable tool to add value to a company or product. With so many options and strategies available to marketers to create and maintain their specific brand name, it is easy to get something wrong. And in this day and age, the consequences of this can be quite substantial.

A recent blog post by “Dave” outlines the importance of delivering on your brand promise; in particular the effect packaging can have on this. In his post he describes how a friend of his bought a frozen pizza that in no matched the description on the box, (the topping were quite scarce) and subsequently posted it on facebook, fueling much comments and debate. You can see the post here: http://davedolak.blogspot.com/2011/05/everything-counts-in-brand-building.html

Obviously the company did not deliver on its promise on the packet, and this mistake was observed and shared with many possible consumers. What the post did note was the gravity of the mistake. If the company producing this was a low-cost generic brand, the result could almost be expected. The infringing company was in fact Freschetta, which prides itself on “frozen pizzas  made with top-quality ingredients and taste-tested recipes, just to make sure your pizza will always deliver FRESCH® flavor.” (see Freschetta website: http://freschetta.com/about-freschetta/default.aspx)

Freschetta is making a real effort differentiate itself using its logo and “FRESCH®” slogan/Brand Personality, and is hoping to create a strong brand relationship with its customers. Mistakes such as this can greatly offset the money and effort being put in, especially with the speed and efficiency news spreads in the current age.

So although branding is an invaluable, immensely powerful tool for companies, the implications of “not getting it right” can be quite serious. I’ll leave you with an example. Last year, Toyota’s brand image and reputation was severely affected when it had to recall a large number of cars due to brake fluid issues. (http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/21/autos/toyota_recall_brake/)