Brand Turnaround: How Brands Gone Bad Returned to Glory and the 7 Game Changers that Made the Difference

Different Tribes Need Different Love

For a shaken brand that has lost its core buyers, the task is to find the buyers who will forgive and forget past missteps and love the brand just as much as before. Remember, buyers can be consumers of your product, of your cause, of your story, or all three. In the simplest terms, brands in recovery need to matter to the people who matter most (a group we will examine in further detail throughout the chapter). Therefore, it’s important to accept the idea that if everyone likes your brand, you stand for nothing. Being relevant to your most influential buyers is critical to recovery.

The brands featured in this chapter have all faced different challenges: Harley-Davidson’s new ownership let the quality decline ...