LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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INTRODUCTION
Vietnams Advertising Market has registered impressive annual growth rate of 20% - 30 % (according to Vietnam Advertising Association), creative employment for thousands of professional workers. The WTO accession in 2007 has opened up greater and greater opportunities for Vietnamese advertising enterprises to take off, yet at the same time bring about more challenges. A sad fact: 80 percent of the market share is being held by the minority of 50 foreign enterprises. The rest 20 percent belongs to the majority of 3000 other Vietnamese firms. That is to say the domestic players are facing up a huge obstacle. In order to improve its own market position, a Vietnamese ad firm is supposed to optimize operations while keeping an eye on the others to learn. And failures are such a good thing to learn. As a Vietnamese proverb goes, failure is the mother of success, it is worth learning from others mistake and failures and grow up. This paper will look into three big failures made in advertising / branding by famous brands / companies. The later sections of it will attempt to explain why these failures happened and how we could avoid getting into them in the future. This paper focuses on advertisings launched in Vietnam only, as I believe that Vietnam has some unique characteristics cases studies originating from other markets should fail to capture.

1. DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING FAILURES

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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Advertising is the name given to the process of commercial promotion of goods and services in order to increase their sales, by drawing peoples attention to them and showing them in a favorable light. It informs the buyers about the availability of a certain product or service in the market and encourages them to buy it. Advertising is a special activity involving many socioeconomic factors in one place. Partly by this virtue, it is a complex activity, especially when one wishes to define its failures. When it comes to definition of advertising failures, there are a great number of different ideas. However, these are the purposes of advertising I find quite basic: - To attract new buys and expand customer base (a) - To create an organizations recognition among customers (b) - To promote subsidiary or products manufactured by a company (c) - To bring into notices the changes, special offers, or benefits given to customers (d) It can be observed that: (a) is more about the bottom line (b) is about branding (c) is about product branding/ promotion (d) is about communications Thus, I define that an advertising failure is a campaign, commercial, or any other form of publicity that fails to help a product / brand / organization to accomplish one or more of the above purposes. Kindly be noted that this is just a personal attempt in defining advertising failures and it does not necessarily reflect a specific organizations ideas on the same issue. Depending on situations, a business may target one or more of the purposes, and
INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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most of the time they are overwhelmingly focused on achieving (a) - the bottom line. 2. THREE CASE STUDIES OF ADVERTISING FAILURES Case study 1: Special Forces scandalous activation campaign a. Product / brand: Special Force (commonly known in Vietnam as Dac Nhiem Anh Hung), a 3-D MMOFPS developed by Korean game developer DragonFly. In Vietnam the online game was published by FPT Online in March 2008. Special Force is said to be a real fever in South Korea, where it used to account for 20 percent of the nations online game market and 80% of Korean MMOFPS genre. The game has sophisticatedly designed interface, challenging in-game missions, and a strong collection of weapons. It was obviously a promising product in Vietnam, given that the game was the first to be published in Vietnam, compared with later-coming rivals of Cross Fire (by VTC) and Sudden Attack (VinaGame). b. Agency in charge: FPT Online trusted Masso PR with this campaign. This at first glance seemed to be an unbeatable alliance as Masso PR, belonging to Masso Group, is a prestigious creative agency having deals with giant brands/ corporations like Unilever, Pepsi, Cocacola, Kremil-S, etc. c. Campaign description:

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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In March, FPT Online decided to launch some key activation campaign aimed at raising gamers awareness of the game. The campaign has two spotlights: The first was a banner implicitly dubbing Special Force as another Counter Strike. The banner was posted on many game forums, saying 1998 - Counter Strike, 2000 Counter Strike 1.0, 2003 Counter Strike 1.6, 2008???. Then a few weeks later it launched an activation trailer introducing Special Force and once again suggesting the game as the second Counter Strike, a real legend in gaming world. The purpose of this move is to arousing awareness that Special Force was cool and grandeur. The second was a road-show featuring PGs and PBs wearing military uniforms driving war-time jeeps to many internet cafs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. These people even carried fake guns which they gave to kids to try. The purpose of this road-show was much likely to create mouth-dropping experience in targeted audience group while trying to make the game more intimate with the urban kids who are known as hardcore gamers. d. Consequences: The campaign led to a series of horrible failures both in financial and brand image terms: - Far from appreciating the greatness of the game, most gamers looked down on the banner as a dirt cheap trick, as commented a gamer in Ho Chi Minh City. Though it is the first shooting game to make debut in the market, Special Force was soon left behind Cross Fire and Sudden Attack. So far the number one FPS selection of Vietnamese gamers has been Cross Fire, then
INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

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Sudden Attack, and finally Special Force. The game is now lagging with a modest rate of CCU (around 500 players), and is said to be on the verge of closing down. - The road-show was soon back-fired by the mass media, among which the Lao Dong (Labour) is one of the most outspoken. MassoGroup was allegedly fined 15 million VND while FPT received warnings from the authorities. To be for certain, this is a real blow as it resulted in not only financial loss but brand damages also. Partly due to this huge failure, FPT Online is still behind in the race against VinaGame, now known as VNG, and VTC. Case study 2: Kotex Style Dancing campaign a. Product / Brand: Kotex is a world known brand of feminine hygiene products such as a wide array of tampon sub-brands, including Kotex Xitin (literally teeny stylist Kotex, or Kotex Style), marketed in Vietnam. Owned by Kymberly-Clark, a strong consumer products corporation, Kotex has been achieving a great number of victories over its competitors, including the state-owned Bach Tuyet brand and the main rival Diana. Kotex Style was launched in high hope that it will help Kotex gain another strong foothold in Vietnam. Kotex Style Dancing campaign, dubbed itself as 1st TV Serie abt hiphop, is a freestyle dancing contest open to Vietnamese teenage groups who want show off their dancing talents on stage and get aired on TV. The show has been sponsored and organized by Kotex Style and it is quite appealing to many local teenagers.

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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b. Campaign description: The campaign was launched in 2009 Dancing Contest. They decided to organize an all-fun night where audience can watch live performances, meet pop idols, join in teeny games like Beat Boxer, Graffiti decoration, etc. In order to gain admission to this highly anticipated event, a fan has two options: 1. As a subscribed member of Style Dancing Club, you can enjoy free admission 2. Otherwise, you have to barter 2 packages of Kotex Style for one ticket Prior to this event, Kotex Style has shown a TV commercial featuring two male guys camouflaging themselves with female dress and made their way to a supermarket where they delightfully bought two packs of tampon (which they need to get tickets). c. Consequences: There has been no evidence that Kotex Styles bottom line was negatively affected by the campaigns. Beyond imagination, the show was fully packed with thousands of fans screaming their idols names and opening up their eyes at the dancing rhythms. So to some extent one can say that the campaign was successful at gathering people. So what are the failures? The unexpected consequence is that the brand image was badly tarnished by the event. Right as the promotion came out, news articles started to criticize the idea badly. Most of the press attitude was against the campaign. Many journalists even demanded that the publicity campaign be prohibited.

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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Mens attitude towards the brand was what made the campaign a costly mistake. Forums were flooded with public flares of hatred and disrespects when it came to this sensitive promotion. Except some men who said to love the filthy marketing idea, people said they found the tampon-for-ticket requirement was just disgusting, weird, and offensive. What drove them equally crazy was the TV commercial. Many comments on video sites and news portals shared the same feeling: the brand looked down at men, or even insulted them. They felt offended being made into a woman just to buy tampons to gain admission to a music show. Case study 3: Lasers campaign a. Product / brand: Tan Hiep Phat has been a phenomenon in the local beverage market with some ground-breaking successes such as Zero Degree Green Tea, Doctor Thanh, Number 1, etc. Given the cut-throat competition with other powerful brands such as Heineken and Tiger, Tan Hiep Phat is really a good example for other Viet enterprises to look up to. Laser is a beer brand Tan Hiep Phat tried to promote in 2004 in an effort to snatch back something from the two giants Heineken and Tiger. According to some newspapers, the company threw in 30 million USD for the brand (US$ 10.00 for production facilities). b. Agency in charge

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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Sattchi was chosen as the principal agency for Laser brand-building mission. Sattchi is well known for their international expertise and local insights, and they have had many contracts from various big-names of the market, especially those from the beverage world. c. Campaign description: Laser applied the all-out war strategy when they made continuous appearance in many print and TV ads. Its brand image can also be found at many bus stops and outdoor banners. With a sound-good slogan, One step in advance, Laser seemed to be very determined to win peoples heart and be ready for the big outcome with their key weapon, Laser draught bottled beer, a curious idea too many beer lovers at the time. For distribution, Tan Hiep Phat assigned its Ben Thanh and Number 1 sales team to deal with the outlets. b. Consequences: However, Laser is a total failure. It can not snatch back anything from its rivals. In contrast, it suffered a devastating defeat even though Heineken and Tiger had not done much to fire back! Weeks after the TV commercial, Laser started to approach beverage outlets - be it beer stalls or food stalls or beer resellers. However, they were shocked to see the same head-shakes everywhere. Virtually no outlet inclined to sell Laser Beer. On May 18, 2004, Heineken mounted the first counter-attack when it sued Quan Cay Dua (literally mean Palm Stall for breaking the initial outlet agreement with them. Quan Cay Dua was among the very few outlets who decided to dodge the
INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

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initial contract with Heineken to sell Laser Beer, and they had to pay the price. They could not even put up a Laser banner after the court rulings. Tiger Beer gave Laser the knock-out with another print ad on Saigon Tiep Thi, shouting that Draught beer must be poured from beer machines. The concept here was to contradict that of Laser, and soon it turned Laser into a loser. 3. FAILURE ANALYSIS AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE CASE STUDIES Market players are different in scales and natures. However, as we try to analyze the underlying reasons for the above case studies, I believe we can gain better understanding of the local market participants and their common mistakes: a. Marketers and advertisers must not ignore the legal frameworks they are supposed to abide In the case of Special Force, it is hard to say Masso had an ultimately bad idea. With so many years of experience and a strong creative team, their ideas are not as bad as their criticism could point out. In fact, what Masso did badly in this deal was their ignorance, either intentionally or unintentionally, of Vietnamese laws and the political implications. The idea they are much likely appealing to foreign cultures, yet it is virtually unacceptable to the Vietnamese government and residents. Having endured years after years of devastating wars, the people are very sensitive about the scene of armed soldiers driving a jeep into residential area. It gives them the feeling of insecurity. The concept could have been a pleasant surprise if it had taken place in the States or a Western country where the people are more open to the unexpected, and the law is much more tolerant to this form of advertising. Reality
INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

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has it that many TV commercials in a foreign culture are much appreciated while being rejected right away in Vietnam. The no-no topics in Vietnam, including politics, religions, sex, should always be off the list; and they must look into the local laws before making the first step. Likewise, in case 3, Tan Hiep Phat might have forgotten that the Heineken and Tiger Beer have tied up their deals with virtually all outlets in Vietnam with a distribution contract. As a matter of course, Tan Hiep Phat failed to convince these retailers to switch to Laser. To be more precise, these retailers did not dare to do so due to their lawful contract with the two Bigger Guys. The lawsuit of Quan Cay Dua was just a slap on Tan Hiep Phats face to remind them of the legal frameworks they are supposed to abide. b. Avoid confronting or comparing with big guys if you are not yet strong enough Special Force are said to be overconfident as they compared themselves with Counter Strike, a legend in gaming world. Vietnamese is a market where gaming culture developed very quickly. Unlike some untapped market, Vietnam already has a huge number of savvy gamers. They understand every single aspect of a game and can actually talk game all day long! Therefore, when Special Force implicitly dubbed itself as the second Counter Strike, gamers felt much skeptical. And the moment they saw the promo banner, they immediately either placed very high expectation on Special Force or took it as a big-mouth. As they tried to game, this high level of expectation gave them extra disappointment. If Special Force was more humble, maybe the public response will be much better and gamers may come up with more excuses to sympathize with the games drawbacks (it is the first FPS to launch, for example)
INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

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Laser Beer should have learned the same lesson as well. Maybe the success of Ben Thanh has given Tan Hiep Phat more optimism than necessary. As a result, they had an illusion that the new Laser beer will beat Heineken and Tiger as soon as it comes out. The truly simple fact is: Laser is not financially as strong as their rivals, and their market share when starting off was just zero! They might have done very good job in concept development, brand positioning, and commercials, yet those are not enough to guarantee a quick victory. So again: if you are not as strong as your competitors, do not try to confront or compare with them. It will undermine you. c. You can not win peoples heart just by upsetting the non-customers Kotex has been doing great job in promoting the sanitary benefits of Vietnamese women since they first entered the market. However, by asking the people to exchange tampons for tickets, its undermining its own value. Vietnamese males were upset because they thought Kotex was trying to win at all cost, even by making fun of them, to gain buys from female customers. I do not know if a Western man will love the concept, but Asian men will find it pretty hard to accept the demand of exchanging a womens sensitive stuff for a concert ticket. Vietnamese men are often given more authority and preference than their women counterpart in daily lives, so the fact that they hated the promotion made sense! Kotex might have thought that by making fun of the boys, they could please the girls, but in fact it was a miscalculation. Vietnamese women still somehow find the tampon a sensitive stuff, a no-no topic to speak publicly. So when boys refused to go to the concert, the girls who went found it embarrassing when they might be mocked at exchanging tampons for tickets, which upset them as well. d. Cultural values do matter in adverts
INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

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Culture may be among the hardest to explain notions in the world; therefore, it is advisable that marketers and advertisers deal with this issue with due care. If your advert is perceived by the public as lack of culture or, even worse, offense to culture, your brand is much likely to get in trouble. The Kotex Style case is an example. Such a sensitive thing should be dealt with more delicacy, yet it was made into barter for admission, which hurt peoples feelings. If FPT Online had paid more respect to the local culture, the pitiful advertising crisis would not have happened.

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

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CONCLUSION
Vietnam is a potential market for advertisers, brands, and marketers. The question is: how to tackle the market in the right way to gain the biggest benefits from it. This is not an easy mission and in doing it a business needs to know how to deal with common mistakes that may lead to costly failures. As the paper suggests, some must-avoids include: - Dodging or ignoring the applicable legal frameworks - Doing insensible confrontation / comparison with Big Players - Forgetting about the Sales Teams key role - Upsetting a group of non-customers - Ignore cultural issues in advertisings People are talking a lot about losing right on own pitch, yet if we are ready to learn from mistakes and make improvements to our own business, we can soon regain the shares dominated by foreign brands / firms.

INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN

LESSONS LEARNED FROM ADVERTISING FAILURES

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INSTRUCTOR: MS. L TUYT VN

STUDENT: NGUYN TH BO NGN