Top 10 marketing failure cases in 2023, don’t fall into the trap of brand marketing again!

This article reviews the marketing strategy failures of major brands in 2023 and the reasons for them. I hope it can help you avoid failures and learn from them. Recommended for marketing and other related practitioners to read~

2023 is coming to an end, and it is time to summarize this year. Looking back at the marketing circle this year, there have been many phenomenal marketing cases.

But at the same time, some brands have failed due to improper marketing and are in a mess.

Today, let’s take stock of the top ten brand failures in 2023 and see what minefields need to be avoided in brand marketing.

At the same time, we would like to remind all brands that there are many roads to take, but safety comes first. Special reminder: the following events are not ranked in any particular order.

1. Five female PhDs

Reason for the crash: Selling appearance anxiety

"My husband is mad at me, drink", "I stay up late to watch TV series, drink", "I am one year older, drink", "I drink five female doctors, it's all because of you!"

In May this year, a company called Five Female Doctors quickly became famous with the help of this elevator advertisement, attracting a lot of attention.

However, while gaining traffic, this advertisement also caused controversy online, and even the intervention of relevant departments. In the end, the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau ordered the party concerned to stop publishing the relevant advertisements and imposed a fine of 400,000 yuan!

This elevator advertisement of "Five Female Doctors" is advertised in the name of doing good for women, but it actually creates appearance and age anxiety for women. Its essence is a shameless act of moral kidnapping.

2. Zhang Xiaoquan

Reason for the failure: false advertising

In November this year, Hangzhou Zhang Xiaoquan E-Commerce Co., Ltd. was fined 250,000 yuan for false advertising.

According to the Tianyancha App, the reason for the punishment was that the person concerned was affected by the public opinion about the breakage of Zhang Xiaoquan's kitchen knife for smashing garlic and the negative reviews of the products during the epidemic. The operation department was required to increase the praise rate of some products and organize internal personnel to establish a WeChat group to conduct fake orders with positive reviews.

As a time-honored Chinese brand, Zhang Xiaoquan was founded in 1628 and has a history of nearly 400 years. However, in the past two years, the brand has repeatedly failed.

Since July last year, the incidents of Zhang Xiaoquan's knives breaking have continued to occur. On March 30 this year, "Zhang Xiaoquan's knives broke again" became a hot search on Weibo.

In order to reduce the impact of the broken knife incident, Zhang Xiaoquan did not concentrate on improving product quality, but chose to take shortcuts and deceive consumers with false propaganda. This kind of "watered-down" praise may bring temporary sales, but in the long run, it will make the brand lose the trust of consumers and lose the market.

3. Huaxizi

Reason for failure: aesthetic failure

Hua Xizi has failed again.

In order to eliminate the impact of the "Li Jiaqi 79 yuan eyebrow pencil" incident, Huaxizi invited the legendary Asian Games gymnast Chusovikina (Qiumai) to shoot the advertisement. This was originally a good opportunity for the brand to turn around and win the trust of users.

However, when the commercial was released, everyone found that the makeup that Hua Xizi did for Qiu Ma seemed a little off no matter how they looked at it.

It was not until I saw a netizen’s comment that I realized that their makeup artist had painted Mrs. Qiu’s face based on Li Jiaqi’s.

Subsequently, Hua Xizi’s official response was even more inappropriate, saying that “Hua Xizi is the representative of Chinese makeup and cannot suit everyone’s preferences.”

As a brand that focuses on domestic products, Huaxizi should pay more attention to quality and innovation, rather than just staying on sentiment. If a brand only relies on sentiment without paying attention to quality and innovation, it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the market.

4. Heytea

Reason for the rollover: Involving sensitive religious topics

If we talk about the most popular emojis this year, there must be a place for "Silent Buddha". With its expression that perfectly fits the mental state of workers, it has become a new favorite of netizens.

The popular Silent Buddha has also been targeted by new tea brands. Not long ago, Heytea and Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum jointly launched the "Buddha Heytea Latte", which attracted countless people to buy it.

Unexpectedly, this joint venture “failed” less than a week after it was put on the shelves.

It is reported that Heytea's co-branding violated the Regulations on Religious Affairs. On December 1, the Shenzhen Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau summoned Heytea Company for a talk. On December 3, Heytea removed the product from the shelves.

Heytea’s failure this time also serves as a wake-up call to other brands - while it is important to achieve good performance at the end of the year, risk management must be done first for joint ventures, especially when it comes to sensitive topics such as religion.

5. Good Snail

Reason for the crash: Disrespect for women

On International Women's Day, many brands chose to take advantage of the holiday to promote themselves and get closer to consumers, but one well-known brand "crashed" because of its promotional copy.

According to many netizens, on the morning of March 8, the snail noodle brand "Hao Huan Luo" posted a tweet titled "What do women smell like?" on its official WeChat public account.

As soon as the article was published, it sparked heated discussions among many netizens because of the title. Subsequently, the brand urgently deleted the tweet.

In my opinion, Haohuanluo's tweets are disrespectful and derogatory to women. A company whose main user base is women, titled its tweets "insulting women", and it deserves the boycott.

6. Gu Ming & Nayuki

Cause of rollover: Creative rollover

This was a "ridiculous" car accident.

On March 17, Guming officially announced that the national intangible cultural heritage inheritor Fan Shenghua will return with the new Longjing series.

Just three days later, Nayuki introduced in its official new product announcement that the entire series of "Nayuki Xunxiang Chinese Tea" products were supervised by Mr. Fan Shenghua.

At the same time, the same master was promoting the new products in the Longjing series. Even the master's clothing, posture, angle and expression were almost the same. It is hard not to feel embarrassed for Naxue and Gu Ming.

The incident of the two milk tea giants "colliding with the master" is not a bad thing, it is just a mistake of the marketing department. However, it also reminds us that brands must be meticulous in marketing, at least let the "master" change his clothes and take a set of photos! (laughs)

7. ORA

Reason for failure: marginal marketing

"Male sex marketing" is a hot topic in the marketing industry in 2023, and Coco Tree has successfully stood out by relying on this marketing method.

In this year's Shanghai Auto Show, Ora Auto also invited a group of muscular men to perform boxing to attract attention. However, compared with the male models of Coconut Tree, the male models of Ora seemed to lack a sense of conviction. Not only were their boxing movements loose, but their expressions were also awkward and confused.

Seeing that the atmosphere on the scene was not as good as expected, the organizers decided to "step up the intensity" and invited the audience to come on stage, dip their hands in paint, and then graffiti on the T-shirts on the chests of the male models.

However, this straightforward show of goodwill not only failed to win praise, but instead caused controversy online.

In the view of some netizens, male models and female models need to be respected equally. If the gender is reversed, it is a naked sexual harassment. Moreover, the action of "touching chest muscles" cannot show the performance or selling point of the product. The activity of ORA Auto "wiping for the sake of wiping" gives people an offensive feeling.

8. Gree

Reason for the crash: No limit to riding on the popularity

In June this year, the "state-owned enterprise leaders holding hands incident" attracted outside attention.

What is even more surprising is that after the incident fermented, the female anchor of the "Gree Official Flagship Store" on Douyin wore the same "dismissal skirt" as the one in the state-owned enterprise executives holding hands scandal that had previously sparked heated discussions online when she was selling goods live.

When the incident happened, netizens in the live broadcast room posted comments saying "Gree has become low", "should not use mistress skirts to attract attention", "change clothes"... "But the female anchor not only ignored it, but even blocked the netizens who complained.

As the conflict intensified, the incident of the Gree anchor wearing a dismissal skirt even became a hot topic on Weibo.

In response, Gree officially responded that the company did not support it, that the anchor belonged to an outsourced team, and that it was her personal behavior. But objectively speaking, it did damage the brand's impression in the minds of passers-by.

9. Heilan Home

Reason for overturning: eager for quick success

It was officially announced the day before, and all the materials were removed the next day. This time it was Heilan Home that suffered the consequences.

With the huge popularity of "Kuang Da", as one of the most talked-about actors this year, who will be Zhang Songwen's first cooperative brand has always been a hot topic in and outside the industry.

Finally, on March 28, Heilan Home announced on its official Weibo that it had obtained Zhang Songwen's "first endorsement". It was thought that it would be a great success in both popularity and sales, but the endorsement poster was criticized by netizens and became a hot search, with doubts such as "excessive Photoshop to wax figure", "misappropriation of roadshow pictures" and "ugly appearance" becoming more and more intense.

Seeing that public opinion could no longer cover up the incident, at around 8 o'clock that evening, the HaiLan Home official account hastily deleted the news of Zhang Songwen's endorsement, and the offline store promotional posters were also taken down overnight. The Zhang Songwen endorsement incident ended in such a hasty manner.

Immediately afterwards, on March 29, HaiLan Home’s stock price fell to 6.2 yuan per share, a drop of more than 90%.

10. King of Glory

Reason for failure: perfunctory design

On May 14, the official Weibo account of “Honor of Kings” announced that the IP will launch a women’s clothing brand “MEETING SHERO”. When the news was first released, most of the comments were “looking forward to it”.

However, after the official released the first batch of clothes, netizens fell silent, and many players even complained that the official was "cutting leeks" and "really thinking that female leeks are brainless."

It is reported that the peripheral women's clothing launched by Honor of Kings this time include Xiao Qiao, Yao, Wang Zhaojun and Diao Chan, priced at 1,298 yuan/1,398 yuan/1,580 yuan/1,680 yuan, and each model is limited to 100 pieces, and each piece is equipped with a "uniquely numbered collection certificate".

Not to mention how inflated the price is, the design also gives people a perfunctory and careless feeling, and there is no connection with the Honor of Kings IP at all.

"Cross-border collaboration" is indeed a popular marketing method this year. It is completely understandable that King of Glory wants to try it. However, when designing co-branded products, brands should not treat users as fools. Otherwise, not only will the products not sell well, but the IP itself will also be damaged.

Final Thoughts

Looking at the cases of brand failure this year, they cover almost every aspect of food, clothing, housing, transportation, eating, drinking and entertainment, so this is not a problem in a single area, but a mistake that all brands may make.

To sum up the reasons why these brands failed, it is basically nothing more than blindly riding on the popularity and not respecting consumers . The role of marketing is to assist product sales and convey brand values ​​to consumers, thereby achieving product-effect integration. If there is no way to achieve this goal, some marketing may be better not to do.

Finally, I sincerely hope that in 2024, we can see brands launch more out-of-the-box marketing cases, rather than some extreme rollover accidents!

Author: Yan Tao WeChat public account: Yan Tao Sanshou