Think back to 1985. Executives at Coca-Cola are faced with a barrage of negative publicity and thousands of angry phone calls after foisting New Coke on the world.If you were in their shoes, what would you do? Would you:
a) Ignore it and hope for the best
b) Instruct the naysayers to quit complaining and drink up
c) Concede defeat and make lemons out of your lemonade by re-launching the stuff people have known and loved for the past century or so
If the provincial NDP ran Coca-Cola, their response would be a, then b.
Spirited Energy is Manitoba's New Coke. After reading in this morning's Free Press that the Big Guy might scrap this whole headache, we now have the CabCom counterspin: Spirited Energy will carry on, but it will be contracted out to tourist agencies, chambers of commerce and other "stakeholders" to run with. What's more, it may be spun off in a different direction as Manitoba celebrates its 140th birthday in 2010 with a "homecoming" of sorts.
For what it's worth, here's a suggestion, free of charge.
Take whatever you plan to blow on Spirited Energy II, or whatever you plan to call it, and dump that money into an ad campaign centered on ... wait for it ... Friendly Manitoba!
It may not be as hip as something dreamed up by a smarty-pants marketing guru making $200 an hour, but people would here and elsewhere would buy in if it was done right. Instead of re-branding Manitoba, re-brand the brand people know and love.
Instead of forcing us to gulp down more New Coke, give us Coca-Cola Classic.
5 comments:
How can anyone give their spouses contracts with a plan like "friendly manitoba"???
To New Coke's credit, at least the marketing research indicated that people preferred the new product. They just didn't factor the nostalgia built into the old brand. All indications were that Spirited Energy was a stinker from the get-go and they STILL went ahead with it.
That makes Spirited Energy arguably one of the biggest blunders in the history of marketing - bigger than the New Coke fiasco and vying for the top crown along with the Ford Edsel.
I don't mind "Friendly Manitoba", it just seems a little hard to sell when every other tourist has their car stolen.
Maybe the Friendly part is that the cars may be stolen but the thieves are nice enough not to carjack... yet.
You should be a fan of Manitoba.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Province-of-Manitoba/10526743274
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