What Happens After A Brand Has A Self-Destructive Moment?

The right branding campaign needs to match the vision, mission and message of a brand, as well as fit the zeitgeist of the target market. All of this is not necessarily easy, and it will often take a considerable amount of planning with the help of a branding agency to get the right message out there.

Of course, some branding campaigns fall into a brand’s lap as a result of an unexpected success, whilst in other cases a carefully curated brand just misses the mood of the moment. Marketing can often be a matter of fine margins.

In some cases, however, a blunder is so clearly a bad idea that it becomes inherently self-destructive, necessitating drastic changes to save a brand’s image or even leading to a complete collapse.

Here are some of the most notable acts of self-destructive marketing and what happened next.

Saying The Quiet Part Loud

Reputation can be a double-edged sword, as recognition and notoriety often go hand-in-hand in the world of business, and it can lead to some difficult decisions when it comes to deciding to either downplay public perception, lean into it or battle against it.

One of the most infamously misjudged examples of trying to lean into a bad reputation came with Ratners Group, a large jewellery company that owned H. Samuel and Ernest Jones.

Ratners themselves were an infamously brash, low-cost jewellers that drew the ire of much of the market but were highly popular in spite of (or more likely because of) that perception of tackiness.

However, that popularity was immolated overnight alongside half a billion pounds of stock value after a rather infamous speech to the Institute of Directors by director Gerald Ratner where he openly mocks the low quality of his products in a way that insults the customers who like them.

Ratners Group nearly collapsed as a result, and Gerald Ratner himself was dismissed within a year. The term “doing a Ratner” was coined for examples of self-destructive brand communications where an executive insulted their product, their customers, or both.

A Fashion Timebomb

Fashion brands are often shaped by prominent figures within the company, but one of the most famous examples of that is the fall of Abercrombie & Fitch under the leadership of Mike Jeffries.

After he became CEO in 1992, he led the historic clothing brand through a complete change in its product offering and demographic focus, going all in on children, teenage and young adult customers with a particular focus on pandering to a “young, rich and beautiful” luxury lifestyle.

In 2006, he vocalised it in a way that would eventually not only severely damage the company but also lead to allegations of sex trafficking that have led to a criminal investigation that as of 2024 is still ongoing.

He noted in an interview with the magazine Salon that he focused on “good-looking people” both in hiring policies (later the subject of a criminal investigation) and customers, which led to a racial discrimination lawsuit as well as accusations of ageism and body shaming.

Whilst in the short term this tactic seemed to be successful, it also led to a sudden and dramatic collapse of the brand after the global financial crisis, and A&F’s recovery involved turning its back on the practices that were epitomised by his self-destructive comments.