4 Brands that Saved Themselves from Marketing Doom

A crisis will happen for any business. For some businesses, these are much worse than others. Once a brand is in reputation hell, it requires some serious marketing and public relations to get going on the track to being successful again.

Here are 5 brands that were on the brink of extinction if they hadn't been able to turn their reputations around after some serious disasters.

• Tylenol. The Tylenol brand was in trouble after their scare in 1982. The news was that 7 people in Chicagoland (Chicago and its suburbs) had died suddenly after taking Tylenol. Authorities tested the pills in the area and discovered that eight bottles had high levels of potassium cyanide in them; the bottles came from different production factories and stores, so the contamination was in a dangerous source. Johnson & Johnson, owner of Tylenol, ordered a recall of 31M bottles and did inspections. The conclusion was that someone bought eight bottles, refilled them with the poison, then returned them to the store; who did it? That was never known. Tylenol went back to shelves with tamperproof packaging. What also helped was how swiftly they responded and worked with authorities. 
• Perrier. Back in 1990, the producer of fine water, Perrier, was in serious hot water (pun intended) after it was discovered some of their water contained benzene. Perrier prided itself on being "naturally pure" and now it had been called out for containing a toxic substance. 160M bottles and worked with the FDA. Only 13 bottles were actually contaminated and it was concluded that a worker forgot to change a filter, allowing benzene to slip through. On their own, the brand did not revive itself but after being sold to Nestle in 1992, Nestle was able to bring the brand to celeb status with aggressive marketing campaigns. 
• JetBlue. Back in 2007, the airline that was built on customer service marketing was found to be in violation of customers. A major snowstorm grounded plans on the tarmac for up to 11 hours. This led to a major uproar, naturally. After this, JetBlue shifted how they operate and truly with the consumer at its core by pre-cancelling flights if dangerous weather is imminent. 
• Domino's. In 2009, some of its employees, who were of the immature variety, posted a YouTube video of themselves violating the ingredients. What made matters worse was that it was found that the HQ did not know about the incident until consumers told them about the video. Oops. Domino's set up several social media marketing efforts with Twitter accounts that controlled the issue's complaints, etc. Now they dominate corporate social media. 

Sometimes it takes a major fallout to shake a brand into perfection. Don't let this happen to your brand, get in contact with Integraphix, a marketing agency with over 2 decades experience.