Brand Matters : The Power of Failure

Learn to get past your fear of failure, accept risk and grow your brand

October 1, 2009 By Andrea Syverson

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I want to talk about the F word. Not that F word, of course, but one that perhaps conjures up just as many emotionally negative connotations: failure. We don’t like to talk about it. We don’t like to admit that it could happen to us or has happened to us. Like superstitious old wives, we even think we might bring it on by talking about it. Many of us might remember the shock and dread in the pit of our stomachs when seeing a math test or English class essay riddled with red slashes. We try to forget about failure as quickly as possible.

Instead, we overfocus on praise. Especially in the business world. Who doesn’t love hearing customer raves? “We love doing business with you.” “Your service is excellent.” “Thank you for going the extra mile.” “I love your products.” Yes, these words bring a smile to every business leader’s face and are the ones passed around in company meetings when customer feedback is solicited. “We’re doing great,” we’re told, and we’re soon on to the next topic. But, if this is all you pay attention to as a brand leader, you are failing your brand. You are failing to seize the power of failure.

Brands need to embrace failure. All aspects of it, at all levels of the organization. From taking the kind of risks that could lead to failure to encouraging employees and customers to talk about when the brand has let them down to conducting thorough and honest assessments of what isn’t working and why. It is only in a culture of failure acceptance that real success can happen.

Writer Samuel Beckett encourages us with these words: “Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better.”

Check Your Branson Meter
Many adjectives have been used to describe Richard Branson, founder of venture capital organization Virgin. But he describes himself by what he’s not: “I’m not the sort of person who fears failure.” In his latest book, “Business Stripped Bare,” he acknowledges real “failure is not giving things a go in the first place. People who fail are those who don’t have a go and don’t make an effort. Failures can’t be bothered. There are few people who’ve tried something and fallen who didn’t get enormous satisfaction from trying and I’ve learned more from people who have tried and faltered than from the charmed people for whom success came easy.” So, how do you view failure? Do you go to great extents to avoid failure, or do you purposefully push yourself (your brand, your team, your department) out of your comfort zone to take risks?

Recently, at two unique strategic planning sessions for two different clients in entirely distinct industries, I diagnosed too much brand perfectionism in their organizations. I could tell they were all type A, driven types who hated getting any red marks on their papers both in school or in the office. They played it too safe. Their neat and tidy product development efforts were getting in the way.

While these processes once served them well, they didn’t anymore. Products were late. Competitors were beating them to market. Costs were rising. Their products had to be so buttoned-up before they released them that they lost both market share and profitability to more agile, less risk-adverse companies. Even more sadly, they left the customer entirely out of the loop in creating new products, so they missed a critical feedback tool that could have helped them hone their offerings.

As internal experts, they thought they had to have all the answers themselves. But getting an A+ in perfectionism actually can hinder your learning. Learning to let go and invite customers into your brand is the new work of today’s brand leaders.

So, what is your brand’s Branson meter? Are you willing to jump in and make mistakes, or are you possibly paralyzed by perfectionism? Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, pulled no punches: “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.”

Welcome to the School of Hard Knocks
Hopefully, mistakes happen, and they are a natural part of your brand’s DNA. The real mistake is thinking your brand or company is “too big to fail,” or as Malcolm Gladwell wrote in a New Yorker article this year, “the psychology of overconfidence.” Jim Collins also addresses this dynamic in his latest book, “How the Mighty Fall.” Collins’ term is the “hubris born of success.” There are warning signs all around us about the little guys winning big battles (i.e., Netflix taking on Blockbuster and now Redbox taking them both on!). But many brand leaders still fail to look up and out. When brand leaders only pay attention to the positive feedback from their customers, they assume they are doing everything right. They get a bit arrogant about their competitive positioning. They think it is theirs forever. Unfortunately, wishful thinking is not part of the school of hard knocks curriculum.

In the school of hard knocks, stories of failure are welcomed. They are sought out, not hidden in the back of company drawers, hoping never to be noticed. Stories of failure are analyzed and become the catalysts of corrective action plans.

Bellingham, Wash., artist Rosie Harris knows all about the surprise endings that can happen when we “listen to our errors.” Recently frustrated by an old collection of paintings taking up space in her studio, she tore them up and planned to toss them. Later, upon further musing, she decided the colorful pieces of art could be repurposed into another product … and thus a wholly unplanned line of greeting cards was born. Yes, success often happens by listening and living with our errors.

What is your brand doing to create some type of “failure feedback loop” to listen and live with your errors? Don’t be afraid of what you’ll find. Rather, think of it as a chance to learn and grow and potentially broaden your brand’s horizons.

Slow Talk Post-mortems
It used to be a common practice for many multichannelers to have strategic post-mortem conversations evaluating a season’s results by sales channels and by customer segments. Product visual boards were created, and the nuances of what worked and what didn’t would be discussed along with promotional strategies and competitive tactics and offerings. In today’s attention-deficit business culture where everyone is chasing the next new thing, these important cross-departmental meetings have morphed into line item reports read individually and acted upon in silos. The subtle underlying threads of what didn’t work do not get fully analyzed, and the real failure of this shortcut practice is that similar mistakes get made again (and possibly again).

I am a proponent of serious, slow talk post-mortems where true learning and insights can occur. I have led and participated in them with my clients, and they work. Stop and think time. Concentrated focus on the previous season’s happenings both for your brand and your customers’ experience with your brand. Free flow of information. Open agenda. Robust conversations. Potential surprise endings.

Are you satisfied by the amount of time your brand spends looking back? Where can you slow down and take time to better understand and collaboratively converse about your brand faux pas? So, please, as a brand leader, hold your head high, go forth and fail better.

Andrea Syverson is president of IER Partners, a strategic consulting company specializing in innovative brand and merchandising matters. She may be reached at asyverson@ierpartners.com.