Failure / CPG / 2009
Tropicana and the Cost of Losing the Shelf Cue
The redesign case sits at the center of recognition equity: when the asset is visual memory, improvement starts by protecting what shoppers already know.
Decision Type
Brand Failures
Decisions that damaged recognition, trust, market share, or continuity.
Failures in this archive are not treated as spectacle. They are decision records. Each case asks what changed, which asset was misunderstood, and what consequence followed.
Cases
Failure / Beverage / 1985
New Coke and the Error of Replacing Memory
The product test measured preference. The market response revealed ownership, ritual, and identity sitting underneath the formula decision.
Failure / Retail / 2012
JCPenney and the Repositioning Break
The fair-and-square pricing reset changed the customer contract faster than the business could rebuild trust around it.
Brand Failures FAQ
What makes a case a brand failures file?
It belongs here when the primary decision pattern matches the brand failures category and produces a visible consequence.
Why does the archive separate decision types?
Decision type determines what the reader should compare. Packaging failures, identity changes, and recovery decisions do not teach the same lesson.
Are these rankings?
No. The archive is a reference structure, not a ranking product.