This post concludes the series on brands that have wasted their potential.  In the past few weeks, we covered:

• GNC — “It’s such a shame because the company has the history, focus, and distribution to be a great brand.“
• Facebook — “There are no obvious or meaningful brand attributes that differentiate it.“
  
• Dairy Queen — “Recent rebranding efforts have squeezed out much of the endearing old-school essence of the brand.”
  
• Vonage — “It’s the classic “boy meets brand, brand over-promises, brand under-delivers, boy tells everyone he knows to avoid brand” cautionary tale.“, and
• Saturn — “In 1994 people bought Saturn for what it stood for. Today it is just another make to be judged on quality and price alone.”

Thanks to my guest contributors who provided provocative insights about how brands that could have been really good ended up failing to live up to their potential.  Their analyses contain great lessons for all brands who may be squandering strong equity or missing opportunities.

And hope for these brands, and others, is not lost — in fact, the following concluding remarks describe how all brands can maximize their potential.  These comments are from Scott Goodson — founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog (the agency behind iconic campaigns such as Coke, Old Navy, Heineken, and the current effort for True North).  The success of his agency speaks to what a talented guy Scott is (and I’m not just saying that because he has been so great to me for so long.)

Scott says, “I would say that any brands that are simply broadcasting to the consumer are not taking advantage of their full potential.  The new battleground is the profusion of media and how to tame and control it, and use it to your advantage to ensure your amazing content actually gets seen by the consumer.  Cultural Movement + Tools = Full Potential.

“I know this is new thinking in the new marketing world that has totally transformed everything, difficult to believe even, but the way things have worked in the past is not way how they can or will work in the future.  The 60 years of advertising that have gone before are not the systems of the future, marketing is today transformed.

“Brands that are taking advantage of their full potential are brands that spark cultural movements, not brands caught in the past.  Today brands can identify an idea on the rise in culture, they can crystallize, lead, curate and sponsor a movement.  Once you have a movement you can do anything in a fragmenting media world.“

Thanks for the inspiration, Scott.  I hope this has been an interesting series for everyone and you have learned as much as I have.

Here’s another post on brand disappointments — this is a series in which I’ve asked brand experts to discuss brands that could have been really good, but have failed to live up to their potential. This week’s post is from John Moore, of Brand Autopsy fame.  John’s speaking and writing is always filled with provocative insights about brands, marketing, and management — I hope you enjoy his take on a brand disappointment.

A regular feature on the Brand Autopsy blog is the “Would You Miss” series. This is where a business is put on the examining table and readers respond if they would miss the brand if it were to go out of business.

The question is simple; however, the implications are anything but simple.

Businesses that would be missed if they ceased to exist have obviously formed an emotional connection with customers. Such emotional connections with businesses help fuel sales when the economy is good and conversely, help sustain the vitality of a business when the economy is bad.

Businesses that would not be missed have failed to make meaningful connections with people and are in danger of becoming irrelevant in the marketplace. (Not a good place to be in any economic climate.)

As marketers, it is our job to assist in forming emotional connections between businesses and customers. Forming those connections is easy in theory, but difficult in reality.

Nearly 20 brands, ranging from UPS to The Cheesecake Factory to Crate & Barrel to Pizza Hut, have been featured in the “Would You Miss” series. The comments have been brutal to these brands with people declaring they wouldn’t be missed at all.

Interestingly, just one brand included in this series has emphatically formed emotional connections with customers and would be dearly missed … DAIRY QUEEN.

The responses from readers were fascinating. Almost every commenter said they would dearly miss Dairy Queen if it were to no longer exist. Many comments touched upon wonderful childhood memories of visiting Dairy Queen for soft serve ice cream, Dilly Bars, and Blizzards. Other comments shared sentiments about the realness and heritage of a classic Dairy Queen experience.

Digging deeper into the comments you realize the untapped potential of the Dairy Queen brand. Readers talked about how they already miss Dairy Queen because recent rebranding efforts have squeezed out much of the endearing old-school essence of the brand.

I’m sure Dairy Queen’s internal customer research findings detail the brand gap between what their customers want and what the company is delivering.

In the comments section of the post, Denise summarizes the brand gap dilemma Dairy Queen faces by writing, “It’s too bad the company seems more interested in modernizing the brand vs. tapping into the rich emotional connection people have with [the] brand they grew up with.”

And Oran writes this, “For me DQ just gets lost in the noise. I see their new ads, but have yet to have a single one make me think twice about stopping in.”

Dairy Queen has passed the “Would You Miss” test. However, by refusing to fully embrace its old-school heritage, Dairy Queen is failing to live up to its full potential as a brand.

Thanks for great entry, John (and I’m not just saying that because you quoted me!)  You’ve made me think of other “old-school” brands that have lost their luster — like Corvette or A&W Rootbeer.

Check in next Monday for the next in the brand disappoinments series — I’ll post other stuff during the week.