How Good Advert Destroy Bad Brands

BankPHB undoubtedly had one of the best marketing campaigns in Nigeria between 2004 – 2007. They came up with thought-provoking and creative adverts like; “One-day cars will run on water”, “Dream Come True” and my personal favorite, “No Impossibility”

They evoked interest and gain massive popularity most especially among the young and fast-rising middle-class community in Nigeria leading to more people opting out of other banks to do business with BankPHB. However, 14 years down the line, nobody knows about BankPHB and their rather futuristic projections and marketing slogans.

That piqued my curiosity and I have been asking myself what lead to the demise of BankPHB and what effect does their marketing campaigns had on their demise.

I believe one of the reasons why BankPHB died a silent painful death was because they couldn’t match up their product offerings and operational model with their brand promise.

Through their adverts (as you can see above), they painted the picture of a futuristic and aspirational brand that can easily connect with young people and ambitious people who are bent on defying the odds and changing the world.

However, they couldn’t match up their operations with their marketing message leading to massive disappointment from people who decide to do business with them. The bank was mired with administrative bottlenecks, poor corporate governance and inaccessible product offerings which eventually lead to their demise

Like William Bernbach said; “A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. Because It will get more people to know it’s bad”

Companies tend to focus on the pros of marketing without necessarily improving their basic operations to match up with their marketing promise leading to a massive turn off when customers eventually interact with their brand.  A great ad can bring new business and reinforce your brand with loyal customers. However, a bad ad can drive them away.

So before investing in creating witty and unique brand awareness campaign, make sure your operational and product offerings will be able to match up with your brand promise otherwise your firm’s reputation may take a hit from which it may not be able to recover from.