Not Doing the Business

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The 6 'P's. Know the Market. Watch trends. These somewhat pat phrases sum up 'Business Nightmares' BBC2, an entertaining overview, or re-hash, if you will,  of corporate marketing disasters and failure. The 'New Coke' fiasco? Hear more about it from embarrassed executives and talking head contributions from the likes of Richard Branson and James Dyson. Persil launch underpants-shredding washing powder? Too good to be true, but yes, it did happen. Polaroid not being able to handle to rise of Digital? A sad piece tempered by the fact that the company is making a comeback. Presented by Evan Davies in his usual amiable manner, 'thetvreviewguy' liked the editing and production values in 'Business Nightmares' and liked Davies' potted MBA Strategy module. However, an obvious question is how the BBC were allowed to essentially give free advertising time to mega-brands? Perhaps because the programme was a co-production with the excellent Open University television unit? There really wasn't any new information imparted; no great insights, no killer lines, no exclusives. 'Business Nightmares' is, of course, destined for extensive re-runs in Business Schools for the next couple of years. Essentially, we 'learn' that you have to speculate to accumulate and that successful entrepreneurs do their best to calculate and then minimise risk. The rise and rise of the 'Brand' continues unabated and until consumers learn or, more practically, have time to de-code a barrage of corporate messages and narratives, we will continue to buy brand over quality; most people blind testing the new Coke preferred it to the Old but when told how they would feel about it replacing their favourite sugar water, there was a resounding 'No!'. The next set of results from 'Business Nightmares' is out next week and 'thetvreviewguy' will be tuning in, if only to see how he's not the only one who makes mistakes.