If you're looking for a company to serve as a poster child for bad marketing, perhaps you may want to consider the example of Wonder Bread.
As you consider this case, you probably won't reward Wonder Bread with good marks in the categories of "plays well with consumers" or "nominee for ethical marketer of the year".
Recall that this is the company that was sued back in the 1971 by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising and then repeatedly thereafter (
link). Their first large national embarrassment came when they had to run ads indicating that they had lied and that all bread built strong bodies in the ways that they claimed were special to Wonder Bread. But, sales increased after this and the guys must have thought they were on to something.
In 1981, they were forced to stop advertising that their bread provided better nutrition "that whole wheat can't beat". Thejr
mea culpa ads featured a new claim, "With Wonder in a balanced diet, good nutrition doesn't have to be whole wheat." Uh, well, I guess with a balanced diet!
One wonders if the company ever understood the problem (see, for instance,
link). In 2000, Wonder Bread flighted an advertisement featuring "Prof. Wonder". He claimed that Wonder Bread improved children's minds and help their memories because it included calcium. However, the FTC found that neither the company nor its advertising agency had any scientific evidence to back its claim (
link).
In the time since then, Wonder Bread advertisements have featured those clever little statements such as
made with whole wheat (Uh, how much whole-wheat is in that bread?). By the time they launched whole-wheat products, it was way too late and their brand names, while well-known, were associated with negative connotations.
The company's bankruptcy filing in 2004 resulted from a litany of failed opportunities to adapt to changing consumer tastes and clearly deceptive trade practices.
Finding themselves in competition with the various supermarkets who distributed their products, Wonder Bread did nothing to respond to healthier bread recipes. They did not extend the brand to bagels or other healthy alternatives. They did not respond to the popularity of the Atkins low carbohydrate diet, except possibly to produce even worse advertising for their Wonder Bread and Twinkies and to stop calling their bread "America's favorite bread".
How does a company, that once had such a dominant market position in so many regional markets, find itself forced to reorganize itself under Chapter 11 bankruptcy?
Perhaps another answer lies in the way that treated its employees. The makers of Wonder Bread have the distinction of being ordered to pay $120 million in punitive damages to 21 black employees for racist behaviors. It is one of the largest discrimination lawsuit awards ever made.(
Link)
So, while I share the disappointment of those who've lost their jobs at Wonder Bread in Columbus, it's difficult for me to feel any remorse about the closure plant that was run by such a company whose products were clearly so inferior in terms of nutrition. I'm hoping that an outstanding bakery company will take over the premises and turn out some really great bakery products.
