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Branding cluster sheet: Brand Failures: The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time: Amazon.co.uk: Matt Haig. Branding is a ubiquitous, but critical marketing function that can produce spectacular successes and catastrophic blunders.

Branding cluster sheet: Brand Failures: The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time: Amazon.co.uk: Matt Haig

Highly visible branding failures, such as the ill-fated "New Coke" or Harley Davidson's silly attempt to peddle perfume, are first-order marketing blunders. Yet, while branding is critical, one wonders if branding alone, as author Matt Haig asserts, is the main reason Land Rover sales declined and General Motors stopped making Oldsmobiles. Other experts might address such failures from a more expansive perspective, citing financial, competitive, managerial, global and environmental factors. Haig notes that non-branding mistakes contribute to failure, but focuses on branding as the prime cause. As a result, his brand-centered explanations can seem strained, but he overcomes this concern with a long list of vignettes that effectively drive home important points about the causes of branding failures.

The American Apparel look. Few high street retailers are able to claim the rights to an entire look for any stretch of time.

The American Apparel look

But between 2007 and 2009, US retailer American Apparel did exactly that – the label was responsible for a trend that could genuinely be termed the American Apparel look. The AA trend was instantly recognisable and held a vice-like grip on the under 25s – male and female. The rise and fall of American Apparel. It wasn't having oral sex with an employee in front of a female journalist that now threatens to undo Dov Charney, founder of American Apparel.

The rise and fall of American Apparel

Nor was it simulating oral sex with another female member of staff whom he had ordered to pretend to masturbate in front of him. The 41-year-old's professional and personal reputation isn't even on the line because at least three female employees have filed sexual harassment lawsuits against him (all the cases were settled before reaching trial); nor because he walks through his factory in his underpants and conducts meetings wearing just a thong – or a sock. The sock is not, one should add, worn on his foot. For the exhibitionist Charney, whose excesses are the stuff of fashion-industry legend, to be finally humbled by accounts that are more street corner than Wall Street is, some might think, a bit like Al Capone finally being brought to book over tax evasion.

But whatever the catalyst, it has led to the unravelling of an empire. IS DOV-Y TOO LOVEY? A LOOK AT AMERICAN APPAREL'S CEO. Tight ass (revealed in an ad), odd equatorial mustache and sexually upfront nature may be a smart-ass way to buck the trends, but is all this press (New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Butt Magazine, Jane, et al) just one big publicity stunt to boost sales and/or his ego?

IS DOV-Y TOO LOVEY? A LOOK AT AMERICAN APPAREL'S CEO.

It's not unusual that the plaintiffs in a sexual harassment suit are women. It is unusual however, that the ones suing Charney are not alleging that he coerced them for sex, but rather that he created a "wholly intolerable" and "intimidating" atmosphere rife with unnecessary libidinous testosterone.

What's more unusual is Charney's unrestrained "business and pleasure" pride, which further deepens the suspicions about his integrity. We Predict More Lawsuits in Dov Charney's Future. American Apparel boss attacks Obama crackdown on immigrant workers. The clothes retailer American Apparel has expressed "deep disappointment" with US immigration policy after an official crackdown on undocumented workers obliged the company to lay off 1,500 employees at its California headquarters, amounting to 15% of its global workforce.

American Apparel boss attacks Obama crackdown on immigrant workers

Renowned for its colourful T-shirts and sweaters, American Apparel proudly states in its advertising that its products are made in downtown Los Angeles. But government inspectors in July found that 1,600 of its 5,600 manufacturing staff did not appear to be legally authorised to work in the US and a further 200 had uncertain status. Infringements include false social security numbers and discrepancies in workers' employment records. The company, which has been an outspoken advocate for a more liberal immigration policy, is sacking the affected employees this month. American Apparel: The public won't wear it. American Apparel is going down as a legendary brand failure, a business screw-up as total and devastating as New Coke or Sony Betamax.

American Apparel: The public won't wear it

Founded as a wholesale business in 1998 by Dov Charney, in 2000 it moved into retail, and by 2005 it was a hot brand – and expanding fast. Too fast, apparently: sales dipped with the recession, debts built up, and now the company is waiting on its backers to see if it can get the additional investment it desperately needs to survive. There's clearly still some value in the label – otherwise, it would have already been pushed into receivership – but what? American Apparel does a great line in cotton jersey basics, and its regular appearances in Grazia's Style Hunter feature or on fashion blogger Tavi show that the brand appeals to people who really care about the cut of their T-shirt. (I'm very partial to its racer-back vests.)

Charney's perviness was hardly new news. [see footnote]