Image Is No Substitute for Value

Fletcher, Winston, Management Today

Virgin Cola is an inferior drink which deserved to fail, says Winston Fletcher. Richard Branson ignored traditional marketing, relying on Virgin's image instead

All serious business people - and most certainly all serious marketing people - should greet the decline and fall of Virgin Cola with loud hosannas and a fanfare of trumpets. No doubt that sounds rather uncharitable. But Virgin' Cola did not deserve to succeed, and its stumbling progress reveals a great deal both about the Virgin brand and about the healthy nature of marketing in a highly competitive economy.

Virgin may find the truth unpalatable but nobody with taste buds worthy of the name believes Virgin Cola to be as good as either Coke or Pepsi. In addition to the forceful and unyielding opinions of my own palate, there is copious evidence from all around the world that the Cott recipe on which …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Image Is No Substitute for Value. Contributors: Fletcher, Winston - Author. Magazine title: Management Today. Publication date: April 1998. Page number: 35. © 2003 Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.