Peloton: “And Just Like That” Branding Disaster
Peloton’s marketing team was excited to receive publicity from a highly anticipated new television series. The Sex and the City series had previously enjoyed a huge following before its cancelation after six seasons in 2004. In December 2021, HBO Max was rebooting the series under a new name with many of the same actors portraying the same characters. Having been informed that the premiere episode would feature Peloton’s product, the exercise and media corporation embraced the upcoming publicity – until one of the show’s main characters collapsed and died following his Peloton-based workout. After this fictional portrayal with tragic outcomes, Peloton’s share price dropped 11% overnight and continued declining the next day.
Upon analyzing this critical incident, students should be able to:
1. Identify risks of mass media portrayals of product/brand usage.
2. Evaluate the components of a consumer brand attitude.
3. Apply the dimensions of brand equity in considering a brand’s value.
4. Assess how a fictional persona’s association with a brand differs from a celebrity endorser’s association with a brand in terms of brand equity.
5. Assess the need(s) to communicatively respond to a fictional incident impacting brand identification.
6. Evaluate whether an adverse fictional event related to a product shown on a television show should affect the long-run value of the firm’s common stock that manufactures that product.
7. Evaluate possible communication strategies in response to threats to corporate image.