brand ego tripping

This cartoon was partly inspired by my chat with David Taylor.  He introduced me to the wonderful phrase, "brand ego tripping", which is when a brand team gets a little too full of itself and forgets why consumers liked the brand in the first place.  A brand ego trip can be dangerous, because it can lead to ill-fitting brand extensions and promotions based on the needs of the business, not any kind of real consumer insight.  Levi’s suits, Colgate ready meals, Coors Rocky Mountain mineral water — all casualties from "brand ego tripping".

I didn’t pick Metamucil for anything specific to the brand.  Apologies to anyone on the brand team.  I just thought a brand of laxative and fiber supplements would make a really ridiculous example.

I included the Bunco reference after remembering a cool promotion that P&G brand Prilosec pursued, where they found and developed a niche target of Bunco players.  I thought their approach was a nice down-to-earth contrast to brand ego tripping.