Brand Swag: Trump Watch Fail
Campaign: Trump Watches Inauguration First Lady
Objective: A mistake on a piece of official Donald Trump merchandise might be funny to some. But it wasn't a laughing matter for the Rhode Island couple who paid more than $600 for the Trump-branded watch. One letter was left off the watch face so it said ‘Rump’ instead of ‘Trump”.
The iffy part: “Though Trump Watches promotes the line as the “official watch of President Trump,” fine print reveals that neither Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, nor any affiliates are directly involved in the design or sale. Instead, the name and likeness are used under a licensing agreement, a fact that may not be obvious to every buyer.”
Why it DOESN’T work:
1. The first rule in design is, it has to be legible. In this case, the point of the product is the ‘Trump’ name, as it is prominently shown on the advertisement for the watch. The name is the brand.
2. Poor quality makes headlines. This is true if it is a well-known name or brand; in this case, it’s the name known around the world. Even bad news is still news. Sure, the buyers got a refund, but not before the story became news and a source of embarrassment.
3. Donald Trump has a long-standing reputation of being cheap, using faulty quality in his products (fake gold apartment); this type of mistake reinforces this. The $600 price tag sets up the heartbreak when the customer receives the item and it has a fault so ridiculous that it’s frankly insulting and incredulous.
4. If you license out your name/mark/logo/etc. make sure you have tight quality control of your suppliers and try and catch mistakes before they become national news.
