Age of Arrogance

The axiom "Good advertising is the fastest way to kill a bad product" leads to the corollary "Bad advertising is the fastest way to kill a company." An eloquent dramatization of this statement is the ill-fated marketing campaign from a quintessential Internet services company, marchFIRST.On March 1, 2000, the newly minted company commanded a market valuation larger than that of Y&R, WPP and True North combined! The product of the merger between US Web/CKS and Whitman Hart, marchFIRST was viewed by many as the prototype new-economy firm. It seemed destined to accelerate the demise of the traditional old-economy oligarchs, such as Omnicom and Interpublic.MarchFIRST promised clients it could harness the power of technology to foster a new type of creativity that would redefine the rules of business. The laws of marketing synergy were about to be repealed. MarchFIRST just had to launch with a new brand identity. After all, it was inventing the new rules of business.But you can't always get what you want. Today, marchFIRST faces a bevy of shareholder lawsuits amid a breathless decline of its stock—now selling at an unimaginable 99 percent below its merger price—and major layoffs.What went wrong?The first tangible business decision by the partners at US Web/ CKS and Whitman Hart was to eliminate the brand identities that made them successful. Employees entered the marketplace without the benefit of existing brand equities.MarchFIRST elected to flaunt its enormous dot-com client franchise—literally hundreds of new-economy clients, the vast majority of which were unprofitable and funded by mercurial venture capitalists. The mix of clients shifted dramatically in the dot-com direction—and marchFIRST was happy to extol the virtues of this client mix, often at the expense of Fortune 1000 clients.The company launched an expensive multichannel branding campaign geared to current and prospective employees—but the environment was already growing hostile toward the dot-com economy. An integration of traditional and new media, "Here's to being first" utilized television, print and the Web. What were the results of this presumptive and self-aggrandizing campaign?Nine months ago, marchFIRST had a market value equal to Interpublic. On Dec. 1, 2000, the company was worth less than the recent, relatively small IPG acquisition, Deutsch, an agency that represents less than 3 percent of IPG's revenues.Paradoxically, in dire need of cash, marchFIRST might have reconsidered an expensive marketing campaign in the context of sorely depleted working capital. But instead, the company was inventing new rules of business.Hubris is defined as "disdain" or "pomposity." In retrospect, hubris appears to have been the central tenet of marchFIRST's marketing program.A better theme might have been: Clients come first. Chris Casaburi

Brand Marketing

Age of Arrogance

Mitch Kurz Is Chairman Of Kurz &friends In Norwalk, Conn.

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Mitch Kurz Is Chairman Of Kurz &friends In Norwalk, Conn.