Leaving? Had enough of my personal brands opinion?

Some guy starts kicking off. Oh wait it’s the owner. He is telling us to consider killing someone. Oh wait, it’s a joke. So all OK? Not OK. I am leaving….

It’s not the first time a stupid statement has dissolved a business.
And I am sure won’t be the last.

When consumer opinion is confronted with terrible behaviour, their loyalty can shift in a heartbeat. It is a unique kind of challenge: the Cultural Ending. This occurs when consumers’ cultural values, opinions, or tastes no longer align with the brand or product experience. Unlike traditional business challenges, cultural endings are nuanced and unpredictable, making them one of the most complicated and difficult types of endings to design and mitigate.

Take fashion, for example. Which operates on a fine emotional line, where slight deviations in color or shape can render a garment “out of fashion”. A similar emotional reading happens in how consumers perceive justice, fairness, and care. A joke made in the wrong context, a thoughtless comment, or an unproven opinion can spark an emotional reaction that triggers a consumers goodbye.

The Ratner's "Total crap" moment

One of the most infamous examples of a cultural ending is the downfall of Ratner's, a British jewellery chain, in the early 1990s. Gerald Ratner, the CEO at the time, made a public comment referring to one of the company’s products as "total crap." Though he later claimed his words were taken out of context, the damage was done. The remark fuelled an immediate backlash, sending the already struggling business into a rapid downward spiral. As a result, the company closed 330 stores across the UK and US.

Ratners casual dismissal of the quality of his own products destroyed trust and alienated his audience. The fallout was severe, showing just how swiftly a brand can collapse when it undermines the emotional loyalty of its customers.

Pepsi's tone-deaf protest ad

In 2017, Pepsi experienced a cultural ending of its own when it released a controversial ad featuring Kendall Jenner. The ad attempted to align Pepsi with the growing protest movements, showing Jenner handing a can of Pepsi to a police officer during a demonstration, seemingly resolving the tension between protesters and law enforcement.

To many, the ad was seen as trivializing serious social justice issues, such as Black Lives Matter, in an attempt to profit from a cultural movement. The backlash was swift and fierce, with social media users and media outlets slamming the ad for its tone-deaf approach. Within a week, Pepsi pulled the ad from circulation, but the damage to its reputation lingered.

Pepsi’s mistake was failing to understand the weight of the cultural moment they were trying to insert themselves into. The ad’s flippant tone ignored the deep emotional undercurrents of the movements, making the company seem opportunistic and out of touch.

Let that sink drain

A more recent and ongoing example of a cultural clash is Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter (now X). Musk, known for his eccentricity and brash leadership style, put his personal brand at the forefront of the company. On the first day of his $44 billion acquisition, Musk kicked things off with a wacky “let that sink in” prank, carrying an actual sink into Twitter's headquarters.

Since then, Musk’s time at Twitter has been marked by provocative opinions, unpredictable jokes, and his version of “truth.” While Musk’s personal brand may have thrived on disruption, it has clashed with Twitter’s user base and advertisers. The company’s value has since plummeted to $12.5 billion—a staggering 71% drop. Advertisers have fled, with Musk responding by telling them they can “…go fuck themselves.” In addition to the mass advertiser exodus, Twitter’s user growth has also stagnated, raising further questions about the platform's future.

Musk’s approach reveals the risks of blurring the line between personal and corporate branding, especially when the cultural expectations of a company’s audience are ignored. By injecting his unpredictable personality into the DNA of X, Musk has alienated both advertisers and users, showing that even a tech titan is not immune to the consequences of a cultural ending.

Why cultural endings are so difficult

Cultural endings are particularly difficult because they aren’t always obvious, and businesses tend to overlook them. Many companies focus heavily on outdoing their competition, assuming that their downfall will come from a rival’s innovation or superior product. What they often miss is the more subtle, emotional connection between their brand and their customers.

A brand’s demise can stem not just from competition, but from a misstep that disconnects it from the values or emotions of its audience. Cultural shifts are fickle, and they often play out in ways that companies can’t predict or control. Once a brand loses its emotional foothold, regaining trust and relevance can be nearly impossible.

Preparing for the inevitable: Endineering workshops

In the Endineering workshops I run, one of the exercises focuses on imagining types of endings a brand might face—including cultural endings. It's surprising how many people, from product designers to marketing professionals, haven’t considered the potential for emotional or cultural endings with their audience. Exploring these possibilities opens up a more holistic understanding of how and why customers leave brands.

By asking participants to imagine how their products or services might fall out of favor culturally, we encourage them to think more deeply about the emotional and cultural nuances that drive or repulse customer loyalty. These workshops are designed to help brands anticipate the less obvious ways their products might meet its end.

Conclusion: Anticipating cultural endings

In today’s business landscape, brands need to do more than just compete on price or innovation—they must stay in tune with the cultural values of their audience. Cultural endings can happen fast, often sparked by a single misjudgment, tone-deaf statement, or misaligned marketing campaign.

By staying attuned to the emotional pulse of their audience, businesses can avoid falling into the trap of cultural misalignment. After all, it's not always the competition that takes a company down—sometimes, it’s the culture itself that delivers the final blow.