Rebrand / Retail / 2010
The Logo Reversal That Exposed Recognition Risk
Gap's 2010 redesign became a reference case because the failure was not visual taste alone. It was a break in recognition, memory, and control.
Decision Type
Pivots
Category and business-model changes that alter what a brand is allowed to mean.
Pivot files study what happens when a brand asks the market to accept a new category, offer, or operating claim.
Cases
Failure / CPG / 2009
Tropicana and the Cost of Losing the Shelf Cue
The redesign case sits at the center of recognition equity: when the asset is visual memory, improvement starts by protecting what shoppers already know.
Failure / Beverage / 1985
New Coke and the Error of Replacing Memory
The product test measured preference. The market response revealed ownership, ritual, and identity sitting underneath the formula decision.
Pivots FAQ
What makes a case a pivots file?
It belongs here when the primary decision pattern matches the pivots category and produces a visible consequence.
Why does the archive separate decision types?
Decision type determines what the reader should compare. Packaging failures, identity changes, and recovery decisions do not teach the same lesson.
Are these rankings?
No. The archive is a reference structure, not a ranking product.