The innovators and entrepreneurs among us know that a great idea for a product sometimes fails to realize its potential. Anyone who has come up with, designed, or developed new products knows this only too well. The product may function precisely the way it is supposed to; it might look great and fulfill a useful purpose; but if the marketing campaign used to promote the product is flawed, the product may as well be relegated to the dustbin — or to an advertising museum dedicated to fabulous flops.

You may say that this hardly seems fair, and you’d be right. Why should a great product fail simply because the advertisements used to market it fail to resonate with consumers? Are faulty packaging and promotion really enough to derail an otherwise superior product?

You bet they are. Just ask the people behind Betamax.

Why Product Launches Fail

It’s easy enough to visualize a small company having this kind of difficulty. Smaller companies generally do not have the deep pockets of larger organizations. As a result, their advertising and marketing budgets are smaller and they are less able to saturate the market with news of their brilliant innovation. Maybe they don’t have the funds to do adequate market research before launching their product. Perhaps they skipped earning a marketing degree for other, much less educational exploits. Whatever the case, smaller companies should never shy away from their innovative ideas. The product they develop may very well become the next big thing, and if it doesn’t they will be in very good company.

New Coke Spawns New Troubles for Coca-Cola

That’s because sometimes the really big companies fail spectacularly with a new product. And occasionally failure comes with a new version of an old product. Cast your mind back to the banner year of 1985 and the launch of the new Coca-Cola beverage. The powers that be at the soda pop powerhouse had noticed in recent years that their share of the market had been steadily slipping. Pepsi was breathing down their neck with campaigns like the Pepsi Challenge that were winning over consumers.

Coke started scrambling for answers and finally hit upon a solution: New Coke! The new product hit shelves in late April of 1985. By mid-June of the same year devotees of the brand were engaged in widespread boycotts. People were hoarding “old Coke” against the day when the original formulation would no longer be available. In some circles the taste of New Coke was being compared to sewer water and worse. New Coke was an unqualified disaster.

Coke might have fared better with their reformulation had they taken a different marketing approach. As a company that produces products often associated with nostalgia, Coke might have been able to succeed with New Coke if they had marketed it as the drink of choice for up and coming generations. Instead, tinkering with a sentimental favorite caused an unfavorable uproar among the brand’s biggest fans. Their take on the whole debacle was: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Baby Food for Adults and Yogurt for Hair

Of course, Coca-Cola isn’t the only well-known brand to ever have a product fail big time. Ever heard of Gerber’s Singles for adults? Imagine an entrée, like beef burgundy, served in a jar that is reminiscent of those used to hold baby food. Then plaster a label across it that loudly proclaims “SINGLES.” It turns out that consumers resented being reminded of their singlehood, and the idea of eating out of a baby food jar just wasn’t as appealing as Gerber thought it would be. Go figure!

And what about Clairol’s Touch of Yogurt shampoo? It debuted in 1979 and was almost immediately taken off the market. It seems people just didn’t take to the idea of spreading thick white yogurt on their scalps, no matter how beneficial it might have been. Some critics suggest that with a different name the fate of the yogurt-based shampoo might have been vastly different. Unfortunately we, and Clairol, will never have the chance to find out.

Good Product, Bad Marketing

The list of mega failures goes on and on. Once there were Polaroid Instant Home Movies and quadraphonic audio equipment. At one time you could buy a brand new DeLorean or a Ford Edsel. You might have watched a few games of the World Football League or even considered buying IBM’s PCjr. Each product had major companies behind it and each one failed in grand style.

In most of these cases, however, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the product. Sometimes the problem was a confusing or unappealing name. Other products suffered from packaging debacles or advertising campaigns that were directed at the wrong market. So for anyone who thinks that marketing doesn’t matter or that advertising is all just a bunch of hogwash, think again. A smart marketing campaign, a lot of product research, and some forethought given to product naming and packaging just might save your new product from going the way of the dinosaurs.

 

 

 

Andy Wallner is a freelance writer and web developer that specializes in providing information to students considering a marketing degree, or interested in online and offline marketing information. In his free time, Andy enjoys kayaking, playing trombone in a local jazz band, and learning CSS.