Marketing failures

[gsaldivar]

Anandtech Subscriptions ??

:beer:

 

[slydecix]

There are tons of classic ones that they tell you on the first day of your intro-to-marketing class, like how the Chevy Nova didn't sell in spanish-speaking countries cuz "no va" means "doesn't go" in spanish.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: aircooled
Atari Jaguar

Atari Lynx

3DO

CDi

etc.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: dnetmhz
New Coke

teh winnar is yuo!
Alternatively, RDRAM if you want to write about something geekish. Superior to DDR but failed miserably in mainstream because of legal issues despite better performance + marketing.

The better performance is subjective. If I recall correctly, in real world tasks it was inferior...only beating ddr in some benchmarks. And when you consider it costs 3 times as much as DDR and the average dell user doesn't care what kind of ram their system has, it seems pretty obvious why it failed.

 

[GoingUp]

Originally posted by: dnetmhz
New Coke

Period.

 

[Kipper]

Betamax...Macintosh...

These are all products which were popular in their heyday but ultimately failed and now have very small market share due to bad business/marketing practices.

 

[slydecix]

dunno how involved your presentation needs to be, but here's a brief history of divx

 

[dirtboy]

Excedrin PM was a big flop when it first hit the market. I met the guy who was in charge of the marketing campaign for it.

 

[kranky]

The Iridium satellite phone was a huge flop. $5 billion dollars spent, and only 10,000 customers before they pulled the plug. I don't think they lasted even two years.

Or the CueCat.

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: NutBucket

Originally posted by: aircooled
Atari Jaguar

Atari Lynx

3DO

CDi

etc.

Neo Geo

 

[yukichigai]

Are we talking in terms of good marketing that wasn't sufficient to back a bad product, or bad marketing which killed a good product?

If it's the former there are plenty of examples. New Coke is probably the best.

For the latter it's a little more difficult, mostly because bad marketing usually means the product was made forgettable. Hybrid cars are about as close as I can get. And if you're a Reno local there's an ad that used to run on the radio for a paycheck/title loan place which featured the line "if your only gambling problem is not having enough money...."

 

[ClueLis]

Originally posted by: CPA
The Ford Edsel is the classic of all marketing failures.

Ahhh yes, the "failed Ford," with the push-button gear shift. Bad idea.

My uncle has one that he restored. It seems to run fine, and he loves it (don't ask me why, I haven't a clue).

 

[djheater]

Clear Soda.

~edit

Cola that is.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: CPA
The Ford Edsel is the classic of all marketing failures.

Was just gonna say that... I found out about it from WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE by Billy Joel. (You didn't think I was old enough to actually know Edsel, did you?)

 

[NuclearNed]

Sega Saturn
Fruit Brute

 

[Doggiedog]

LISA

 

[Jeraden]

N-Gage

 

[djheater]

Crystal Pepsi

The neat thing about Crystal pepsi is how popular it initially was. Then the bottom dropped out.

 

[BCYL]

Segway was the first that came to my mind...

 

[badmouse]

Windows 1.0

it got better.

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: dnetmhz
New Coke

This and BetaMax are the classic examples.

New Coke is an example of how marketing was completely out of touch with the customer base. They didn't taste test with a representative sample of consumers, and focused on the packaging and messaging instead of the end product.

Betamax is an example of a superior product that lost market share to VHS because of horrible marketing. The marketing dept. knew Beta was superior to VHS, and expected consumers to pay a hefty premium for a better-quality product. Unfortunately, licensors and distributors also had to pay premiums on the tapes, and as a result fewer movies were available for rental/purchase on Beta. Also, consumers could not discern much of a quality difference on all but the newest television sets, and so they didn't understand why Beta was so expensive. Sony, in effect, priced Beta out of the market.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: dnetmhz
New Coke

oooo, that's a good one. Man, it was like a media riot when that was announced.

...and it sucked. Everyone was like "If I wanted a Pepsi, I'd go buy one."

 

[d3n]

Circuit City's DIVX format

 

[Papagayo]

3DFX (VooDoo Video Cards)

 

[brxndxn]

Originally posted by: d3n
Circuit City's DIVX format

damn.. I was gonna say that.. that one totally flopped