Top 10 Marketing Failures

We have all seen marketing blunders over the years, some with more devastating consequences than others. Even big-name companies with talented marketing teams behind them suffer from occasional marketing slips. Read on to find out the top 10 major marketing failures in history, what we have learnt from them and how Second Chance Solutions can help you get a second chance to make your mark in the market.

#10 Marketing Failure: McDonald's & 1984 Olympics

McDonald's made its big marketing miscalculation with "If The U.S. Wins, You Win!" campaign for 1984 Olympics . The campaign's intention was to give away free food every time Team USA won medals. Lo and behold, Team USA ended up winning 174 medals and McDonald's underestimated how much free merchandise was going to walk out the door.

The lesson learnt from here is to never launch a marketing campaign without having specifics and budgets figured out first.

Here at Second Chance Solutions, we offer a bespoke consultation service to avoid such a marketing fail as this. We will guide you to develop realistic estimates for your marketing campaign and stay within the boundaries of your budget. We use our expertise to perform Return on Investment (ROI) analysis for your marketing campaign to successfully evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

#9 Marketing Failure: Facebook Beacon

At the height of its success in 2007, Facebook committed a marketing faux-pas when it incorporated Beacon on its social networking site to track users' activities and offered the data to its online partners and advertisers. Beacon privacy breach sparked outcry which led to its demise in 2009 with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitting that it was a mistake.

The lesson learnt from here is to respond and react quickly to a public outcry. Admitting the mistake is the first step but be sure to implement new strategies to manage the backlash.

Second Chance Solutions can help you achieve a complete turnaround from your product or service failure with re-marketing strategies and social media campaigns to regain success.

#8 Marketing Failure: Burger King & Creepy Monarch

Burger King had its marketing miss in 2003 when they reinvented the classic Burger King character from the Burger King Kingdom campaign with a caricatured version for "Wake Up with the King" campaign. It was when the creepy monarch mascot started to turn off customers with its bizarre antics on advertising campaigns that Burger King finally decided to dethrone the King in 2011 and re-focused its marketing efforts on what should have been the No. 1 priority: its food. 

The lesson learnt from here is to never deviate too much from your primary product or service for the sake of attracting customers' attention with over the top characters in marketing campaigns. Burger King's creepy monarch sure did grasp the attention of customers but for all the wrong reasons.

Second Chance Solutions can assist you with developing focus groups and gaining feedback from social media with regards to testing your marketing ideas prior to the launch in order to mitigate the risk of committing a marketing crime like Burger King.


#7 Marketing Failure: Snickers & Mr. T Ad

When Snickers aired its advertising campaign featuring Mr. T open-firing a speed walker in 2008, the ad was deemed too offensive to gay community. Massive uproar occurred in reaction to the advertisement with The Human Rights Campaign criticizing the advertisement's apparent promotion of violence to gay people. Snickers apologized that the advertisement was never meant to be offensive and pulled the plug on the campaign.

The lesson learnt from here is to always make sure the message you are trying to convey in your marketing campaign does not alienate customers. And be sure to test your marketing idea and approach before you proceed.

That is where Second Chance Solutions come in to organize focus groups, target consumer panels, and online research to test your marketing concept to ensure its effectiveness once it is launched so that you never make the same marketing mistake again.

  

#6 Marketing Failure: Skittles & "Touch the Rainbow" Campaign

Skittles' 2008 "Touch the Rainbow" campaign initially seemed like a marketing gem featuring a man who turned everything into Skittles with one touch. All was fine until he shook someone's hand on the bus and turned the poor man into Skittles. Despite the dark humor undertone in the campaign which was meant to be funny, people started to associate Skittles with death and that Skittles killed people.

The lesson learnt from here is not to let yourself get carried away with funny, novelty ideas for your marketing campaign and be aware that humor is subjective. 

Second Chance Solutions can provide you with tools and strategies to re-market your product or service so that you get a second chance at success and can help you move forward from a marketing fail such as this.

#5 Marketing Failure: Ayds Diet Candy

Ayds Diet Candy rapidly popularity in 1970s and 1980s due to its claim in reducing appetite in order to lose weight. By the mid 1980s, Ayds' popularity started to wane since public awareness of the disease AIDS increased. Due to its unfortunate phonetic similarity to the disease name, Ayds Diet Candy suffered major sales decrease, losing 50% of sales by the late 1980s and was eventually withdrawn from the market.

The lesson learnt from here is that if you run into an unexpected marketing misfortune such as this, it is vital to take action immediately to keep yourself afloat in the market. If only Ayds took a drastic action to re-brand itself, it would still possibly be around right now.

Here at Second Chance Solutions, we use our tools and resources in Internet marketing to help you re-brand and re-market your product after epic marketing fall from grace.

#4 Marketing Failure: Honda Asimo

Honda first introduced Asimo, a multi-functional robot, to the world back in 2000. It was promised to be a highly functioning robot with abilities to recognize movements, interact with people, walk, and run. Nevertheless, Asimo went through a series of comical mishaps such as falling down the stairs at public appearances. Instead of showcasing Asimo's ability, these public appearances became almost like comedy events where Asimo would fail to deliver on its promised abilities. 

The lesson learnt from here is to ensure that your product or service can deliver and fulfill its basic promises before releasing it into the market. Thoroughly carried-out pre-market testing could have saved Honda from such a marketing fail.

Second Chance Solutions can help you develop new strategies and directions to turn around from a complete disaster of a new product or service. Using social media campaigns, we can successfully re-market and give your product or service a second chance at success.

#3 Marketing Failure: Netflix's Qwikster Rebranding

Netflix's DVD-only offering Qwikster was extremely short-lived as having Netflix for streaming and Qwikster for DVDs separately deemed to be too confusing for customers. The decision to have Netflix and Qwikster as two separate websites made little sense when it was much easier to just keep Netflix for both streaming and DVDs. Customers were livid about having to pay for two separate services and complaint about inconvenience to deal with two separate websites. What made matters worse was that Netflix failed to secure Twitter handle Qwikster. It turned out that Qwikster Twitter handle belonged to a particular someone who posted obscene tweets about his drug use! This business idea had a disaster written all over it since the beginning and Netflix quickly withdrew Qwikster only after a few months from the first announcement.

The lesson learnt from here is to really know your customers and understanding how they use your service can make or break the business. In addition, when launching new product or idea, be sure to cover all bases including securing social media accounts related to the product.

Second Chance Solutions can assist you with formulating new strategies to move forward from new product failures. We use our industry knowledge and expertise to guide your company towards the successful future with no marketing setback such as this again.


#2 Marketing Failure: Ford Edsel

Ford learnt its biggest lesson in marketing with Edsel back in 1957. Ford drummed up publicity and hype for what was meant to be an innovative creation of a car to rival General Motors with numerous ad campaigns such as "The Edsel is coming" and "They'll know you've arrived when you drive up in an Edsel". When it was finally unveiled to the world in the spring of 1957 on "E-day" no less,  it turned out to be a major disappointment in terms of workmanship, design aesthetics, and quality control. Edsel never lived up to the hype and expectation and suffered abysmal sales of 64,000 units in its first year, way below the intended forecast. Promoting a highly priced car at the time of 1958 recession was not a smart move either. The name "Edsel" even became synonymous for failure. Ford eventually pulled the plug on Edsel in 1960 only three years after its launch.

This is a classic case of overselling and under-delivering. The lesson learnt from here is to focus on customer-centric market research to suss out whether there is demand or market for your product. Also, be sure to deliver the product that matches the hype and exceeds customers' expectations.

Second Chance Solutions is here for you to guide you to the right direction using customized internet marketing strategies to turn around your business. We have a team of experts at your service to help you gain a second chance at making it in the market by eliminating marketing mistake such as Ford's Edsel.

#1 Marketing Failure: New Coke

It comes as no surprise that New Coke fiasco takes the No. 1 spot for the top marketing failure of all time. Back in 1985, Coca Cola took the biggest gamble in its marketing history by announcing the new coke "smoother, rounder yet bolder" taste to fight off the emerging competitor Pepsi. Nevertheless, New Coke failed to find its audience and it caused a storm of customer uproar and protest. Coca Cola kept the original Coke with the name Coke Classic running alongside New Coke and Coke Classic undoubtedly came up on top. New Coke was eventually discontinued in 2002 but remains as the top marketing blunder in history.

This is a classic case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The lesson learnt from here is to really understand what your loyal customers want and deliver the product that satisfies their needs.

In order to avoid repeating a marketing faux-pas such as this, Second Chance Solutions will get to know your business and your customers and provide you with well-tailored Internet marketing strategies to help you achieve a second chance to make first impression.

May Mandy Han

Source: Top 10 Marketing Failures (YouTube)