Lessons from the Biggest Brand Failures

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By DSIM Team / 04/10/2013

Last updated on January 2nd, 2014 at 05:54 am

It could be anything a bad decision, a wrong move, or anything else as such which can impact your business a big way. So it is very critical for your take each step vigilantly and carefully. Sometimes even a minute miss out leads to a big brand failure. There are so many brand failures around giving you a plethora of lessons that you can learn from other’s experiences and won’t have to go through yourself.

Here we have top five brand failures that happened with some of the big brands around.

Contents

New Coke

1

In the 1970s and early 80s, Coke started facing stiff competition from other soft drink producers.
To stay at the number one position, coke executives decided to stop production on the classic cola for New Coke. But the public got irate and Coca-cola had to re-launch its original formula almost immediately. The lesson that it gives you is that you should never mess with success.

Ford Edsel

2

Launched with much hype in 1957, Edsel is known as ‘The Titanic of Automobiles’. The showrooms were crowded with curious consumers at its launch however the car did not meet their high expectations and the first year exhibited only 64,000 sales. It is believed that the consumers were turned off due to the fact that the design of the front grill was compared to ‘an oldsmobile sucking a lemon,’ and ‘a toilet seat’.

Sony Betamax

3

The Betamax video recorder came in to the stores in 1975. Just after a year another video recorder named as VHS was released by Sony’s rival and by early 1977 four companies were selling VHS machines. In the mean time, Sony decided not to license Betamax technology. As the two formats were not compatible with each other consumers had to choose anyone of them. And it was self-explanatory with Sony being the single Betamax producer that which system they were going to buy.

 

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McDonald’s Arch Deluxe

4

McDonalds created the Arch Deluxe in order to class up its brand. Arch Deluxe used to be product with more sophisticated tastes especially meant for adults. However, people usually want a classic and convenient burger from McDonalds and not any sophistication, which created the concern. As a result, when the Arch Deluxe was introduced in 1996 nobody loved it.

RJ Reynolds’ Smokeless Cigarettes

5

Like today, passive smoking was deemed to be a serious health risk even in 1988. So the company behind brands like Camel decided to launch a line of smokeless cigarettes named as Premier. However, it was stated by Reporter magazine that that smoking the Premier created a smell and a flavor that left users vomiting. Besides, there was a rumor about Premier that the cigarette could be used as a delivery device for crack cocaine. It was obvious from these two factors that the product had to fail.

So, these were some of the biggest brand failures with a lot messages and lessons for you. There are so many other brand failures that could have been discussed and you could have taken help from however we have piled up the top five to give a brief picture of how even a small mistake can lead to a big blunder.

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