MARKETING MANAGEMENT UNSUCCESSFUL PRODUCTS

GROUP MEMBERS

Rakesh BhaskarPulastya Panigrahi

Priyanka T C

Why do products fail?There is an unending list of products which

failed in the market due to various reasons but more or less because of failure in one or more of the following factor.

Marketing Mishaps

How many consumers do you know who would buy bottled water for their cat or dog? Ready meals made by Colgate? Yoghurt-based shampoo? Or cleaning products from Heinz?

These may sound like ridiculous ideas, but they have all been launched as serious products.Of course they turned out to be major brand failures, but if the marketers could have foreseen the shortcomings, these products would never have been launched.

Ponds toothpaste a failure owning to brand perception

Pond’s Toothpaste Unilever tried to increase its market share in

oral care products in the early 2000s by introducing a toothpaste under the Pond’s brand. The brand had previously been successful at moving from skin creams to soap products, and the jump to toothpastes seemed like a logical next step.

Customers, however, thought otherwise. The queer thing was, there was nothing wrong with the product itself: a study found that participants could not tell the difference between Colgate and Pond’s toothpastes in a blind test.

The problem with Pond’s toothpaste was the brand. Soap and skin creams are usually associated with the sense of smell, while toothpaste is associated with taste. Moreover, Pond’s products generally have topical uses, whereas toothpaste is used to brush the inside of one’s mouth. For these reasons, the company could not transfer Pond’s brand attributes to its toothpastes successfully.

HUL brand Ponds successfully moved from cold cream to other extensions such as Age defying creams, soap, shampoo & talc, because the basic premise of protection for the skin and freedom from wear and tear remained the same, while as in case of Ponds toothpaste its failed  even though both the product are also to be used for cleanness and freshness.

A wrong choice in brand extension without proper market research & without proper product attribute knowledge is what led to failure of the Ponds Toothpaste.

Marketers should understand that you cannot simply extend a brand to other categories because the core values are the same.

Marketing mishapsTATA NANO ; Failure due to perception

What were the reasons?

Positioning: TATA-NANO was positioned as logical upgrade for a family of four with a two wheeler. This concept did not gel as every such household had an aspiration to move to something better and not necessarily cheaper, thus NANO was brought as a second car and not as a first car.

Price: TATA-NANO was supposed to be available for Rupees One Hundred Thousand only, which was increased due to the increase in the input cost, yet it was called as a One-lakh car. The company did come out to explain the reason for price increase but it did not go well with the buyers.

Promotion: Instead of using right marketing channels, NANO was promoted using non-conventional marketing concepts like social-media which was simply a case of lack of communication to the appropriate customer.

What could have helped NANO to position better ? A different positioning strategy for rural, urban and smaller cities as a

totally different sub brands and with minor customization.b) Promotion based on the attributes like performance, efficiency instead

of affordability.c) Create special segments for college, women and first time drivers.d) Position NANO as a regular car rather than as an upgrade for and from

two-wheelers.e) Evolve in every two years based on the market feedback.

NANO was a great product, but it is a case where aspiration of the prospective customers was not respected. The saying that “A Man buys a car for what he wants to be and not for what he is”, is enough to describe the story of NANO.

Marketing mishapsKellogg’s – a failure of a brand

Kellogg’s was in fact known as the company that introduced the concept of Corn flakes as a breakfast throughout the world.

Kellogg’s started hunting for new markets beyond its traditional markets in Europe and the United States in search of more cereal eating consumers. 

It concentrated on india.

However, the Indian sub-continent found the whole concept of eating breakfast cereal a new one as consumers in India preferred to start the day with a daily bread called chapatti or its equivalent.

Instead of addressing this issue kellog’s decided to launch other products without any further research of the market. 

Kellogg which had launched itself with the best products, packaging and excellent marketing strategy did not do well as expected resulting in sharp decline in the sales.

Marketing mishapsKellogg’s – a failure of a brand

Where Kellogg’s went wrong?

Kellogg had pitched itself as an alternative to the regularly consumed breakfast but to the contrary Kellogg’s Corn flake breakfast did not give consumers that feeling of fullness. In a nutshell after having a corn flake based breakfast, the Indian consumers were still hungry.

Indians were used to a variety and asking Indians consumers to have the same type of corn flake based breakfast everyday was a cultural shock and was rejected by the consumers.

The concept of having the sweet tasting and cold corn flake breakfast was too difficult the Indians consumers to digest, along with the fact that Kellogg corn Flakes have to be consumed with cold milk. While as in India for breakfast milk is generally consumed hot and when consumed with hot milk corn flakes become soggy and there are no longer tasty and edible.

The valuable marketing lessons learned from the debacle of brand Kellogg’s in India are

Product: Kellogg’s was essentially launching a western product attempting to appeal to Indian tastes. Globalization may be an increasing trend, but regional identities, customs and tastes are as distinct as ever.Pricing:  The local competition was selling at one third the price and both were competing with the staple diet, yet Kellogg’s never worked on correcting this very important factor.Place:  Eating cornflakes for breakfast was totally alien culture for Indians and never ever try and make consumers strangers to their cultureCompetition: Don’t underestimate local competitors, sometimes it is big to be challenged.

Flaw 1: Vanilla Coke The brand was targeted at the metro youth was

different. It was different in taste, promotion, package, price etc.

Vanilla Coke was promoted in retro style. The brand had Vivek Oberoi , the then bollywood flame endorsing the brand in an unusual style. Vivek sported the retro look with typical combination of Elvis style + Shammi Kapoor style in an Old Lamby Scooter screaming Wakaw.

It failed because .The campaign was not targeted at the right segment.

This campaign had its fair share of critics also. The brand was priced at a premium over the ordinary

coke. This may have discouraged the teenagers from

checking out the brand

Flaw 2 :Pepsi crystalThere was no real need for Crystal

Pepsi. Despite the shifting tides in early 90’s marketing towards healthiness and purity, people just didn’t get excited about a clear caffeine-free Pepsi. Not really a surprise- those who were that concerned with the health and colour of their beverage probably would not be Pepsi drinkers to begin with.

Flaw 3:Blackberry Storm 9500

• Blackberry 9500 launched in a market to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

• Highly volatile market which demanded for performance.

• Unfortunately, the storm didn’t perform as expected.

• Flaws like No Wi-Fi, Memory, Capacitive Touch Feature.

• Due to all such issues, customer is reluctant to buy Blackberry Storm, resulting in low prices and no resale value

Flaw 4:Apple Lisa

Document-Centric approach

Duplicate file names

The Y1995 problem

Soft shutdown

Flaw 5:IBM PC Junior

• This computer had a hefty price tag.

• At $699, it was twice the price of computers from Atari and Commodore.

• Many were also disappointed at the awkward layout of the factory-shipped keyboard.

Flaw 6:Tata Sierra

• Sierra primarily failed in the market because of its steep price.

• Priced around Rs 5 lakh, the brand failed to appeal to the value proposition of the Indian consumer.

• Sierra can be said as a brand that came too early. The Indian market was not ready for this concept.

Flaw 7:Maruti Versa

• The brand was positioned as " Two luxury cars for the price of one" .

• The ads talked about twin A/C, comfort and space. Versa was launched with a 1300 cc engine which was the same used in Maruti Esteem.

• Those enthusiastic customers who flocked the showroom after viewing the ads was shocked by the steep price of Versa.

• Versa was priced at par with Maruti Esteem and other entry level sedans.

Flaw 8 :Persil power

• When Unilever’s star brand Persil announced the launch of a powerful new formula, aptly called Persil Power, many consumers got excited by the product’s apparent ability to fight any stain.

• However, when the product hit the market place in May 1994, it proved so powerful that under certain conditions it didn’t only destroy stains, it destroyed clothes as well.

• The battle reached the level of farce last summer when Procter and Gamble executives paraded pairs of boxer shorts in public, saying that in tests commissioned by them, Persil Power was found to have damaged the shorts.

Flaw 9:Honda Street• Street was the Indian version of the

world famous Honda Cub series. • Honda Cub was the world's largest

selling single model bike which has sold more than 2.5 crore units.

• The case is about marketing mistake. The product failed in all aspects of marketing mix except the distribution.

• The product was not good enough. • It looked like a glorified M80 from

Bajaj wdhich was used by Fish vendors an the like.

• The campaign was also not successful. The initial campaign tried to teach the customers the new Clutch less gear system and its efficacy, the customers was not impressed with this feature.

Flaw 10:Harley-davidson perfume

• Harley-Davidson launched a perfume range.

• The idea in itself created a confusion in the masses.

• It wasn’t clear if it is meant for bikers who don’t want to smell like bikers, or is it for the people who want to smell like bikers.

• Simultaneously Harley Davidson launched wine coolers, after shave. For brands that inspire strong loyalty, the temptation is to test that loyalty to its limits by stretching the brand into other product categories.

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