by Justin Maas
Every company wants to believe their marketing branch knows what it's doing. These examples show that this often not the case. Marketers are just as prone to failure as regular people (although they'll never admit it).
1. New Coke - Everyone should at least be familiar with this story of marketing collapse. In 1985 some "genius" at Coke thought what the brand needed was a rebirth. The Coca-Cola formula that had been successful for years was modified and marketed as "the new taste of Coca-Cola". The reaction was not good. Consumers demanded the original flavor and recipe be brought back and Coke obliged. Coke classic returned and saw a boost in sales. New Coke was definitely a flop, but there is some debate over whether it was a flop or all an elaborate plan to get consumers craving plain old Coke again.
2. KFC Free Chicken - Free chicken. Free! Sounds like an excellent marketing ploy for attracting customers to your stores. KFC decided to announce during Oprah's show that they would be giving away a free two-piece chicken meal when you downloaded a coupon online. The promotion was a huge hit as a tremendous amount of people downloaded the coupon, but KFC forgot the most considerable part of the promotion: the chicken. Customers rushed to local KFC stores only to find out they didn't have the inventory to honor their marketing campaign. KFC ended up giving away millions in free food while somehow making their customers disappointed with the company. Not the best way to execute a marketing campaign.
3. Ford Edsel - In 1958, Ford thought for sure they had a great product on their hands and they were determined to produce a great marketing campaign for it. The problem was Ford didn't have a great product on their hands. The name was ugly. The car was ugly. The product was a letdown and a marketing disaster. Ford lost millions on the Edsel and the line was soon discontinued. Marketing a product no one wants is tough. Looking back it seems the Edsel was just a car released at a strange crossroads. People wanted a smaller, more affordable car and that isn't what Ford gave them.
After reviewing each of these examples, it becomes clear that if these mistakes were made today, just how and why social media could have been critical to the success of each campaign. New Coke could have been left up to an online vote to see if consumers felt a change was in order. KFC could have been able to use their Facebook to track the number of downloaded coupons and thus circumvented the utter chaos. As for the Edsel, maybe not even the best Twitter PR or Facebook campaign could have saved that. But at least the fans could've voted in successive polls about why the campaign failed so poorly and helped influence Ford's next inspired idea.
So, do you think you would like to learn more about <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3sg4hsd">why social media</a> is vital to any company? Would you like to find out more about <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3sg4hsd">Twitter PR</a>? Check us out at Fishbat.com to learn more!. This article, <a href="http://www.uberarticles.com/home.php?id=965951&p=48400">3 Major Marketing Flops</a> is released under a creative commons attribution license.
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New Unique Article!
Title: 3 Major Marketing Flops
Author: Justin Maas
Email: rrsmondo@rapidrecoverysolution.com
Keywords: Why social media,Twitter PR
Word Count: 480
Category: Marketing
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