Companies know that the demands and behaviour of customers change very quickly in this modern world. To cope with this issue, popular brands launch products with new ideas and features. While most of the times new products are loved by buyers, sometimes companies make products that are very strange and make very less sense. In this article, we have collected some of the worst product fails from the biggest names in the business world. Take a look:
1. Sony Betamax
Sony is known for high-quality consumer products that are made with latest technologies. In the 1970s the company saw a need for a new video format in their products. While other companies were making VHS machines, Sony shifted its focus on Betamax. Although Betamax was technically superior, it lost its market because it was not found everywhere as other companies were not making such products.
2. McDonald’s Arch Deluxe
McDonald’s introduced its Arch Deluxe Hamburger in 1906 to target the urban people who were not in their demographic. For making this new burger popular, the company spent $100 million which makes it one of the costliest product failers. Arch Deluxe failed as it was too expensive for the buyers.
3. Microsoft Zune
To compete with Apple’s iPod, Microsoft launched this product in the year 2006. Later the company agreed that in the race of chasing Apple they made a product which was not good in quality. Zune failed because it did not have anything unique.
4. Google Lively
Known for making amazing things, Google also failed badly while competing with others. Google tried to make something like Second Life, which is a popular virtual world for the online users. Google introduced Lively in June 2008 and stopped its operation on this game in November 2008 due to a very small number of users.
5. HP Touchpad
Another tech giant that failed miserably with a product. It took only a month and a half for HP to realise that the company had made a mistake by launching Touchpad. HP tried to compete with Apple’s iPad and in the process made a product which was no way near to the quality of iPod.
6. Facebook Home
The largest social media network Facebook is also on this list for making Facebook Home. With Facebook Home, the company tried to become the home screen of smartphones. The result was it became a mess as people did not have the freedom to see what they want on their screens. Yes, we all love Facebook but this was not a good idea.
7. Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Samsung is known for making flagship phones and Galaxy Note 7 looked very promising in its initial days. The phone lost its charm in customers when they came to know about the fire catching problem that this phone had. Galaxy Note 7 is banned in flights as airline companies want to be assured about the safety of passengers.
8. New Coke
In the early 1980s, Coca-Cola was losing its popularity due to Pepsi. So, in order to beat its rival, Coca-Cola made a soft drink brand that tasted like Pepsi. Coca-Cola decided to stop selling this after few weeks as customers were not happy with the taste.
9. Crystal Pepsi
How can we forget Pepsico in an article where we have written about Coca-Cola. Pepsico introduced Crystal Pepsi to target caffeine free cola drink lovers. Around $40 million was spent on advertising campaigns of crystals and this was not enough to attract customers as it lacked the taste for which COla drinks are known for.
10. Ford Edsel
Edsel is one of Ford’s biggest flops because of its looks, unreliable controls and pricing. The carmaker invested $400 million for marketing campaigns which resulted in failure.
So, these are some of the biggest product fails from world’s most popular companies. If you know more such examples, do let us know so that we can add them to this list.
