Definition of product:

A product is the item offered for sale. A product can be a service or an item. It can be physical or in virtual or
cyber form. Every product is made at a cost and each is sold at a price. The price that can be charged depends
on the market, the quality, the marketing and the segment that is targeted. Each product has a useful life after
which it needs replacement, and a life cycle after which it has to be re-invented. In FMCG parlance, a brand can
be revamped, re-launched or extended to make it more relevant to the segment and times, often keeping the
product almost the same.

According to Philip Kotler – ‘A product may be defined as a set of tangible, intangible and associate attributes
capable of being exchanged for a value with the ability to satisfy consumer and business needs.’

Description:
A product needs to be relevant: the users must have an immediate use for it. A product needs to be functionally
able to do what it is supposed to, and do it with a good quality.

A product needs to be communicated: Users and potential users must know why they need to use it, what
benefits they can derive from it, and what it does difference to their lives. Advertising and 'brand building' best
do this.

A product needs a name: a name that people remember and relate to. A product with a name becomes a brand.
It helps it stand out from the clutter of products and names.

A product should be adaptable: with trends, time and change in segments, the product should lend itself to
adaptation to make it more relevant and maintain its revenue stream.

Products can be categories in

Physical product (e.g. Product- fan, cycle. Brands- iPhone, Tesla, etc.),

Service (e.g. Product- haircuts, property deals. Brands- Talwalkars gym, Singapure airlines, KFC, etc.),

Place (e.g. Product- City, museum, monument. Brands- Las Vegas, Dubai, Agra, Delhi, Taj mahal etc.),

Person (e.g. Product- person. Brands- Virat Kohali, Elon Musk, Late M.F. Hussain etc.),

Firm/ Organization (e.g. Product- Any NGO, firm, company. Brands- Sanjivani, Microsoft, Facebook, Google,
Helpage India, Rajiv Gandhi foundation etc.)

Sports (e.g. Sports club, games. Brands- Real Madrid, IPL, PUBG)

Idea (e.g. Product- Term Planning, Safe driving. Brands- Star health, Tesla, Volvo etc.).

One can say a product is a goods, service, or idea consisting of a bundle of tangible and intangible attributes that
satisfies consumers needs and is received in exchange for money or some other unit of value.

How an organization views a product depends upon its perspective.

The organizations that are production-oriented look at a product basically as a manifestation of resources used to
produce it and the organizations that are marketing oriented view a product from the target consumer’s perspective as
a bundle of functional as well as emotional benefits. Accordingly they will have to see how their consumers view
their products. Most of the organizations have realized that there is no need to prepare a marketing mix for a product
that offers few consumers benefits, because that product will not sell have to consider the product from the target
customer’s perspective. Like the cosmetic companies are combining chemicals to make lipsticks, vitamin
manufacturers produce little pills, watch makers produce mechanical devices that keep time. -What are marketers
doing they are basically enhancing their products for their target markets-as lipstick has becomes beauty and hope,
vitamins become hope for a healthier life and watches become status symbols.

So we can say that a product therefore is a bundle of physical, chemical and / or intangible attributes that have the
potential to satisfy present and potential customer wants. In addition to the physical Goods itself, other elements
include the warranty, installation, after sales service accessories and package.

E.g. A customer buying an air-conditioner and a maintenance contract from Carrier Air conditioner is buying a
different product than another who buys the same model without the maintenance agreement.

What is Product Management?

Product management is the practice of strategically driving the development, market launch, and continual support
and improvement of a company’s products.

Product management’s strategic function-

Product management is a strategic function. Tasking product managers with determining a product’s overall reason
for being—the product’s “Why?”

They’re also responsible for communicating product objectives and plans for the rest of the company. They must
ensure everyone is working toward a shared organizational goal.

Product management encompasses a broad set of ongoing strategic responsibilities. They shouldn’t be responsible
for the ground-level details of the development process.

Smart organizations separate this function and assign tactical elements to project managers, such as scheduling and
managing workloads. This distinct division leaves the product manager free to focus on the higher-level strategy.

Job opportunities in Product and brand Management

Scope of Product and Brand Management
The opportunities for product and brand management are immense. There are a lot of jobs available for these
professionals in every well-known domain, such as FMCG, Retail, Media, Entertainment, Hospitality & Tourism,
Fashion & Lifestyle, Telecommunications, Electrical Products, Pharmaceuticals, Education, Finance, etc.

Brand management also has a vast scope in core field jobs like advertising agencies consultancies, public relations
agencies, image management consultancies, training, and recruitment firms, digital marketing agencies, and
specialist brand consultancies.
So, the scope is limitless, but you need to ensure that you focus on acquiring the required skills and leadership
qualities and polish yourself by giving some considerable time in this career line.

Brand Management Career Paths & Job Positions

Brand management roles demand an excellent understanding of the latest industry trends, consumer demands, and
marketing know-how and ethics. Successful people in this career line are the ones who start their journey from the
base level assuming positions like Assistant brand manager and Marketing Analyst and absorb every bit of
experience from the ground. And this experience, clubbed with creativity and analytical thinking, takes them to
grow to higher positions in the brand management career path.

Here is a typical hierarchy that brand management career follows:

1. Entry Level

Position: Assistant Brand Manager

Eligibility:

• Education in communications, marketing or related fields

• Creativity and problem-solving skills
• Client handling or relationship building experience
• Budget management experience

Role:

• Help develop brand strategy and image.

• Engaging in promotional activities and product placement
• Business development for the brand
• Coordinate with various teams to help with sales of the products

2. Mid Level
Position: Brand Manager

Eligibility:

• All entry-level requirements

• MBA in marketing
• Successful track record as an assistant brand manager or marketing analyst
• Proven ability to beat the competition and anticipate new trends

Role:

• Manage a team of assistant brand managers

• Research and analyze the impact of changes to the brand image
• Design, implement and test major changes to brand or product positioning

3. Mid-Senior Level
Position: Senior Brand Manager
Eligibility:

• All mid-level requirements

• Successful brand management experience
• Strategic thinking skills and leadership qualities

Role:

• Be responsible for marketing and placement leadership for a portfolio of products.

• Manage large, globally-recognized brands
• Research and analyze competing brands and come up with a counter-strategy

4. Senior Level
Position: Marketing Director

Eligibility:

• All mid-level requirements

• Proven expertise as a Senior Manager
• Successful brand management experience
• Strategic thinking skills and management level approach

Role:

• Overall direction to the brand positioning activities

• Decision making regarding the launch of new products
• Acting as the face of the brand

You should also note that as you transition to higher positions, the nature of responsibilities would shift from a daily
operational function to a strategic and management function.

Career Outlook for Brand Management

The future for brand management careers is looking very positive and bright. It’s also predicted that brand
management’s job opportunities will grow approximately by 14% by 2022, as more organizations realize the
importance of branding in today’s competitive digital world. Brands are resorting to hiring more of dedicated
professionals to ensure the best for their brand image online.

Product Classification/ consumer and industrial product industry:

A product can be classified on the basis of its tangibility, durability, and usage. The classification of a product
affects the pricing, place, promotion, and distribution policies of an organization.

Now, let us discuss the various methods to classify a product in brief:

i. Tangibility:
Divides products into two types, which are mentioned as follow

a. Tangible Products:
It refers to the products that can be touched and felt. For example, bottle, brush, bed, and mug.
b. Intangible Products:
It refers to the products that can only be felt but cannot be touched. For example, insurance and medical treatments
are the services that can only be felt but cannot be touched.

ii. Consumer-Based Products:

It refers to the products that are consumed by customers and not resold in the market.

Consumer-based products are divided into three different types of products, which are as follows:
a. Specialty Products:
It attracts the attention of some specific consumers based on their interest, hobbies, profession, or tastes. When a
customer has a specific need then he/she is satisfied only with a specific product. In this case, the customer does not
compromise and make more efforts to find the specific product.

For example, if an individual wants Canon camera of 100 megapixels with Electro-Optical System (EOS)
technology then he/she will not purchase any substitute product.

b. Unsought Products:
It refers to the products that are not well known in the market. The customers are highly skeptical of buying those
products. The organizations use various aggressive marketing techniques to sell these products and attract more
customers.

For example, earlier, few customers were aware about EV’s in the world. Now, the organizations aggressively
market this product by appointing various famous celebrities as their brand ambassadors.

c. Shopping Products:
It represents the products that are bought by the customers after a precise study of products’ merits and demerits,
prices, and packaging. For example, before buying a washing machine, a customer will research through different
shops, neighbors, and resources. After research, he/she will buy the best suitable washing machine out of available
options.

iii. Industry-Based Products:

It refers to the products that satisfy the requirements of a particular industry. These are the products or materials
required by the industry to process and deliver finished products to its customers.

These are further classified as follows:

a. Raw Materials:
It refers to the materials that are used in the manufacturing of a product. For example, timber, iron ore, gold, and
tobacco are used to manufacture furniture, building, jewelry, and cigarette, respectively.

b. Capital Products:
It includes the products that facilitate the processing and production of different products. This type of product
requires huge infrastructure and after sales services. For example, forklifts are used by organizations to carry raw
materials.

c. Maintenance and Repair Supplies:

It refers to the products that are required to process and produce a finished product. For example, lubricants and
tools are essential for the maintenance and repair of various industrial equipments.
Product Strategy
What is a Product Strategy?

A product strategy is a high-level plan describing what a business hopes to accomplish with its product and how it
plans to do so. The strategy should answer key questions such as who the product will serve (personas), how it will
benefit those personas, and the company’s goals for the product throughout its life cycle.

Why is Product Strategy Important?

Building out a product strategy before you begin development is necessary because it serves three valuable business
purposes.

1. A product strategy provides clarity for your company.

Your team will be in a better position to deliver their best work when you draft and communicate a clear and well-
thought-out strategy for your organization.

Your developers will understand how the parts of the product they’re working on contribute to the larger
companywide strategic goals. Developers can sometimes feel caught amongst all the details and lose sight of the
overarching purpose behind their work. A product strategy clarifies that for them.

Your marketing and sales teams will be able to articulate the product’s benefits and unique selling proposition.
However, without a defined strategy behind a product—generating anticipation and sales becomes difficult.

Additionally, your customer success team will better understand your product’s use cases and provide better support
for your users’ frustrations.

2. It helps you prioritize your product roadmap.

After you’ve earned stakeholder agreement for your proposal, it will be time to translate that strategy into a high-
level action plan and then build a compelling product roadmap.

Unfortunately, many product teams skip the strategy-drafting stage and jump right into listing themes and epics on
their roadmap. Without a product strategy to guide these decisions, the team may prioritize the wrong items and find
themselves misusing its limited time and resources. When you start with a strategy, you have a clearer picture of
what you hope to accomplish with your product and translate it into a more strategically sound product roadmap.
3. A product strategy improves your team’s tactical decisions.

No organization delivers a product to the market following the exact plan drafted in the initial roadmap. Things
change along the way, and product managers need to be prepared to adjust their plans and priorities to deal with
those changes.

When you and your team have a clear product strategy as a reference point, you can make smarter strategic
decisions about adjusting your plans, especially if you lose resources or need to change your estimated timetables.

What are the key Elements/ Components of a Product Strategy?

1. Product vision

As we discussed above, product vision describes the long-term mission of your product. These are typically written
as concise, aspirational statements to articulate what the company hopes the product will achieve. For this reason, a
product vision should remain static.

For example, Google’s early vision statement for its search engine was, “Organize the world’s information and
make it universally accessible and useful.”

Add bullets to describe each of the outer circles above—competitors, personas, etc. During this exercise with your
team, a picture should emerge of the problem you hope to solve for your market.

2. Goals

A product vision should lead to high-level strategic goals. The goal should be specific mostly stated in digits.. These
goals will, in turn, influence what the team prioritizes on its product roadmap. Examples of product goals include:

• Increase free-trial downloads by 50% in the next 6 months

• Improve our average customer rating by one star on major product-review sites
• Generate $3MM in revenue within 12 months

Using SMART goals is the best approach to utilize when setting goals for your product strategy. Like product
roadmaps, goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Next, add your goals for the product. For each goal, decide on a quantifiable way to track its success and set a
deadline as well.

3. Initiatives

Initiatives are the strategic themes you derive from your product goals and then place on your roadmap. They are
significant, complex objectives your team must break down into actionable tasks. (The product roadmap is, after all,
only the high-level blueprint.)

Examples of product initiatives include:

• Improve customer satisfaction

• Increase lifetime customer value
• Upsell new services
• Reduce churn
• Add customer delight
• Break into new industries or geographical areas
• Sustain product features
• Increase mobile adoption

Create your product initiatives.

Now it’s time to translate your product goals into high-level themes that you can add to your product roadmap. Once
they’re on the roadmap, your cross-functional team will review these themes, break them into detailed tasks, and
begin working on them.

Where Does Product Strategy Fit in the Development Plan?

The product strategy should bridge your product vision and the tactical steps to fulfill that mission.

First, your team will develop the vision for the product. For example: “We will help businesses unlock valuable
information by making their data more accessible and useful.”

(Note: Your team might also choose to draft a separate product mission at this stage. But product vision and mission
are both concise, high-level statements conveying your big-picture aspirations for the product. You can create just
one if you prefer.)

After you’ve settled on this vision, you can then work on the product strategy. This step will involve answering
questions such as:

• Who are our personas for this product? (In the above example, the answer might include business
analysts and database administrators.)
• What problems will our product solve for these personas? (One example: the product will allow users
to easily combine data sets from multiple applications without having to convert formats or copy and
paste.)
• How will our product differentiate itself and win the market? (We have to give personas a visual
interface, with charts and graphs, to help them make more sense of their data than they can with other
tools.)
• What are our near- and long-term goals for this product? (Here, you might set a goal to sign up a
certain number of users within the first two quarters after launch and to capture a percentage of the market
within three years.)

After your team has built out the product strategy, it will be time to translate it into an action plan by prioritizing the
major themes on a product roadmap.

You will then use this roadmap to build a detailed plan, including a product backlog, planning for the development
team’s spirits, and developing a project timeline.

What Are Effective Product Strategy Business Models?

To this point, we’ve focused on the mechanics of developing a product strategy. What about the substance of the
strategy? What types of business or revenue models should a company consider when coming up with its product
strategy?

Here are a few examples of effective models for product strategies.

1. Product-led growth

With the PLG approach, a business focuses on making the product its marketing and sales representative.
In many cases, such as with companies like Dropbox and Spotify, that means making the product free for a certain
level of service and charging only users who want to upgrade to more advanced features. Because they find the basic
service valuable, users tell their coworkers and friends, who also sign up for the product.

In other cases, businesses use the network effect to succeed with product-led growth. Companies like Slack and
Zoom have benefited from this model. Zoom, for example, refocused its efforts early in the pandemic to make its
app more user-friendly for the many new business users who needed it to connect while quarantined at home. The
company also created features for new customers—notably schools—that would have unique needs.

2. Product segmentation

One product strategy proven effective by many companies is to build different versions of a product to meet the
unique needs of different personas.

For example, if you build apps for cybersecurity, you might choose to create a consumer version. The key selling
feature of this app might be that it runs entirely in the background, protecting the user’s data and devices.

Your team might then build an enterprise version targeted at IT professionals, where your key selling points will be
different. In this case, you will make sure the app makes it easy for businesses to comply with data privacy laws.
You will also focus on building an administrator dashboard that gives the IT team a real-time view of its digital
environment security.

3. The lean product differentiator

One viable strategy is to release a product that lets users perform only a single task. The key is to ensure that 1) the
task solves a real problem that your persona is facing, and 2) your product makes completing this task easy.

This strategy can work whether your product has competitors on the market (as Google did with Yahoo!) or you’re
creating a new product category.

In the early days of the web, Yahoo! held the dominant position for an online search. But the company’s homepage
was cluttered with links, buttons, and ads.

Then Google came along with a home page with almost no links, not a single ad, and comprised almost entirely
white space. The only explicit following action on the Google homepage was to type in a search request. We know
who won that competition.

Suppose your product is easy to use and solves a real problem for your market. In that case, making the product as
lean and focused as possible is a great strategy and a valuable product differentiator.

Product in theory and in practice

Demand forecasting for product

Generally, there are four steps in any total-market forecast:

1. Define the market.

2. Divide total industry demand into its main components.

3. Forecast the drivers of demand in each segment and project how they are likely to change.
4. Conduct sensitivity analyses to understand the most critical assumptions and to gauge risks to the baseline
forecast.

But one of the most challenging aspects of running a small business with an inventory is determining how many
products will be sold over the course of a year. Estimate too little and your orders could be backlogged or
canceled. Estimate too much and you can get stuck with products you cannot sell. Finding the right balance and
learning how to measure product demand is an essential skill for any small business owner, regardless of the
industry.

1. Go over past sales records.

One of the most commonly used indicators of current demand is past demand. Add up the total units sold over the
past year and pay attention to any seasonal trends that may be displayed by spikes or dips in the amount of
product sold. The pitfalls with this method are that it doesn't account for changes in the marketplace, competitors'
products or a change in your marketing strategy.

2. Use marketing projections to help determine demand.

If you increased your marketing efforts and planned to add "X" amount of customers per month, your inventory
will need to increase with this amount. Typically you can estimate "X" amount of customers equal to "X" amount
of products sold, plus or minus a few percent in either direction. This method also contains pitfalls, since there is
no way to accurately forecast whether or not you will actually get as many new customers as you expect.

3. Use a competitor's sales data.

This is useful for small businesses that plan to roll out a competitive pricing strategy for a similar product or for
those releasing a new product that they have not yet experienced selling.

4. Pay attention to the local and global economy.

If your local economy is depressed, your local sales will logically decline. The same is true with the global
economy. Periods of economic depression are marked by poor retail sales and this will affect the amount of
inventory you want to have available.

5. Estimate sales on recent performance.

This is helpful for new products that do not yet have a history. When a product first comes out, chances are if the
marketing efforts are working, it will sell well. This will gradually begin to taper off as the newness of the
product wears off. Pay attention to declining sales numbers and adjust your inventory expectations accordingly.

6. Use of a few smart technological tools to find out the online and offline demand for the product.

The Google Keyword Planner Tool allows you to search for keywords to determine how many searches per month
are being made for that term on Google, how much competition there is competing for it and related search terms.
This is a great start point for understanding potential demand. As well as Google Trends display the overall trend for
your keyword it can also show you the top countries and cities that are searching for your particular keywords.

Product pipeline
A product pipeline is a series of products, either in a state of development, preparation, or production, developed
and sold by a company, and ideally in different stages of their life cycle.
At any point in a company's life, the goal is to have some products in the growth stage, which is the key stage for
establishing a product's position in a market, increasing sales, and improving profit margins; and the maturity stage,
which is key to maintaining market share.
Product launching failure

What is Product Failure?

Definition:

Product failure is the product’s inability to establish itself well and persist in the market which could be a result of
poor performance or poor marketing of the product.

Product flops lead to the withdrawal of the product from the market due to different reasons such as

• A product not being able to realize the required market share to sustain its presence in the market
• A product not being able to get the anticipated life cycle as defined by the organization
• The ultimate failure of a product in not achieving profitability at all

Product failures are the state or condition of not meeting the intended objective or expectations of people. This can
be viewed as a failure of the product.

Product failures occur when a new product after its launch fails to gain an adequate amount of sales, leading to its
loss.

When a product does not manage to recover its cost and the amount of money used for its marketing, then the
product is said to be a huge failure. The failure of a product is most often realized in its utilization phase.

Sometimes, products look great on paper before they are actually used but fail to satisfy the expectations of the
customers. When this happens, the organization fails or experiences certain financial trouble that prohibits it from
meeting its profitability objectives.

By analyzing product failures, the organization can plan and implement things that they learned from previous
product failures’ mistakes. The primary aim is to learn from product failures so that product development and
implementation would be more successful in the future.

Common reasons for Product Failures of Existing Products-

Many reasons could lead to the failure of a product. Some of them are

1. Lack of product uniqueness

If a product produced has features exactly as products that are already available, it leads to its failure.

2. High price tag

The price tag factor is one of the biggest reasons for the failure of a product. A product with a very high price is very
difficult to be sold in a market. People prefer alternative products that have a lesser price than high priced products.

3. Poor timing
For a product to be successful, it is important for it to be released at the correct time. If the product is introduced
when the product is not needed, then this leads to the product’s failure.

4. Poor planning
Failure of a company to make plans about every stage of a product’s life will lead to the product’s failure. They
must plan to take care of their customers

5. Lack of promotional measures

It is important to promote or popularize the product in its introduction stage. Failure in doing so would cause a great
loss to the organization.

In addition to these, there are some common instances when a new product flops. Let us have a look at common
reasons behind the failures of new products-

Reasons for new Product Failures

According to some studies by industry, it is estimated that around 70%-80% of the new products fail.

Some of the reasons for the failure of a new product are:

1. The product is too new to the market

When you launch a product for which your target market is not ready, that product flops in performing as per the
expectations for instance virtual boy or google glass.

2. Lack of ample amount of promotion

Lack of promotion can also be a prime reason behind the severe lack in the reach of the product towards
its target niche that will lead to product failures.

3. Difficulty in understanding market basket analysis

When a company launches a product without doing proper and accurate market basket analysis for that product,
product failures occur.

4. Product not meeting customer’s perceptions

For a product to be successful, it is crucial that it meets the perceptions of the target customers otherwise it might
meet the fate of the galaxy note 7 which was a classic case when a good product flops.

5. Products not being sold to customers who need it

To be successful, it is important it is sold to the right people. But, when products are not targeted towards the right
audience, they would ultimately fail.

6. The quality of the product not being good

Products with inferior quality will always struggle to exist and sustain in the market, and they will fail in any case.

7. Failure in understanding customers’ needs and wants

When a product is launched or introduced without the proper understanding of the needs and wants of the target
customers, it fails.

8. Poor execution of the product

When a product is not executed properly by paying heed to all the associated factors, it leads to product failures.
9. Fixing a problem that doesn’t even exist
When a product tries to solve a problem that does not exist or not quite evident to the target audiences, it might head
towards failures.

Examples of Product Failures

Despite the efforts made by the organizations and the marketers, some products eventually fail.

Some of the examples of product failures are

1. Google Glass

Launched in 2013, Google Glass did not last long as long as Google had expected.

Google glass was way ahead of its time. After two years of disappointing sales, Google discontinued the
development of Google glass.

This product struggled due to its high price, low battery life, and privacy concerns. – And that is why Google glass
is in the first place of our top product failures around the world.

2. Kitchen Entrees
Kitchen Entrees which was a frozen meal launched by Colgate was a huge flop.

People naturally link the Colgate name with toothpaste; it was difficult for people to accept a frozen meal with the
Colgate logo. – And that is why it is one of the biggest new product failures.

3. Galaxy Note 7
Launched by Samsung, Galaxy Note 7 was very well received initially.

But there was a serious problem with the phone’s battery. It caught fire on several occasions. Due to this, it was
banned in certain places. Soon Samsung suspended its production.

4. Sony Airboard
Sony Airboard was an iPad that had some interesting features.

It was launched in the year 2004.

After four years from its launch, the product was discontinued because of its high price.

5. Satisfries
Burger King had introduced a healthier alternative for fries.
But it failed to convey the difference to its customers. So the company discontinued these fries less than a year after
they were introduced.

6. Coca Cola
Coca Cola has a list of product failures that deserve to be in this list of product failures. Let us have a look upon
some of those-

a. New Coke
New Coke can be understood as the poster boy for Coca Cola product failures.

In the year 1985, while trying to boost sales and “refresh” its classic soft drink, Coca-Cola retired its tried-and-true
recipe and came up with “New Coke.” But the product was a big flop.

b. Dasani (in the UK)

Dasani water is a Coca-Cola product that works well in the USA but it was a big failure when Coke tried to
introduce Dasani in the United Kingdom.

c. Coca-Cola Blak
It was a coffee-flavoured Coke released in the United States is another example of product failures. It was a drink
that got introduced before its time.

d. Coca-Cola C2
This is again a classic example of a product destined to fail, as its target audience was men ages 20 to 40 but they
ultimately thought that drinking diet soda is a feminine trait.

7. Virtual Boy
Virtual Boy which is Nintendo’s VR headset from 1995 failed spectacularly, and that is why it is one of the most
popular examples of product failures.

The company released the Virtual Boy console but the problem with this Virtual Boy VR handset was that it didn’t
technically count as virtual reality. The virtual boy offered gamers a 3D experience they couldn’t find in handheld
devices or TV screens but it was not up to the mark.

That is why Virtual Boy didn’t click with its target audiences. Ultimately Virtual Boy was discontinued less than a
year after its debut.

With 770,000+ units sold, Virtual Boy is understood as Nintendo’s worst-selling console of all time.

8. Touch of Yogurt Shampoo

The key reason behind the failure of Clairol Touch of Yogurt Shampoo was not being able to explain the product
features adeptly because using dairy products in your hair wasn’t correctly explained too well.

The product was way ahead of its time, as in 1979, using food-based or natural products was not normal.

9. Frito Lay Wow Chips

Wow, chips from Frito Lay didn’t work out the way Frito-Lay was hoping.
The company tried to fry them in olestra instead of oil, but later olestra started leaving some not-so-nice side effects
like diarrhea, stomach cramping, etc. that failed this product.

10. Coors Rocky Mountain

Coors that used to make beer with branding as “cold brewed with pure rocky mountains spring water” came up with
a line of sparkling water in 1990 which was a massive failure.

11. Crystal Pepsi

Crystal Pepsi introduced in 1992-1993 was also an effort to shift the usual brand practice in which Pepsi lost its rich
brown color which turned it into a failed product.

12. Windows Vista

Windows Vista failed because of the significant change Windows made to the kernel and core software.

Microsoft disregarded that fact when it released Windows Vista, different existing software and hardware were not
compatible with Vista.

13. Fire Phone

Two months after the release of the Amazon Fire Phone, it was quite evident that it was a failed product.

Customers gave Fire phone 2.6 out of 5 stars. Reviewers and termed Fire phone as “forgettable” and “mediocre.”

14. Facebook Home

Facebook’s new product for mobile Facebook home was a big flop.

It was built by iPhone users, and it could not serve the Android users who enjoy using features like docs, widgets,
app folders, etc.

15. Arch Deluxe McDonald’s Burgers

In 1996, McDonald’s came up with this new product- Arch Deluxe burger to target urban sophisticates by marketing
it as a Burger with the Grown-up taste.

Despite so much branding and advertising spending, Arch Deluxe burger failed to win the hearts of its audiences and
ultimately it was discontinued in 2000.

16. Frito-Lay Lemonade

After snacking on a bag of Lay’s potato chips, thirst is always there which the Frito-Lay tried to capitalize with a
new product- a drink named Lemonade.

But consumers of the brand always associated it with its salty and crunchy snacks. This lead to the failure of this
product.
17. Microsoft Zune
Microsoft came up with a portable media player that was first launched in November 2006.

It was failed because of bad timing, insufficient marketing, and lack of innovation.

18. Cosmopolitan Yogurt

Cosmopolitan, an international magazine came up with a totally different product i.e. cosmopolitan yogurt that too at
a higher price tag than the competitors.

Lack of competitor analysis, market research, and unfamiliar territory ultimately compelled Cosmopolitan to
discontinue it.

19. General Motors

From 5% market share in the year 2010, GM reached 1% market share in the year 2016.

They could not understand the wants of Indian users. The company was targeting the middle-class market but they
could not understand their preferences for cost-effective, aspirational, and comfortable cars.

How to prevent Product Failures?

Understanding product failures is essential to prevent future failures.

Studying the history of a product helps in the success of the product and thereby the organization’s success. Some of
the measures to prevent product failures are:

1. Product should be in Demand

The organization and marketer should ensure that the product they sell or market is in demand.

2. Product should not have inherent defects

Before the launch of the product, the company must make sure that the product has no inherent defects.

3. Have top-notch product quality

The quality of the product should be high.
4. Get quality certifications
In the case of industrial goods, it is beneficial to get quality certification from the International Standards
Organization.

5. Do not introduce identical products

The company should make sure that identical products are not introduced in the market.

6. Spare parts and service centres should be there in the market

It is important to make the spare parts of the product available in the market at fair prices.