Why did they fail?

Sony Walkman in Brief

Designed due to people’s needs for a small tape recorder.

Workers used headphones to listen to music and the Walkman was born.

Sony Walkman in Brief

Previous market research on the launch of Sony’s Walkman indicated that clients did not see the Walkman as a necessity.

Analysts thought that the Walkman would be a failure.

Sony Walkman Failure

With the Walkman, Sony was sure that “listening to music in any intimate and comfortable place” was really an unresolved need, but people thought that it was too costly since they had not seen a gadget like the Walkman before.

Sony Walkman Failure

Sony products have been a big failure after 2006 with success of iPods, Nintendo’s etc.

Some have speculated that Sony's failure to keep up in a segment that the company created was one of the reasons it has given the Walkman such a quiet send off.

Sony Walkman Failure

Since 2005, Sony is worth a quarter less (-24%); Apple, on the other hand, is worth over five times more (+560%).

PEPSI KONA in Brief

Pepsi Kona is a coffee cola that is a mix of "Kona Blend" coffee and their original cola.

The result is a highly carbonated beverage that tastes more like coffee than cola.

PEPSI KONA Failure

Product development needed better market research other than the statistic of coffee drinkers.

Pepsi Kona was only test marketed for a short time in a limited area. Pepsi used the Philadelphia, PA plant to produce for the local area. This was never shown or distributed beyond there and one other bottling plant in the US.

Coca-Cola Blak in Brief

Coca-Cola BlaK was a coffee-flavored soft drink introduced by Coca-Cola in 2006 and discontinued in 2008.

It was launched on the purpose it is an energy drink and it was a product that kids in high school and college buy to stay awake while studying for exams.

Coca-Cola Blak Failure

The poor coffee-to-Coke ratio. It taste didn’t liked by the customers; moreover the high amount of caffeine tends the potential customer not liking it. Also the parents never recommend it for there children.

Coca-Cola Blak Failure

The packaging of the Coca cola BlaK was not even impressive as it used to come in a short, skinny, 8-ounce glass bottle covered with a complete plastic over wrap that obscures the view and makes the bottle feel cheaper than it should.

Failure of Carbonated-Coffees

It was suggested that consumers may love their coffees or their colas but they do not want a combination.

New Coke in Brief

Coca-cola was losing market share not only to Pepsi but also to some of the drinks produced by the Coca-Cola company itself, such as Fanta and sprite.

Something clearly had to be done to secure Coke’s supremacy. They launched an advertising campaign in 1984, praising Coke for being less sweet than Pepsi.

New Coke in Brief

The impact of such efforts to set Coca-Cola apart from its rival was limited. Coke’s share of the market remained the same while Pepsi was catching up.

The problem, as Coca-Cola perceived it, came down to the product itself. As the Pepsi Challenge had highlighted millions of times over, Coke could always be defeated when it came down to taste.

New Coke in Brief

So in what must have been seen as a logical step, Coca-Cola started working on a new formula. A year later they had arrived at New Coke.

The Atlanta-based company conducted 200,000 taste tests to see how the new product fared. The results were overwhelming. Not only did it taste better than the original, but people preferred it to Pepsi-Cola as well.

New Coke in Brief

However, if Coca-Cola was to stay ahead of Pepsi-Cola it couldn’t have two directly competing products on the shelves at the same time. It therefore decided to scrap the original Coca-Cola and introduced New Coke in its place.

‘the biggest marketing blunder of all time’

New Coke Failure

As soon as the decision was announced, a large percentage of the US population immediately decided to boycott the new product.

Sales of New Coke were low and public outrage was high at the fact that the original was no longer available.

New Coke Failure

It soon became clear that Coca-Cola had little choice but to bring back its original brand and formula.

‘We have heard you’

New Coke Failure reasons The majority of the tests had been

carried out blind, and therefore taste was the only factor under assessment.

Throughout most of the last century, Coca-Cola capitalized on its ‘original’ status in various advertising campaigns so by launching New Coke, Coca-Cola was therefore contradicting its previous marketing efforts.

New Coke Failure reasons

They focused on product only, not the brand.

They neglected the emotional value of coke to Americans.

Surprisingly…

When Coca-Cola re-launched its original coke, redubbed ‘Classic Coke’ for the US market, the media interest swung back in the brand’s favour. Within months Coke had returned to the number one spot and New Coke had all but faded away.

Another Opinion

Certain conspiracy theorists have even gone so far as to say the whole thing had been planned as a deliberate marketing ploy to reaffirm public affection for Coca-Cola. After all, what better way to make someone appreciate the value of your global brand than to withdraw it completely?

Recommendations

A good marketing research is required before producing any new product so as to link all the customers’ needs to marketers.

Research must not only to care only about the product or to care about one point, but it must care for the brand itself.

Recommendations

Research must include all previous trials to produce a new product so as not to make the same faults.

Competitors must be regarded in the researches, but not more than the customers’ themselves.

Packages are important parts of the marketing mix that must be considered.

Prepared By

Amr Rageh Mina Magdy Mohamed Hussein George Moheb Ahmad Kamal