Marketing Flops

I was viewing an online list of the biggest marketing flops in history, and I can’t help to discuss the ones that really caught my eye. For instance, one of the products was Smith and Wesson Mountain Bikes. When I saw this it just made no sense to me. Smith and Wesson has always made guns. Whatever caused them to believe that mountain bikes from Smith and Wesson would catch on is beyond me. I don’t see how the two are related. I wonder why upper management approved this? After all, gun and mountain bikes consist of target markets that are not even similar to one another. This just didn’t seem logical.

Another item on the list was Microsoft Web TV. This was a service in the mid-1990s that allowed people to get an internet connection through their television set. The reason this caught my eye was because having internet access through your TV is quite popular nowadays. The list states that one of the reasons this product failed is because of extensive customer service issues. I believe that this product’s concept was merely ahead of its time. Technology was not yet sophisticated enough to support such a concept and that is the main reason Microsoft Web TV flopped.

McDonald’s Arch Deluxe sandwiches were also included on this list. When I saw the explanation to this marketing failure it seemed obvious. The McDonald’s Arch Deluxe was meant to be for customers who preferred a more sophisticated sandwich. McDonald’s target market is mainly customers who want a quick burger on the go. This example caught my eye because it was another example of a company trying to venture outside its target market and just ending up with a failed product. Why do companies choose to expand their target market so drastically instead of easing into more closely related products?

Here is the link to the site where the list of marketing flops is located:  http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/top-25-biggest-product-flops-of-all-time/3662621/