Know-How Exchange : Other

new Coke comes to mind

Chevy Nova in Mexico
(“No va” apparently means "won't go” in spanish

In my grad school marketing class we learned about Levi's attempt to market dressier suit separates in the 1980's (this was an experiment that pre-dated the Dockers brand). Levi's went through the effort to do a focus group before launching the line. The focus group told Levi's that they associated the brand with casual / work clothes, and would not buy suites with the Levi's label. Levi's ignored the advice, launched the line as Levi's and it failed miserably. Years later Dockers gained traction because it didn't step up too high and it created a separate identity.

Nike got a lot of flak for their campaign "you don't win the silver, you lose the goal" before the 1996 olympics -- it was received by much of the world as American arrogance, which is something Nike would want to avoid, being a global brand.

The most recent example of a marcomm fail (though any news is good news, right?) is Kenneth Cole's #Cairo mess, where they inserted themselves into a global event via Twitter and got reamed (and tons of free press) for it. HBR.com had a blog post about it. it's a long url but search for HBR blogs and Kenneth Cole Cairo, you'll find it.

You haven't looked very hard, have you?

If you were to Google the exact term "Marketing gone wrong" you'd see 109,000 results.

Here's a link: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1047&bih=910&q=%22Marke...

Here are just a few pieces of marketing fubarism:

New Coke.

John Kerry and Al Gore's presidential campaigns.

Infiniti cars where they refused to show the car.

The revamped Gap logo from last year.

BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon in Puget Sound.

Most European cars (missing a huge market here in the US).

Microsoft's famous "Blue Screen of Death" at the Windows 98 Conference.

The Ellen Feis Apple Switch ad.

And the 2007 Boston bomb scare caused by lord knows how many LED signs that were designed to promote the television program Aqua Teen Hunger Force that were mistakenly identified as explosive devices.