Marketing Strategies That Failed Spectacularly

Behind every

marketing

campaign is a team of executives, fact-checkers, art directors, and more. You'd think this would result in well-planned and well-executed

strategies

every time, but of course,

marketing

teams are only humans and humans can be really dumb like this. Examples show that sometimes even the biggest dogs in the game can have a swing and a big, expensive mistake number 10. Snapple's complicated situation in June 2005. Snapple decided that the best way to get attention for its new product of kiwi and strawberry popsicles all night was going big. Snapple took on the previous Guinness Book of World Records holder for the largest pallet by building a seventeen and a half ton pallet.

The tasty monolith was built in New Jersey and transported to New York in a freezer truck. Kept at -15 degrees Fahrenheit upon arrival, the pallet was hanging over East 17th Street and Manhattan by a crane at some point in the process, however, the core of the pallets had melted, this meant that when the crane lifted them into the air, the soft, sticky innards flooded the streets, pedestrians reportedly slipped in puddles, and the mixture became increasingly stickier in the summer. Sol authorities were called in for the cleanup which Snapple then paid for leaving the entire ordeal nothing short of a total disaster.

We'll never find out why the paddle didn't hold its solid shape, but it was probably a combination of an initial incomplete freeze from the burning sun and a marketing team with more money than brain number 9 brought out the old mobile in 1988, an American automobile brand produced by General Motors decided to take the old phone off their old namesake and show that they were now cool, while brand rejuvenation is often a success it all depends on smart approaches to new markets unfortunately, adopting the campaign slogan is not the Your father's Oldsmobile was not the smartest choice the accompanying ads featured a typical 80's heavy synth jingle as well as artsy shots of young people to desperately and clumsily appeal to the new generation, it

failed

miserably as the car in itself had barely changed at all, meaning kids weren't interested, while loyal customers who had enjoyed the Oldsmobile in the past were alienated by fear that the car they loved now had changed somehow over the decade. next Oldsmobile became obsolete great job Oldsmobile not frequent alienating both potential markets at once number eight frequent flyers in the 1980s Airlines were hit hard by new Regulations tighten competition and the changing face of the airline business airlines in an attempt to attract attention and thus make a profit.

American Airlines announced the unlimited airline pass that for the mere sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would entitle the bear to free flights for everyone else. Over its lifetime, twenty-eight people took advantage of this arrangement before Americans realized that rising operating costs and overzealous use of the passes meant that the two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar one-time fee was not, in fact, profitable. soon began losing money, people contributed to this loss more than anyone, a shock vrooom and Steve Rothstein, the two held passes until July 2008, when American calculated that their flights, which total millions of miles each year , they cost the company a million dollars each a year.

Rothstein was even noted to have made regular trips across the Atlantic simply to grab a bite to eat with friends, soon American Airlines began stripping customers of their unlimited passes and their airports in a very public manner, resulting in costly legal proceedings, as well as a permanently tarnished reputation like that of a current airline pass. allows on-demand rides at a reduced price, but unfortunately endless free rides to Chicago just for a slice of pizza are not allowed. The British Hoover Vaccums made a similar mistake in 1992, when they launched a promotion offering two free round-trip flights to Europe with a purchase of more than pounds.

It was expected that the purchase would come from the various loopholes in the fine print and the profitable extras that travel agents were encouraged to push when the first promotion went well. Hoover began offering flights to New York or Florida in the same scheme that this meant for the purchase of Hoover's customers, quite inexpensive, could get flights worth over six hundred pounds, the promotion became much more popular than anticipated. and Hoover was only able to deliver a fraction of the tickets after shelling out £50m for the free flights, while only generating £30m in sales Hoover bled another £7m to quell the PR damage, just like its famous products .

Hoover's marketing team really sucked. Number 7. Find the difference. IKEA has franchises around the world, but some countries' approaches to flat mega stores are noticeably different. IKEA Saudi Arabia was caught in October 2012 for publishing catalogs that were identical to all the others except women's ones, it was completely removed across the board. Advertising featuring women is rare in Saudi Arabia due to cultural standards and Starbucks even replaced its mermaid logo with a crown in order to thrive there. but whether politically correct or not, IKEA, a company founded in Sweden, one of the most progressive countries in the world, was accused of putting business interests before women's rights or maybe women really don't exist in Saudi Arabia, surely a catalog wouldn't lie.

There are six weapons of mass distribution in much of the United States, as well as throughout Canada. Brass knuckles are illegal; instead, people are generally encouraged to hit each other the old fashioned way. Electronic Arts must have overlooked that 2009 memo when a shipment of press kits for their godfather: video game came under fire for its questionable content, that content of course featuring shiny brass knuckle sets when they realized that they had actually committed a crime by sending them. EA quickly pulled back the knuckles, but not before causing a very public disaster. and some very indignant mothers, as if soccer moms needed more reasons to believe that video games cause violence, fortunately for him the mistake had no consequences in the form of losses, but he had become the godfather of public relations disasters of the number five games without problems with a Treasure hunts with explosive flavors are very fun and healthy, well, it turns out that when the clues are kept in briefcases abandoned in public places, the authorities tend to take the search very seriously in 2014 Coors Light Canada sponsored a Toronto-wide scavenger hunt called Search and Rescue.

A fun-in-the-sun-themed publicity stunt involved hiding fellow 880-priced briefcases all over the city with clues and maps posted on Twitter each day, the search went smoothly until the prize briefcase abandoned at an intersection called The attention of the bomb squad due to its suspicious nature, the briefcase launched an investigation that stopped the overnight travel of hundreds of angry people residing in Canada issued a public apology, but many Canadians publicly renounced the brand and decided to look for a snack. light elsewhere in the future number four tasteless soft snack in 1971 coke wrote the political waves free and loved teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony the voices came together they drank coke and came for a unified Earth in 2017 Pepsi tried to repeat this principle by marching model Kendall Jenner, 21, through the crowd of protesters to symbolically solve All the social problems of the modern world by offering Pepsi police officers voices emerged in anger immediately after a daring advance to In the wake of black lives mattering the hashtag me to the movement and the calamitous social unrest, almost everyone was offended that Pepsi was next to a fairly rich girl from the valley.

The famous fir tree was able to hijack serious social problems in such a deaf way all over the world. Angry people were left wondering if Pepsi could really be that oblivious or if they were making people angry on purpose. Here's an inbox full of outrage. Pepsi pulled the ad and publicly apologized meanwhile the social movements N referenced continued somehow unresolved by Pepsi's always-too-early number three sales in 2016 Texas company Miracle Mattress learns the hard way that it's better leaving deeply offensive humor in the hands of comedians trying to profit from a national tragedy. The store owners released an ad showing towers of twin mattresses stacked in the background.

The ad asks what better way to remember the 911 than with a twin tower sale. This bold opening is followed by two employees diving into the towers while saying never forget instead of increasing sales. her antics put the company out of business almost immediately despite several public apologies, they really should have slept on their dumb idea before jumping into bed with her. number two. Pepsi points panicked in 1996. Pepsi came up with a not terribly original but easy to follow royalty. Customers of the scheme can earn points by purchasing Pepsi products. Different products had codes that had different point values.

After accumulating the points, they could be redeemed for prizes such as t-shirts, sunglasses, and other random items with the Pepsi logo. A Pepsi Stuff commercial that aired during the Super Bowl in 1996 announced that 7 million points could be redeemed on a full-fledged Harrier jet, complete with custom Pepsi styling. Pepsi carelessly assumed that no one would want to listen to its jet or bother racking up that many points, but as you probably guessed, a 21-year-old business student named John Leonard decided to take Pepsi up on its offer, since the bottles usually earned a single point. He could have bought seven million and used it, but that would have cost at least a couple million dollars and drinking as much Pepsi as he wanted.

Make sure you become diabetic. He discovered that Pepsi points could be purchased for 10 cents each and found this method to be a comparatively cheap way to acquire a fighter jet. Leonard presumably had plans to sell the plane, since it is worth a few million dollars. The endless war with Coca-Cola could have been the end game and Leonard gathered a handful of investors and sent 15 Pepsi Point labels along with a check for $700,000 for the Harrier jet to Pepsi headquarters. Pepsi rejected the offer, and executives were baffled that they needed to explain that the ad was a joke.

Thank you became a lawsuit, but the criminal Pepsi favored the court ruling that no objective person could have reasonably concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier airplane; However, as a protective measure, Pepsi changed the commercials so that the plane's 700 million points were required before the biggest errors were revealed. There are a couple of details from the Facepalm war that deserve an honorable mention. First of all, an exceptional case of what they were thinking. I'm talking, of course, about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's virtual reality tour of Puerto Rico after the devastating hurricanes. In 2017, the stunt was intended as a way to announce Facebook's million-and-a-half million relief effort and work with the Red Cross, but Suck isn't exactly known for being a PR guru during the livestream.

Marc's smiling, laughing virtual icon wandered off to play. his dog and could be seen high-fiving his co-host as real people in the background struggled to survive the flooding and devastation. It seems Mark's control over reality is purely virtual these days. This advertisement is also found in a Berlin subway station. Popular and controversial through its Photoshopped English translation. This funeral home and supposedly the job of the administrative guard. The German advertising team. Young von Matt jokingly suggests readers help the business by hopping on the subway tracks despite its controversial nature. Bergman & Son Funeral Home. It received positive feedback from the set, so it's just an honorable mention.

Still, this could have easily been train wreck No. 1. The cost of gluttony. A sure way to fail

spectacularly

is to underestimate hungry Americans in 2003. Red Lobster made that same mistake back then. The chain's president, Edna Morris, assumed that running an all-you-can-eat promotion would be a great way to rebrandlife to the Red Lobster brand; However, AHA, the economical sea creatures, chose snow crab legs as a promotion. Centrepointe unfortunately in 2003. Snow crabs were scarce and expensive due to overharvesting in previous years, but either unaware of the high price of the generally cheap crab or driven by some kind of deep-seated hatred of crustaceans, Etna became held firm with the snow crab, Edna had succeeded. with all-you-can-eat promotions at the steakhouse chain and assumed the formula could be transferred from the territory to serving for as little as 20 2.99 customers, unfortunately, they could gorge on Krabby goodness and hadn't realized that the fillet was much more satisfying than the crab.

The average customer ate two dozen legs per sitting and many returned for a fourth helping, helping out far more than the amount anticipated per customer, not only at the time, but cracking crab legs to eat is time-consuming, meaning Customers hog the tables for hours. News of the fiasco caused a 12% drop in the stock prices of red lobster parent company Darden, plus a skyrocket in already high snow crab prices, and the promotion was a Total and costly disaster. Edna, the scourge of snow crabs everywhere was cast into the deep. blue sea of ​​unemployment, while Red Lobster narrowly avoided sleeping with the fishes, so your forehead hurts from bombing some of these business mistakes and you ran into even worse marketing mishaps, let me know in the comments section next, thanks for watching.