In the annals of corporate history, the breadth and scope of missteps are amusing and (often) simply outrageous. From ridiculous products to dumb advertising campaigns, from “funny” business to a crock for your stock, I sincerely welcome you to the unbelievable (but true) world of business debacles.

The first part of our series concerns the wondrous realm of product development. As we’re sometimes led to believe, the corporate executives that come up with these new products are often hailed as geniuses. Unfortunately, in the instances that follow, something went amiss, badly.

Take for example the soft drink that literally exploded onto the marketplace. Positioned as a flavorful alternative to Perrier, in 1983, the Adams Natural Beverage Co., launched (with an $8 million investment) the Napa Natural line of beverages, consisting of four flavors. Each beverage contained 67 percent fruit juice and no preservatives. Only one small problem, however. With such a high percentage of juice, the beverages were fermenting when they landed on the shelves; in short, many cans were bulging and some actually exploded. Needless to say, here was a product that really “took off.”

Another winner came from the folks at Gerber in the early 1970s. Executives at Gerber had correctly discerned the need for creating a line of foods for busy young adults. They named the product line, Singles, and offered such adult dishes as beef burgundy and Mediterranean vegetables. The only problem was the packaging: It was just a larger version of the baby jars.

As you can imagine, how many single adults want to sit in front of their TV sets and relive their infancy. As it turned out, not many.

Introduced in 1985 was Coca-Cola’s new and improved, wonder product, New Coke. The company had spent three years testing and retesting, and, finally, here was the sweeter (and better) replacement.

In the superlative book, The Misfortune500, authors Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo write, “New Coke was met with fury from tens of thousands of Coke lovers who reviled the suddenly sweeter taste of their favorite beverage…For three straight months, Coca-Cola headquarters received about 1,500 phone calls daily and tons of mail from angry protestors.”

And what was the response from corporate headquarters. Coca-Cola’s president (at that time) said to the press, “The passion for original Coke was something that just flat caught us by surprise.” Boy, it’s hard to imagine that people would be upset when you mess with the world’s most popular and recognizable brand…that would be a surprise!

My personal favorites, however, include Revlon’s Private, a male genitalia deodorant that never saw the light of day, and my all-time winner, Gorilla Balls, a protein snack that was literally a mouthful of bad news for the folks at MLO Products.

Stephen Bainton is CEO of Mr. Marketing Group, Inc. and be reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites