You have to learn from your mistakes in order to grow. But the thing is it doesn’t have to be your own you can learn from other’s mistakes too. So why not do so and look at my top picks for some of the greatest marketing disasters in history:-

1. Tata Nano

The dream of providing Indians with their very own car, a noble thought indeed. So, why did such a well-designed people’s car get such a cold response? The answer is below (Look at the tagline)

What’s wrong with calling the most inexpensive car as the world’s cheapest car? You see in India Cars are considered as a status symbol and some care more on what people will think. They are more interested in authority it provides rather than design and built quality. So, the line “cheapest in the world” was not well received and the rest is history.  

Moral:  Be sure to have thorough research on the mindset of people you are targeting.

2. Energizer’s bunny fight

Do these bunnies seem similar to you? You know that is because they are and that is the issue that Energizer faced and they regret it till date.

What happened is that Energizer (another battery company) used a Pink bunny in one of its advertisements (shown in the picture above). Now the problem here was that Duracell already had a Pink bunny mascot of their own.

So, naturally when the Ad was launched people thought it was Duracell’s Ads and their profits doubled while the profits of Energizer was cut to half.

Moral: A cliché statement “Know your competition”.

3. Tropicana’s Packaging Mishap

Here in the image, you are looking at the packaging cover of Tropicana. You may ask how can this be a great disaster? The answer is simple, this change cost Tropicana $50+ Million Dollars in marketing; all of this in a span of 1 Month. Now you know why it made the list.

The reason was Tropicana was fixated in the minds of people as an orange with a straw fitted on it. Tropicana ignored this completely and decided on a design that looks like you are drinking from the fruit directly.

The idea was great but they disrupted the image they had on consumers’ minds and they incurred great losses. In my opinion, If they had just elongated the straw and made it reach near the drinking hole would have fulfilled their new design need and also not messed up the image in people’s minds.

Moral: Remember what is your brand image in the minds of people before making any changes.

“Honorable” mention: Electrolux (Vacuum cleaner)

This was their Ad.  Self-explanatory, right?

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