We are all do mistakes - we are just human beings, aren't we? We are not perfect and even very experienced people can make wrong decisions. The most important is what we do afterwards - do we leave it behind, with no excuse, or we try make it up, by making a statement " we were wrong, we apologize to all our customers" - anything of that kind would be fine. No business in this world (especially in these turbulent times) can go on without taking a risk and any decision we make, takes risk with it. What I tried to say in other words is - no risk no fun :) No, I'm joking - But let's have a lesson from the "biggest" players in the market - the more influensive and powerful you are - the more you suffer unfortunately...
But before I start talking about European brands, I would like to bring on one American company's blunders. One I came across was about Harley Davidson trying to launch perfumes.
Yes perfumes. Legendary Harley Davidson. How come you may ask? Harley, motorcycles and perfumes? Can you imagine the Harley's customers? They just LOVE their motorcycles no matter how they lack technology or if they sometimes leak. What I see when I think of Harley Davidson is the freedom of the open road, the men with no limits and the rumble... So I was pretty amazed, probably like you are right now. I can understand T-shirts, gadgets, kids wear, even socks but not aftershave or perfume and I guess for Harley owner this extensions was far too much as well. The story goes even funnier - the HD launched wine coolers - not impressive at all. This brand is associated with certain image s like masculinity, rugged values, strength the smell of oil, freedom. The company went to far with its extensions, too far form its core competency which is motorcycles. Fortunately, they understood they mistake early and withdrew the unfortunate products. My point is - why go further than you actually are able to? Why companies forget about their loyal profitable customers and go for inexplicable extensions? Why do you go for a sector that is not even remotely close to what you represent?
Anyway, let's come back to the European brands - they are not much wiser, however they do mistakes at different levels. Here it is - a culture blunder example.
"Nothing sucks like an Electorlux' - have you ever heard of this advertisement? No? I think it's now part of the history - you should know it!
Let me present you the story shortly. This slogan appeared to be very famous and gained Electrolux (reminder: a Swedish household goods producer) lot's of consumers in England. It was so popular over there, the the ad won an award in one of the competitions. The thing is that they didn't like it in America. The Brits sense of humor is one of it's kind. The Americans didn't like the ambiguity of the word "suck" but the Swedish hoped that the double meaning would get them the attention. Partly, they achieved it - they got attention, but not really a good one.
Another mistake that a famous European brand of dried soups - Knorr, has made while introducing its core products to the US.
The company had even conducted market research and asked American consumers if they would be willing to buy the product. The answer was positive - after testing a soup, the passersby, said they would buy it if the product was available However, the sales were very low, after the Knorr dried soups appeared on shop shelves. The company started looking for the "root" of the problem, and they found out that during the testing they didn't say that it takes around 15-20 mins to prepare the soup, and that it requires some stirring as well. If the testers have known that before, they would have shown less interest in buying that kind of soup.
I could talk about the blunders all day long but the point is, what can we learn from those mistakes?
But before I start talking about European brands, I would like to bring on one American company's blunders. One I came across was about Harley Davidson trying to launch perfumes.
Anyway, let's come back to the European brands - they are not much wiser, however they do mistakes at different levels. Here it is - a culture blunder example.
"Nothing sucks like an Electorlux' - have you ever heard of this advertisement? No? I think it's now part of the history - you should know it!Let me present you the story shortly. This slogan appeared to be very famous and gained Electrolux (reminder: a Swedish household goods producer) lot's of consumers in England. It was so popular over there, the the ad won an award in one of the competitions. The thing is that they didn't like it in America. The Brits sense of humor is one of it's kind. The Americans didn't like the ambiguity of the word "suck" but the Swedish hoped that the double meaning would get them the attention. Partly, they achieved it - they got attention, but not really a good one.
Another mistake that a famous European brand of dried soups - Knorr, has made while introducing its core products to the US.The company had even conducted market research and asked American consumers if they would be willing to buy the product. The answer was positive - after testing a soup, the passersby, said they would buy it if the product was available However, the sales were very low, after the Knorr dried soups appeared on shop shelves. The company started looking for the "root" of the problem, and they found out that during the testing they didn't say that it takes around 15-20 mins to prepare the soup, and that it requires some stirring as well. If the testers have known that before, they would have shown less interest in buying that kind of soup.
I could talk about the blunders all day long but the point is, what can we learn from those mistakes?
0 comments:
Post a Comment