Innovation Gone Bad — 25 Product Failures to Remember

Let's face it, launching new products is difficult but when product innovation is one  of the ways corporations can stay competitive in rapidly changing marketplaces, calculated risks are necessary. That's part of the reason that the most heavy-hitting names in business from Nintendo to Netflix, Microsoft to McDonald's have brought many misguided products into the marketplace -- where they've crashed and burned.

Research firm CB Insights has reviewed a ton of flop products and ranks some of these stinkers as the absolute worst of all time.


25. Trump Steaks, Donald Trump (2007)

Yes, we have Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump University, Trump Casinos, and the Trump Board Game amongst many other of his products & brands but perhaps one of the biggest "misteaks" (see what I did there) was Trump Steaks. The Donald kicked off his “world’s greatest” line of premium steaks in 2007. However, consumers didn't agree with the description 'great'. The product was discontinued after just two months for sales failures.


24. Evian Water Bra (2005)

As one of the best-known brands of purified water in the world, Evian occupies an enviable position in the broader beverage industry. In 2005, the company decided to diversify by manufacturing a support brassiere that could be filled with water.  The garment’s primary purpose was to offer women a cooler alternative to traditional bras during hotter months. It also featured a small pouch that could hold a bottle of mineral water.


Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bra failed to catch on and was discontinued shortly after its introduction.


23. DeLorean DMC-12, DeLorean Motor Company (1981-83)

The DeLorean sports car had a starring role in the classic Back to the Future films — but despite its fame, the car tanked along with the American auto industry in the 1980s. Although the stainless steel body and gull wing doors were the definition of cool, DeLorean owners complained that the cars were not as powerful as they looked. Only 9,000 of them were made by 1983 and fun fact, one of them sits on jack stands in my parents garage!

22. MySpace (2005)

OK, I know you will all comment about the fact that MySpace still exists but this isn’t the same pioneering MySpace that helped spawn social media from what seemed like a few dark basements. This is the MySpace that helped shape the digital marketing age of today, catalyzing the success of Facebook even more when it relinquished its title as the most popular social media network to it.

MySpace went from the most visited website in the world in 2006 to losing 10 million unique users in just one month in 2011. It pivoted itself as the leading social network before reinventing itself as a music-focused network for new artists and less “personal business.” It hasn’t seemed to work since then.



21. Kitchen Entrees, Colgate (1982)

In 1982 Colgate came up with the weirdest brand extension idea. They decided to sell frozen dinners. This plan backfired, probably because consumers couldn't help but think that the Colgate food tasted just like their toothpaste. No company launches a product thinking that it will decrease sales of their other products, but Colgate should've seen it coming. Their toothpaste sales plummeted after the launch of the kitchen entrees line.

20. Qwikster, Netflix (2011)

Just as Netflix’s streaming service was beginning to take off, CEO Reed Hastings hit upon a plan to wring more money from consumers who wanted to continue receiving DVDs in the mail a la the service’s original process. His solution: rebrand the mailing option as “Qwikster” and require users to register (and pay) for both services. It was a PR nightmare and the idea was dropped weeks later.


19. Premier Smokeless Cigarettes, RJ Reynolds (1989)

What a novel idea, right? RJ Reynolds Tobacco invested $325 million into manufacturing their new Premier line which, according to the CEO of the company "tasted like sh*t". It's no surprise people didn't buy them.


18. FourLoko, Phusion Projects/Drink Four Brewing Company (2005)

This one was an unfortunate hit with hard-partying youths: booze and caffeine. It kept you drunk and wired for as long as you could stomach the dangerous beverage, which put more than a few consumers in the hospital. Maybe not technically a flop, because sales of the “blackout in a can” spiked when the FDA banned its original booze-and-caffeine formula (savvy consumers and speculators alike hastily stockpiled remaining cans) and the company released a caffeine-less formulation (currently available), it’s nonetheless a cautionary tale about over-innovating (and over-consuming).


17. Cheetos Lip Balm, Cheetos (2005)

Obviously an ex-employee at Frito-Lay decided it would be a great idea to launch a Cheetos' flavored lip balm. Even those of us who have never tried Cheetos can understand why this idea flopped.


16. LaserDisc, Philips (1978)

Betamax vs. VHS might have had a chance of going the other way, but LaserDisc never seemed to have a shot. These big, bulky proto-DVDs were more expensive than VCRs and studios just weren’t pressing content onto them.


15. Arch Deluxe McDonald's (1996)

It's been considered one of the most expensive product failures in McDonald's history, primarily due to the $100 million marketing campaign that accompanied it. Targeted to McDonald's adult customers, but it never found an audience. 


14. Betamax, Sony (1975)

Sadly, I owned one and personally felt it was superior the VHS decks. Despite having better quality recordings, when Betamax and VHS went toe-to-toe, only VHS caught on with manufacturers. VHS players were cheaper to produce, which appealed to consumers. Tape length was also an issue: from their release in 1976, VHS tapes could hold two hours, meaning that most movies could fit on one tape; Betamax was capped at an hour in 1975 (only expanded to two in the early 80s). These issues and a host of other challenges contributed to an uphill battle that Betamax eventually lost.


13. Satisfries, Burger King (2013)

When people eat French fries, they aren’t expecting health food. Burger King though they could change that by making “Satisfries” in 2013, which were made with less fat. Execution fell flat, with consumers reporting that they had a tougher outer coating and a drier texture. Fail!  


12. The Apple Newton (1993)

The very first personal digital assistant (PDA) was groundbreaking when it was released in the early ‘90s, but the Apple Newton tried to do too much too soon.


The first device to move the computer out of the office, it had a stylus and could be used to take notes, store contacts and manage calendars using intelligent natural voice recognition. Jobs himself reputedly hated it, saying of the device’s stylus input device: “God gave us ten styluses … let’s not invent another.”


11. Crystal Pepsi PepsiCo, (1992)

Sad to say but even an over-the-top Super Bowl commercial featuring Van Halen’s “Right Now” couldn’t make this drink a success. Alas, while Crystal Pepsi looked clear, its mission was not. Consumers expecting it to taste like a seltzer or a citrusy drink were instead surprised to find it was flavored like a cola.


10. Gerber Singles, Gerber (1974)

In the 1970s, convenience foods like Jell-O salad, canned cheese and Spam were all the rage, and Gerber wanted in on the action. So, the baby food company created single-serving jarred meals for adults. Fail!!  Thankfully my parents never brought any and I can keep my fond memories of Space Sticks & Tang.



9. Google +, Google (2011-2019)

Google+ isn’t the only social outing on this list from the search giant, but it’s probably the highest-profile disappointment. A closed launch made invites a hot commodity for about a week. Then Google discarded their restrained invitation model, throwing open the doors in an attempt to build a user base that never lived up to their expectations of creating a possible Facebook competitor. Google+ was shuttered permanently on April 2, 2019.


8. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Atari (1982)

In the early 1980s, a videogame based on Stephen Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark became a huge hit for Atari. When Spielberg's next film, E.T., became a box-office winner, Atari got the call to gamify it, too. The company spent $20M securing the movie rights, built the notoriously-hard-to-play game in just five and a half weeks and of the 4 million units sold, 2.5 million were returned, and an untold number ended up in a landfill.

7. Hoverboards, (2015)

In 2015 hoverboards seemed like the next big thing, until they started exploding. Thousands of hoverboards from at least eight brands were recalled in 2017 because the lithium-ion batteries in the devices caught fire. So why is one still in my sons room... don't ask! 

6. Galaxy Note 7, Samsung (2016)

Since we're on the topic of explosive, had could I go with out mentioning the hot failure that everyone was talking about in 2017 - the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. It lasted less than a year in the market after Samsung had to recall around 2.5 million phones, due to complaints of overheating and exploding batteries.

5. EZ Squirt Ketchup, Heinz (2006)

In 2000 Heinz decided to add an unexpected twist to their ketchup to catch children's attention. They came up with Ez Squirt colored ketchup which came in three main colors: teal, green, and purple... Gross!! Oddly the idea wasn't meant to last on the market. Who woulda thunk?


4. Office Assistant Clippy, Microsoft (1990s)

Clippy is described by some as one of the worst user interfaces ever developed. Clippy was designed to pop up whenever the software thought that the user needed help and managed to annoy quite a few people. After Microsoft acknowledged it's unpopularity, they decided to remove the feature.


3. WOW! Chips Frito-Lay (1998)

In the late 1990s, Frito-Lay realized that consumers wanted a low-fat snack to replace potato chips made with oil. Enter WOW! Chips made with Olestra. What a concept, a potato chip that literally slides right through you! People soon realized the terrible downsides, including the horrible stomach pain and other unmentionable gastrointestinal effects of eating indigestible food. Only two years after Wow! Chips were released, sales were in the "crapper" and the product was discontinued.

2. Ben-Gay Aspirin, Pfizer (1990s)

Ben-Gay, best known for its topical pain relief gels, attempted to branch out beyond its core product in the mid-‘90s by producing its own aspirin.


Ben-Gay Aspirin lacked the icy-hot sensation of the company’s balm, but the association was too powerful in the minds of American consumers, and the product ultimately failed.

1. The Edsel, Ford (1957)

At the heart of any big flop lies high expectations. Oddly enough, car buyers didn't purchase the Edsel, because it was a bad or ugly car. They didn't buy it because it didn't live up to the expectations the company created in the prior months with the epic advertising campaign. So actually the first failure occurred for the Ford Edsel before anyone even saw the automobile.


Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments and see plenty more here - https://www.cbinsights.com/research/corporate-innovation-product-fails/?utm_source=CB+Insights+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2ac34be44a-newsletter_general_Wed_20190925&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dc0513989-2ac34be44a-86654437