In 2003, before everyone was playing games on their smartphones, Nokia decided to combine phones and gaming. The company expected a better reception to their Nokia N-gage, but it ended up being a total failure. This ‘taco phone’, as some people began referring to it, only managed to reach one-third of its 6 million units in sales.
“Mars Needs Moms” was an utter disappointment for Disney in 2011. The animated film cost $150 million to produce and probably $50 million more went to marketing. The saddest part is that the movie only made only $6.9 million in its debut at the domestic box office.
In 1996, McDonald’s decided to broaden its target demographic by introducing a burger, Arch Deluxe. The mustard-mayonnaise sauce was supposed to appeal to adult tastes. However, even a $100 million advertising campaign couldn’t convince grown-ups to eat the burger. The failed product was soon discontinued, and its marketing campaign is now considered to be one of the most expensive flops of all time.
Built in 1957, Ford invested $400 million in development, manufacturing, and marketing of the Edsel. Ford believed that the Edsel was the “car of the future.” However, once it was unveiled to the public, it failed so badly to appeal to the consumers that Ford ended up losing $250 million. Edsel was taken off the market in 1960 and became an example of how not to market a product.
Released in 1995 and discontinued in 1997, Apple Pippin was directed at the home market as “an integral part of the consumer audiovisual, stereo, and television environment.” Apple produced 100,000 units of Pippin console and only 42,000 were sold. The console was a gaming, web browsing, and educational device that wasn’t appealing to the consumers. The Pippin platform was named for the Newtown Pippin, an apple cultivar, a smaller and more tart relative of the McIntosh apple (which is the namesake of the Macintosh).
Apple licensed the Pippin technology to third-party companies. Bandai Company Ltd. developed the ATMARK and @WORLD models, and focused them on the gaming and entertainment business in Japan, Canada, and the United States.
Gymboree, a children’s clothing retailer, filed for bankruptcy twice, in 2017 and 2019. They had $1.2B in debt due to the cost of opening new stores. They weren’t able to pay it down since performance deteriorated due to heavy competition.
Over 1000 children’s specialty locations opened in the early 2010s between Gymboree, Crazy 8, Carter’s, The Children’s Place, and other smaller brands. The increasingly saturated market became a race to the bottom on price, and Gymboree chose to join that race rather than maintain its previously more premium positioning — despite having smaller format stores and other cost disadvantages.
A women’s basketball league in the late 1970s that couldn’t survive financially.
Launched in 1999, Hot Wheels and Barbie computers came with so many manufacturing issues that it drove the company out of business, with thousands of unfilled orders.
In 1996, General Motors introduced EV1 as the first mass-produced electric car. It was a big hit with consumers and environmentalists. However, six years after the release, General Motors recalled the model, claiming liability and spare parts problems, making quite a few people angry.
Launched in 2013, McDonald’s added Mighty Wings to their menu to lure in more customers. But this new addition failed to succeed. It is believed that the reason for this flop was price, insufficient taste and the appearance wasn’t appetizing enough. Mighty Wings lasted only a year in the market.
