Evidence of Marketing Failure - Essay Example

Marketing INTRODUCTION The 21st century is considered to be an era of marketing, where each and every product in the world is ed to be marketed. Marketing is important for every organization because of the multiple numbers of brands available in the market. Moreover, each and every brand has similar objective of becoming the market leader in the global market area. This has given rise to extreme amount of competitiveness among different brands that are present in the global market. Thus, it is essential for each and every brand to undergo a sophisticated marketing strategy and execute the same, so that the customers become brand loyal. However, it is to be noted that if brands fail to do marketing in the adequate manner and if there is any loophole in the marketing process, then this may lead to drastic fall of the brand. In this regard, there are certain brands in the world that has undergone certain marketing strategies and has drastically failed. Simultaneously, this has significantly affected the brand image of the organization and hence, incurred a tremendous amount of loss (Barney 49-61). The objective of the essay is to compare and contrast the evidences of marketing failure of the present day has taken place in the recent past years. Simultaneously, evaluate the marketing failures and thereby, take precautionary measures for the success of the organization. DISCUSSION Throughout the world there have been several evidences of marketing failures that has taken place in the recent times. This is prominently because of the lack of understanding of the consequences from the marketing strategy. There also have been cases regarding lack of adequate implementations of the strategy that has led to marketing failures and hence, resulted in the drastic fall and loss to the organization. Marketing failure can be significantly observed in case of New York Times in December, 2011. In this regard, the New York Times on that period was about to sent an email to all the customers, who were about to cancel their subscription from New York Times. The email contained about some of the added facilities and discounts from them, so that the organization retains those customers in the long run. The email was required to be sent to 300 of such customers. The task was given to one of the employee of the organization. Unfortunately, the employee unintentionally delivered the email to 8 million customers. Due to this 8 million of the customers demanded discount. It has resulted into a chaos within the organization and all its stakeholders. However, the employee and the organization had taken apologies for sending such kind of emails to its customers. There were some customers who assumed that the mail was sent by some of the hackers and also considered it to be spam. There are some of the customers, who were highly disappointed with the later denial of the discount by the organization. They perceived that despite the loyalty that they had shown to the organization, still they have not received the discount. However, they were also disappointed as the discount was only limited for some of the other customers, who were about to cancel the subscription from the organization. There are also some of the customers that pretended that the offer would only be available to them if they cancel the subscription from the organization. This resulted into a significant number of people cancelling the subscription from the organization. Thus, it resulted into a tremendous loss for the organization. It had also downgraded the brand image of the organization up to an extent due to the loopholes of marketing. In this regard, the primary reason for such a marketing failure is the accidental operation caused by the employee of the organization. Thus, the lesson that can be learned from such type of marketing failures is that the organizations must be careful in every form of its operations and should try to avoid such kind of mistakes in the near future that would result in tremendous penalty to the same (Barney 49-61). Another form of marketing mistakes is evident from Pepsi Co. This was during the phase of entering into the market of China. During the introductory phase in China, they had used several marketing strategies and tools and this had let to the extensive marketing by the organization in the region. However, in the process of marketing its product in China by Pepsi Co. one of the severe mistakes that they had committed had cost them highly. This is the slogan they used in the marketing, this is “Pepsi brings you back to life”. Moreover, in the video of the advertisement there was a pictorial description of a graveyard, where the product Pepsi is giving is life to the ancestral dead people. Although, the complete video advertisement was very interesting and funny and was liked by some of the people, but it had also hurt the sentiments of millions of Chinese people. The advertisement suggests that the product would give life to the dead ancestors, which significantly harmed the religious and cultural beliefs of the people of China. This had resulted in the banning of the advertisement in the mass media in China and hence, the organization had incurred a tremendous amount of loss. Moreover, it had led to the degradation of the brand image of the organization in China. None of the organization would like to face such kind of scenario in the introductory phase in a nation. The primary reason behind the failure of Pepsi Co. in committing such kind of mistakes is the lack of understanding of the impact of such kind of promotional activities. The organization did not have adequate knowledge of culture and religion of people of China. They also did not undergo a proper marketing research regarding the effect of such kind of promotional activities prior to the release of the same. However, such kind of mistakes also creates opportunity for other organizations to undertake a lesson from the same. It is much essential that an organization understands the religion and cultural factors of a country or region before undertaking any form of marketing strategies that is related to the people of the region. Further, it is also advisable that the organization must undertake marketing research program before undergoing any strategies related to the marketing of a product. This aspect would help the organization to understand the needs and changing demand of customers for better market share and profitability (Agarwal 1-136). Another such of the marketing mistake can be observed in case of Coca Cola during 1985. It was the period, when the cold drink companies were in the booming stage. It was prominently because of the two of the giant companies of the world. These are the Coca Cola and Pepsi Co. However, during that period Coca Cola in order to compete with its competitor Pepsi, made certain modification in the product. The product was made sweeter in taste than the previous product. Unfortunately, the new product that is sweeter was not liked by most of the consumers. Instead of the new product the consumers liked the old, which was stronger in taste. This led to the complete rejection of the modified product of Coca Cola and hence, the product remained unsold. On the other hand, the older products were much in demand than the present. The consumers were eager to purchase the same. This demand for the old product of Coca Cola was grasped by some of the dealers and distributors of the same. They took opportunity of this demand and made the limited stock of complete use. They sold the product at a much higher rate as compared to the original price. In the mean time, the limited stock of the older product and the dislike of the new product of Coca Cola have led Pepsi Co. to grasp the opportunity to capture the market. As a result of these, Coca Cola had been facing tremendous amount of threat for its survival in the market. It had also incurred a significant amount of monetary loss for the organization. It had also led to the generation of an issue amid Coca Cola Company, its dealers and distributors in that period who sold the product in a higher price. However, later Coca Cola had been able to recover from such a devastating scenario and able to maintain its position as the leading market share in the soft drinks industry in the world. There are few significant reasons and on account of which the organization incurred such kind of loss and reputation and so also the market share up to an extent during that period. The primary reason is that the organization did not undergo an adequate marketing research before the launch of the new product. Moreover, they did not conduct a market research before the launch of the same. These aspects suggest that they had not undergone a market research in order to understand the taste of the consumer and their preferences. Furthermore, it was also not wise to change the product by the market leader coca cola on account of the new entrant Pepsi. However, this marketing failure was learning for not only other organizations but also Coca Cola Company. The lesson that is learnt is that before undergoing any sort of product modification each and every organization must undergo adequate market and marketing research before implementations any kind of the product modification. Another lesson that can be interpreted from the same is that the existing organizations must not fear the new market entrant or introduction of new product. Moreover, it can be asserted that due to the implementation of proper marketing and learning from marketing failures Coca Cola had still maintains the top position in soft drinks industry (Barney 49-61). CONCLUSION Although in the recent years, the world has seen some of the outstanding marketing strategies that led to success of the organizations. However, there are also some of the dark evidences of marketing that have led to the complete disaster for those organizations. It has been observed that there are several reasons for the failure in marketing. Some of the most evidential reasons include the lack of understanding of the cultural and religious aspect of the targeted region. It also lacks adequate market and marketing research before implementing a new strategy or product. Further, the fear on account of the strategy implemented by the competitors would also lead to the failure of an organization. However, from these marketing failures the organizations and others may also take a lesson regarding proper marketing strategies in order to reach its goals and objectives. Works Cited Agarwal, K. K. “Audience Awareness and Multicultural Communication.” International Journal of Research in Computer Application & Management 1(2011): 1-136. Print. Barney, Jay B. “Looking inside for competitive advantage.” Academy of Management 9 (1995): 49-61. Print. Read More