Marketing Product Failure Research

Kelvinator which ruled Indian refrigerator industry but it lost its place because it fell into a cobweb of ownership issues. Whirlpool did not invest in Kelvinator since it had the rights to the brand only till 1997. So during these years, Whirlpool harvested Kelvinator while developing its own brand. When the brand came back to its original owner, Electrolux did not had the money to build this baby. In 2005, Kelvinator was killed. One brand which failed only due to wrong marketing strategy is Liril.

When the brand was launched the Liril girl became the talk of the town. Liril was positioned on the freshness platform right from its birth. The girl and the waterfall with the unique jingle ensured that the freshness is experienced by the audience. But the brand did not change its position for 25 years. There was a flurry of brand launches during the past 10 years and Liril was sleeping all the time ” may be resting on the laurel. Liril tried to introduce the Icy mint variant very late and that too with a different jingle and imagery.

But it did not work and the product failed. Canada Dry was launched in India in 1995. The brand, from Cadbury Schweppes, was a highly popular brand of soft drinks across the globe. The brand has positioned itself as champagne and the taste was different and refreshing. The brand was also promoted heavily in various media. The ad featuring the snow and tiger brings back the nostalgia about this brand. The brand was positioned as a premium cold drink. But alas; the brand did not last too long in the market.

In 1999 CocaCola took over the beverages business of Cadbury Schweppes and like GoldSpot and Limca. Coke killed this brand. The only reason for Coke to kill these brands was to make way for Coke’s original brands. Vanilla Coke was touted as the greatest innovation since Diet Coke in 1983. Vanilla Coke was promoted in retro style. The brand had Vivek Oberoi , the then Bollywood flame endorsing the brand in an unusual style. Vivek sported the retro look with typical combination of Elvis style plus Shammi Kapoor style in an Old Lamby Scooter screaming Wakaw.

The ads were surely clutter breaking and backed by 360 degree branding efforts that ensured good publicity. The brand also got into viral marketing. But the brand failed due to either bad taste or premium pricing. The failure of Vanilla Coke is a classic case that proves that Marketing is not a perfect science. There is no formula or theory that can make a brand successful. To Quote Kotler “Marketing is easy to teach and understand but difficult to practice”.