The Ford Pinto🚘
When Ford launched the Pinto model in Brazil, they were perplexed by the lack of sales. Little did they know, "Pinto" is slang for small willy in Portuguese, which wasn't exactly the best name for a car in a market where prospective buyers were mostly male.
The lesson here is simple: names matter. If you're planning to sell overseas, double-check the local translations of your product's name.
Dasani🚱
Coca-Cola launched their popular Dasani bottled water brand in the UK in 2003, spending considerable sums on advertising the bottled water as ‘Spunk’. Unfortunately, they didn't do their research, as "spunk" is English slang for semen. Unsurprisingly, most people weren't interested in drinking a bottle of "bottled spunk."
But that wasn't their only blunder. They also tried to position the product as a premium offering, using technical jargon that few people understood. This annoyed their water supplier, Thames Water, so much that they publicly stated Dasani was no different from tap water. As a result, Coca-Cola lost millions of dollars and removed Dasani from sale in the UK.
The lesson? Check your product names for local translations, and make sure you can back up your claims with facts. Don't overcomplicate things with technical jargon that nobody understands.
Tropicana 😕
In 2009, Tropicana refreshed its packaging design, believing it needed a change. However, the new design was so radically different that it caused immediate confusion, resulting in a 20% drop in sales. Tropicana had to do an embarrassing u-turn a few weeks later, showing that sometimes, it's best not to mess with a winning formula.
The lesson learned here is that brand refreshes are tricky to get right. Generally speaking, an evolution is often more effective than a revolution if you want people to still recognize your product, especially if it's already popular and well-loved.
Juicero 🍊
Juicero was a much-hyped Silicon Valley company founded in 2013 that raised $120 million in funds under the claim of innovation and disruption.
Unfortunately, they produced an expensive product that had no real user case. People found it hard to justify the cost when they could buy fresh juice much more cheaply. A 2017 Bloomberg report revealed that the juice bags could be squeezed by hand and didn't require the Juicero machine.
The lesson? It's best to run small experiments to test the validity of your idea before going all-in. Don't get too caught up in the hype of innovation and disruption. Instead, focus on creating a product that meets a real need and offers genuine value to your customers.