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In his quest for truth and higher knowledge, our faithful correspondent DAVID MENZIES gleans insight into some of the greatest product flops in history from the proprietor of the world-famous New Products Showcase and Learning Center in Ithaca, N.Y.
In the quiet college town of Ithaca, N.Y., not far from that bastion of higher learning, Cornell University, sits the New Products Showcase and Learning Center. The grey, bunker-like building, located in a dreary industrial park, has all the appeal of a nuclear fallout shelter. Yet such an unglamorous facade makes for appropriate imagery given that many of the 80,000 items tucked away within the building are some of the biggest consumer product bombs ever unleashed upon an unsuspecting public. Who can ever forget such whiz-bang zingers as ToFitness Tofu Pasta? Or Cucumber Antiperspirant Spray? Or how about Male Chauvinist Aftershave? Actually, everyone has forgotten these not-so-fabulous failures. Which is precisely the point.
Much like the entertainment Hollywood churns out, there are always far more consumer product flops than blockbusters in any given year. This was a truism observed a long time ago by marketing consultant Robert McMath, who, along with his wife Jean, serve as the proprietors of America's hall of fame for fiascos and flops. After all, if it weren't for McMath, the supermarket flotsam and jetsam of the past 30 years-from aerosol ketchup to chocolate-covered Ritz crackers-would be long forgotten. As to why such a collection exists in the first place, McMath is quick with a quip: "I'm a Scotsman-I don't throw anything out."
One could write a book about the last three decades of consumer product stinkers-and the reasons why they stunk. And indeed, McMath and journalist Thom Forbes did precisely that in 1998 with What Were They Thinking? It is a tome that should be required reading for marketers the world over. (McMath also makes a comfortable living by advising marketing executives-both big and small-on the various pitfalls they must avoid when it comes to launching new consumer products. Pity those who do not heed his advice.)
McMath says up to 25,000 new consumer products are unveiled in North America each year. Typically, the fervent dream of the developers and the marketers behind these products is to...