Here we go:
Number ten: Crystal Pepsi: I was very much involved in Amoco Ultimate, the crystal clear premium gasoline. We even installed a window on the pump so the motorist could see the clear product entering their gas tank. It was very successful and our ration of premium gasoline sales was the envy of the industry.
When Pepsi introduced Crystal Pepsi, we considered a potential trademark lawsuit. Until we tasted the product. It lasted only two years.
Number nine: McDonalds’Arch Deluxe for adults with a taste for a more refined burger. It was introduced in 1996 with a $100 million advertising campaign. Unfortunately, the target market never intended to patronize a fast-food chain with those refined palates. The refinement seemed to be a big chunk of peppered bacon. The Arch Deluxe bombed.
Number eight: Sony Betamax. Many consumers bet on the Beta format based on the Sony brand. In 1976 JVC rolled out the VHS format and the format wars began. The big problem was storage content. Beta could hold an hour and VHS went from two hours to four hours while Beta stayed at an hour. Movies, even then, were longer than an hour. Goodbye Beta.
Number seven: Sony, again. Remember the Sony MiniDisc, or MD, as they were called. Their replacement for cassette tapes. Up against CD’s that could play in many options, the MD went the way of the Beta format. Lose, again, Sony. No wonder Sony has lost so much to Apple, they had bad ideas from the start.
Number six: The United States Football League, from none other than Donald Trump. It began in 1982 with teams in twelve cities. after the first season in 1983 the USFL added six new teams. In 1984 the league decided to go head to head with the NFL, overlapping the NFL schedule. That was the final straw for the USFL with the end of the 1985 spring season.
Number five: Microsoft Windows Vista: It was released in 2007 in January and by April of the same year Microsoft admitted failure and let Dell go back to Xp on new computers. In essence Vista reduced the performance from a computer and didn’t work well with the Internet.
Number four:
With the introduction of the term AIDS by the medical profession, AYDS diet candy seemed to become an inappropriate brand. Wow, it really wasn’t their fault.
Number three: The creepy King:
After using this creep with a head the size of France, the chain dropped him in in 2011 when the sales dropped 7% that year. Was anyone sorry to see him go?
Number two: A tie between:
The infamous Ford Edsel and:
The equally infamous New Coke.
These two will head the list of business school case studies forever. The two biggest brand blunders in U.S. history. Until now.
Recently a new brand has emerged. A recent poll shows that 67% of all Americans detest the brand. The two target markets, poor and young Americans neither plan to buy the brand. The cost to launch this brand has already run into the billions. The developer has delayed the brand introduction for a year because early tests show it will not work. There is no question that this brand will easily replace the Edsel and New Coke as the biggest loser of all time. Funny thing, the sponsor, who put his name on the brand will live with the brand failure as his greatest legacy.
The top worst brand of all time(drum roll), the number one worst brand:
