New Coke wasn’t bad as a product.
What was bad was getting rid of original Coca-Cola, instead of just introducing New Coke as a complementary product. That’s where the stupid got really thick.
I mean, they could have kept their existing market share, and maybe siphoned off some Pepsi market share with New Coke. If not, then it might have been costly, but nowhere near what they experienced.
The M&M guys: “No, you can’t use our candy in your little space movie.”
Some argue it was all part of a plan to re-popularize Old Coke and thus taken in toto it was a great decision.
Funnily enough, that was exactly what they did after they reintroduced Coke Classic. New Coke didn’t completely go away, they rebranded it as “Coke II” and sold it alongside Coke Classic in some markets for many years.
I’m sure the reason they didn’t do that in the first place was because it also would have taken some sales from original Coca-Cola. That doesn’t seem like a big deal now; it’s all from the same company, but at the time it was really important to them to have one beverage that was the most popular soft drink. If their sales were split between old Coke and New Coke, then Pepsi would be able to legitimately claim that they were the most popular.
Ford shot themselves in the foot when, to save a few bucks, they canceled chip orders:
Oh, speaking of Ford, no one has mentioned has mentioned Edsel yet. I don’t think any more needs to be said, as Edsel is pretty much the poster child of bad business decisions.
And then a few decades later there was their Merkur brand, which was just as short lived.
If you do not want to read the brief article:
Worst Mergers:
The AOL Time Warner merger was brilliant from the point of view of AOL, as the AOL part ended up being worth virtually nothing, but with Time Warner they had a valuable asset.
Talking of Google they could have bought Tesla for $6 billion (now worth close to a trillion) but dilly-dallied:
And another car one – GM’s Saturn brand. I’m not saying Saturns were bad cars; I used to have one and I liked it well enough. But it was a bad business decision because GM spent a ton of money developing a completely new line of cars, building a new factory, and setting up new dealerships. Yet Saturn never really achieved its stated goal, making GM more competitive against its Japanese rivals. And I’m not sure if Saturn ever really recouped all the money GM spent in creating the brand.
Whether these mergers are good or bad depends on whose point of view it was. Take KMart and Sears.
From the point of employees, the surrounding businesses, creditors, etc. it was a disaster. From Lampert’s point of view it went according to plan. He intended to drive the businesses into the ground while stripping away assets. And he succeeded…
Yeah, there were some extra losses, but given the shift to online shopping and away from stores like KMart and Sears, that was going to happen anyway.
Even if the merger never took place, these companies were going to take big hits. Lampert just sped things up.
I like to think the folks at Cinnabon knew this story, and swore not to make the same mistake when some TV execs decided to make a prequel to a show about drug dealers.
Couldn’t they have leaned harder into the ability to ship your pants?
Alamo Rent a Car. Rather than spending money to increase speed at their rental offices which often had lines with an hour long wait or more, they decided to double down on the long lines and install concession stands and extra bathrooms!
But it worked. They’re still remembered.
I remember them for the unlimited free mileage ads, not only were they everywhere but it was a unique concept.
Waiting in line for a rental car with the opportunity to buy a hot dog, not as much.
Ford’s first really bad decision was to stick with the Model T way too long after it started losing market share to competitors around 1920. By the time the Model T was retired (1927), it was barely profitable, GM had surpassed Ford in sales, and the Chevy division started running neck and neck with Ford.
On a purely local level, we recently saw an iconic drive-in restaurant close after many years. Instead of announcing a future date on which the place would shut down (which would have guaranteed a late rush of nostalgia-fueled sales), the owners abruptly shuttered the restaurant at the close of business one day.
Or their big gas savings.
Isn’t the AOL-Time Warner merge what caused WCW to fold?
Amway