Quick Marketing & Business Tips

Episode 31

Welcome to our video series “quick marketing and business tips” where we’re giving you actionable advice, tips, and recommendations, to grow your business today.

This is episode #31.

Let’s dive right in!

Episode 31: Even giant companies fail – an example

In the previous episode, we discussed how important is to focus on the end consumers and their needs before we develop any product. 

And we underlined that throughout history, there had been examples where even giant and well-established brands failed to deliver a good user experience and all their marketing efforts flopped.

One of these examples is Google Glass, a wearable tech device that pulled of the market in 2012.

The Bentley University sheds some light on the case with an article.

They say…

The company’s marketing budget would suggest the developers truly did try to make the device into the next hot trend. It was paraded through talk shows, it got a 12-page story in Vogue, models at New York Fashion Week strut down the runway wearing Glass and celebrities like Oprah, Bill Murray, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lawrence were all seen wearing the device at different times.

All this publicity backfired on Google after users found out how bug-ridden and clunky the product really was. Soon Glass became just another joke.

Mark Frydenberg, senior lecturer at the Bentley University mentions…

“Glass showed that there were a variety of solutions that this technology could provide, but Google (intentionally?) didn’t identify the problem beforehand. They wanted to see what people could do with it.”

Long story short, Google built a solution before identifying a problem.

But this failure helped Google discover other breakthrough uses for its wearable device. 

As the article suggests…At the very least, the device likely has a solid future in hospitals.

As we discussed in other episodes and articles, successful entrepreneurs are innovators. They develop new products that do not exist in order to improve people’s lives.

So, it’s OK to try to develop new products and even if your product fails, there are always lessons to be learned. 

You will get a deeper understanding of what people want and need, and how the market responds.

But you can avoid traps like this if you do your research. It’s all about your target audience and their needs. 

Thanks for watching and if you want to learn more about marketing and business, check out our private training workshops.