Post #10

Blog 10

            A product that launched and quickly failed, according to Drake Baer and Jay Yarow at Business Insider, was Coors’ 1990 extension: Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water.  The famous beer company was apparently trying to keep up with a social trend of less heavy alcohol consumption (“Coors enters,” 1990).

            In a Yahoo Finance article, Thomas C. Frohlich elaborated on why the product failed with consumers, as, “Coors Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water used a similar name and label to that of Coors beer, which may have confused and even spooked consumers” (2014, para. 12).  In this case, consumer behavior was that of confusion, as the Coors brand had long been tied to beer and alcohol consumption, an adult product. And now, with a non-alcoholic product for all ages, the change in message and tone was conflicting.  Consumers’ perception of the brand was tainted by preexisting knowledge and perceptions of the brand.  People seeking to buy bottled water might overlook Coors brand in a store because they see the brand and just think “beer,” and so would not linger on the product.  As such, consumers might be subconsciously ignoring the product because they do not realize its actual purpose.  People might also not be open-minded enough or have the time to learn and be educated on the new product.  In addition, while bottled water was popular, consumers were meeting their needs elsewhere and so had no motivation to try something new such as Coors’ bottled water.

            And, for consumers of Coors’s alcoholic products, the sudden appearance of bottled water may have altered their perceptions of the Coors brand.  The change may have seemed shocking.  To them, the company may have appeared flaky and lost in identity by changing their already established tone/persona.  Consumers may have then established mistrust with the brand, and have seen the brand as betraying the product they had been loyal to.

            Perhaps with more advertising and a redesign of the product to differentiate the bottled water from beer would have led to greater success among consumers, and greater consumer motivation.

References

Baer, D. & Yarow, J. (2014, July 31). 22 of the most epic product fails in history.

Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-product-failures-in-business-history-2014-7?op=1

Coors enters bottled water market. (1990, January 16). The New York Times. Retrieved

from http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/16/business/coors-enters-bottled-water-market.html

Frohlich, T. C. (2014, March 4).  Worst product flops of all time.  Yahoo Finance.

Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/worst-product-flops-time-194331439.html