Doomed Designs: They failed to plan so they planned to fail.

Persil, Coca Cola, Mini's.

All of which, have made mistakes in the past which have affected them on a large scale.

Did it all work out?

Persil Power?

Persil, were the biggest brand when it was created in 1909, it was unrivalled by other brands such as Ariel and Fairy. Throughout the years, it remained as the best detergent in the UK and so it become a must have in every household. I feel as though since they started early they had a bigger chance at becoming successful and it really shows. Things were going well until the 1990's. 

Ariel the second largest brand in the UK was able to put Persil's dominance on the brink. Why? This was because people found that the scientific approach in adverts were more appealing than the link between detergent and happy families which is what Persil had in the adverts. And so began the SOAP WARS!!!!

Persil were under serious pressure to create a new powdered detergent which would power through the competition. So they ended up with the new formula and they called it Persil Power. This was like no other detergent created, it was stronger and better at cleaning however the new formula had a secret ingredient which was deemed too powerful for home is and Proctor and Gamble (P&G) told them in uncertain terms. they said "we dont like what you're doing, we think its risky". From this i can clearly say that i feel as though P&G were doing the right thing as they are telling their competition that it is very risky and that implies it could fail. However competition does do this sometimes if they think that it will work out in their favour so they sabotage it. nevertheless P&G did the right thing warning Persil that it was risky.

Since all washing powders do 2 things; Clean clothes and damage clothes, Persil may have gone a bit too far. In 1991 Persil Power hit the shops  and since it had a unique patented accelerator it made it sound like it was faster and more of a science made powder. And since this happened customers were instantly impressed and it looked like it had hung the competition out to dry. However Ariel retaliated by conducting their own tests and giving the newspapers pictures of striped boxer shorts with holes in thanks to the detergent. Now, thinking about this has taken sometime,  considering they were competitors and since Ariel only sent pictures in,  you would think that Persil would have a comeback but, they didn't, they didn't say anything. 

The newspapers said "If you use this product, your clothes will become shredded to the point of indecency"

To me that was harsh, there were only a few holes in the boxer shorts so they are hardly shredded to the point of indecency. therefore lying to the public is something the papers should not have done. PERIOD. As this came out, the consumers started to check their garments for signs of damage, and soon people were sending the damaged clothes to Unilever (owners of Persil). To make things worse the magazine Which? got involved and did their own tests to see what the powder was like, unfortunately for Persil it does damage some clothes however the word shredded isn't applicable in any case. 

Persil was exposed.

Shops like Tesco and Sainsbury's started to take Persil off the shelves, in my opinion it feels as though Persil had messed up badly however the newspapers sadly blew it out of proportion and so a ripple effect took place to which Persil's products weren't getting used. It was hard to put an exact figure on the failure but some analysts believe Unilever invested as much as a quarter of a billion pounds. Which in my opinion is way too much for a detergent.

I have learned a lot from Persil, and that's to not add ingredients in a large amount that will damage clothing. Do a lot of research and make sure it is tested properly before handing it out for the public to use because if you don't. Well bad things will happen as it did with Persil Power.

Mini's mini prices?

Lets talk about Britain's best selling ever. It has sold over 5 million cars around the world however in terms of sales it ides a very surprising fact. Statistically speaking 7/10 companies that fail in the car industry, was to do with them getting the price wrong.

The cheapest car on the market at the time mini was being created was a German three-wheeler bubble car, cheap to buy and cheap to run, as that's what everybody wants to buy. British bosses needed to get back the initiative and so they did. They condensed a car that was neither extravagant nor wasteful in any way, it was a high standard in both accommodation and in its performance. This was designed by a man named Alex Issigonis and was given the go ahead by Leonard Lord. 

AND SO IT BEGINS...

Leonard Lord decided on the price for the mini, he wanted it to be cheaper than the closest rival which was (at the time) the Ford Anglia. Unfortunately the Ford was valued a bit over £500 therefore Leonard Lord said the price should be below £500. This ended up being a big shock to Ford as some, fairly, senior member's were there when the mini was launched. This was great,  thinking about this now, BMC had scars the competition into thinking they were down and out which is a good way to make them look superior than the competition. I feel as though they did the right thing when launching however the price should have increased after the first 1000 sales or a high number of sales.

The strengths of doing this, is that they have penetrated the market easily as they have made the price of the good as low as possible which attracts customers.
The weakness of doing this, is that they will not make a profit and they wont reach the break even point quickly as the price is so low.
The opportunities they can gain are vast, they can gain a great amount of new customers as well as making their brand stand out both in the UK and overseas.
The biggest weakness is again the price and that they'll be making a great amount of losses, as well as that there will also be the problem of wanting to create new and better cars at this point. they wont have enough money to research and develop better cars and so it'll be hard for them to raise price.

In 2000 production ended as it was sold to BMW who now make the Mini's, they range from £11,000 to £24,000. Funnily enough they haven't made the same mistake as BMC did.

Coca Cola: The last sip?

Everyone knows the best part of Coca Cola is the taste and why? Why that? The reason is because of the secret recipe which is kept under lock and key and only the people that work their know what goes into the recipe. And since it was brought out its position as the best drink in the world was unassailable until.... Pepsi. That god forsaken drink that ruins my day. Id rather drink sparkling water then drink Pepsi and i hate sparkling water.

Well, enough of me showing my hate towards Pepsi and back to the real topic.

Pepsi instituted a challenge, so named the Pepsi challenge. This pitted the taste of Coca Cola against the taste of Pepsi. For Coca Cola it was hard to accept the fact that majority of people preferred the taste of Pepsi this equalled a share gain for big ol' Pepsi. This ruined Coca Cola's way of life as well as starting what was known as the COLA WARS.

Each year Pepsi started to get better, in my opinion what they did with the challenge is the reason for their success back then and their success now, the reason is simple they got their point across very well and I've learned that taking a stand against the better opposition can come out with some serious benefits.  It was also good as Coca Cola would have to improve their drink and make it better to then compete against Pepsi again.

And what did Coca Cola do, they decided to create a new and improved recipe, this would be good if people didn't love the taste it had already but the press were not impressed in fact the questions they were asking were quite harsh in some cases. Even after they were allowed to taste the new Cola they didn't like it because it was flatter and sweeter. Thinking the consumers would react more positively they released the new and improved Coca Cola, however it was to no avail, in fact they started to get over 1,500 calls a day saying they wanted the old Coca Cola back and that the new one was terrible.Protests began to form, demonstration started to become angry and this was all from a change they made to the original product, the product that was loved by so many.

They found out they had made a terrible mistake when asking questions to their samples. They decided to ask did you prefer the taste of cola x to cola y (or vice versa). They realised they should have asked how would you feel if we replaced cola x with cola y. When they realised that they had made a mistake they called another press conference to say they had made a dramatic U-turn and they are reverting back to the old recipe.

The greatest words to come out their mouths at this time; " We are not that dumb, we are not that smart"

I have learned that asking the right questions are pivotal in innovating a product which already has a large fan base.