Research

Research some product failures that have affected companies in the past and have cost them a substantial amount of money and may also have adversely affected their market reputation, tarnishing their brands.

Research the web and pick one such product failure for a Fortune 500 company and describe this failure. NOTE: A product failure, not a “company” failure such as Blockbuster and not a “discontinued” product because of a failed part, such as the Ford Pinto which was in production and sold for ten years but was discontinued because of a faulty fuel system and placement of its gas tank.  At a minimum, you are expected to provide information about the company, the product, rationale for the introduction of this product, the costs associated with the product (development and losses).  This is a one to two paragraph exercise – do not go overboard, concise description of the company, product and major reasons you believe it failed.

Failure Examples For Review (that you may use or not)

• McDonalds Arch Deluxe Burger
• New Coke
• Pepsi Crystal
• Coors Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water
• HP Touchpad
• Colgate Kitchen Entrees
• Sony Betamax
• Ford Edsel
• Microsoft Zune

Not Considered Failures

• Samsung Galaxy Phone (battery failed)
• WOW Chips (profited from the product)
• Heinz Colored Ketchup (profited from the product)

I recommend the use of several sources (references and citations), in APA format, to support your position. 

Remember this is a one to two paragraph exercise – do not go overboard – a few hours research and summation is all that’s required. I am interested in your a concise description of the project and the major reasons you believe (from your research) the product failed.   There are a lot of web sites about product failure (not company failure) with brief articles.  Please don’t just repeat (word-smith) those types of articles.  Do the research.

Synthesize your one-paragraph position on what 3-5 specific factors you believe most likely to contribute to capital project analysis failure.