Top Guide Posts from Due North

Failed Product Launches

Large companies can and often do have product launch failures. Microsoft Vista, Pepsi Crystal and Cheetos Lip Balm are just a few of the many products that basically started as flawed product strategy and just kept going. Each failed to consider what the market really wanted.

In Microsoft’s case, Apple was making huge inroads due to a more user-friendly interface. So, they thought that they would simply slap something on top of their existing platform. As someone who was saddled with trying to come up with services for an electronics retailer during the launch of Vista, I was shocked when our technicians said that the best service we could provide was to fix whatever Vista broke. This list included device drivers, peripherals, etc.

Pepsi Crystal was based upon equally flawed reasoning and execution. At the time, there was this desire for clear beverages that equated clarity with purity and health. What they failed to consider is whether or not anyone would really like the taste. If you ever had it, it basically tasted oddly medicinal and thus, failed miserably.

Cheetos Lip Balm should have been a “Just say no” product from the get got. I mean I love Cheetos. But I don’t want to rub them on my lips.

The point here is that each of these large companies continues to do just fine. For many small companies, especially those in MedTech, a failed product could be the death knell. And if not the death knell for the company, it may be the career death knell for the responsible product leader.

Don’t let this happen to you. And, if you’re really curious, ping me for more info on the Microsoft Vista launch. I still have PTSD from that one.

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More Bad News!

This time it is the news itself that is bad.

Despite the fact that the Consumer Price Index is approaching the 50-year average, virtually all of the news is negative regarding inflation.

Despite the fact that the Unemployment Rate is at historic lows, virtually all of the news is negative regarding employment.

Why?

Researchers studied this question and it turns out that negativity drives online news consumption.

Online media companies know this. They want you to engage with them more frequently and for a longer duration and thus get more advertising dollars.

So the next time that you find yourself doomscrolling, remember this and shut it off. Not only is it bad for your psyche, it's bad for your perception of what is really happening.

You can read the research paper here:

https://lnkd.in/gQRRWTUj

Now, accentuate the Positive!

"We'll make it up on volume"

I began my marketing career as a pricing analyst with UPS. This was just as UPS was beginning to take a more sophisticated approach to how it calculated discounts for large shippers.

Previously, they had almost exclusively considered shipping volumes. This completely failed to consider package size and weight, delivery density, and many other drivers of cost.

Then came the IAS - Incentive Administration System. This system took into consideration all kinds of data that previously hadn’t been considered and required the account executives to gather it for each of their customers.

At the ripe old age of 24, I was tasked with implementing this system for UPS in Minnesota. Suffice it to say, I was less than popular as account executives learned that some of their clients were not only losing their discounts but were going to be surcharged due to unprofitable shipping characteristics.

One account executive whom I had known since childhood was livid as he learned that a large volume shipper was losing their discount. He begged, pleaded, resorted to profanity and I think threats of violence (just kidding). Ultimately, he was able to get a rare exemption from the pricing rules.

He was so pleased to hear this that he literally jumped for joy. I then shared with him UPS would lose roughly $1 per package his customer shipped. He then said, “But they are going to ship 20% more with us!” To which I replied sarcastically, “I guess we’ll make it up on volume.”

We never did.

Chris Gustanski – Founder and Lead Talent Guide

Chris is a classically trained marketer with over a decade of executive search experience. He moved into recruiting because he was someone that was frequently recruited and was tired of recruiters hounding him to consider roles they didn’t understand, and he wasn’t interested in pursuing. He was determined to disrupt Marketing Executive Search to deliver a better result and experience for companies and the Marketing Mavens they need.?After over a decade seeing the dysfunction in executive search firms large and small, he formed Due North Executive Search in collaboration with his wife Amie.

To learn more about how Due North can help you build World Class Marketing and Product Management teams?click here?to schedule a meeting.