The Ford Edsel Failure
The Ford Edsel Failure The Ford Edsel was a $400 million investment from the Ford Motor Company in the 1950’s intended to be an “entirely new and original kind of car” that could compete with General Motors (AskMen.com). This was a great intention from the company and their development was on the right track, but they made some crucial mistakes that made the Ford Edsel “one of the worst cars of all time” (content.time.com).
According to the article, Top 10: Failed Product Launches, the Ford Edsel promotion and advertisements mislead the public into thinking that this car would be completely top notch and like nothing they have ever seen or experienced before. The Ford Motor Company had the Edsel premier on a broadcast called, The Edsel Show, which was a live show on CBS. Ford had many big celebrities star on this show and had them hype up the promotion of the Ford Edsel. Although this seems like a good way to promote a new car model, the Ford Motor Company made the ultimate mistake; the Ford Motor Company failed to develop their product the way they were intending to market their product. Customers were expecting a lot more for their buck than they got. They paid for, what they thought, was a high-end, upscale automobile and what they got was a replica of every other car that was on the market at that time, including Fords own Mercury.
When a company is generating a product that is already in an existing market, they must listen to what the customer wants in that product The Ford Motor Company should have focused their development strategies around their commercialization. In chapter 11, we read about the new-product development process. This is a process that consists of important stages a company must go through when they are deciding to place a product on the market. The Ford Motor company failed at the very important development step. The Edsels’ target market was such an upper class type of market and because of that, Ford should have heightened their
According to the article, Top 10: Failed Product Launches, the Ford Edsel promotion and advertisements mislead the public into thinking that this car would be completely top notch and like nothing they have ever seen or experienced before. The Ford Motor Company had the Edsel premier on a broadcast called, The Edsel Show, which was a live show on CBS. Ford had many big celebrities star on this show and had them hype up the promotion of the Ford Edsel. Although this seems like a good way to promote a new car model, the Ford Motor Company made the ultimate mistake; the Ford Motor Company failed to develop their product the way they were intending to market their product. Customers were expecting a lot more for their buck than they got. They paid for, what they thought, was a high-end, upscale automobile and what they got was a replica of every other car that was on the market at that time, including Fords own Mercury.
When a company is generating a product that is already in an existing market, they must listen to what the customer wants in that product The Ford Motor Company should have focused their development strategies around their commercialization. In chapter 11, we read about the new-product development process. This is a process that consists of important stages a company must go through when they are deciding to place a product on the market. The Ford Motor company failed at the very important development step. The Edsels’ target market was such an upper class type of market and because of that, Ford should have heightened their
Cited: http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/139c_top_10_list.html http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1657867_1657781,00.html http://www.usdatacorporation.com/info/2011/08/15-worst-marketing-blunders/