I read this little article recently and thought you might find it interesting.
You’ve probably heard of the Ford Mustang, but what about the sorry tale of the Ford Edsel?
The Edsel was originally intended to be Ford’s flagship product in the late 1950s, but it ended up an unprecedented flop and was widely cited as one of the ugliest cars ever made.
Ford had launched many successful models before this, so what went wrong with the Edsel?
Everything went wrong
For one, when Ford began designing the Edsel in 1955, the market was booming, but by the time it launched in 1958, things had changed; the economy was in a downswing and families were looking for smaller and more economical car models.
Another reason for the flop was that Ford had gone all in and marketed the Edsel as the most expensive project in the company’s history. Consumers expected something that would revolutionize transport and were disappointed to find that, despite the hype, it was just a regular four-wheeled automobile after all.
Last but certainly not least was the build of the car itself. Ford had invested heavily in psychological research to ensure that the car would appeal to a particular target group: young families. But it’d neglected to get the basic mechanics of the car right and, after the launch, customers reported several faults, such as uneven acceleration and unreliable breaks.
In the end, Ford lost some $250 million on the development of the Edsel.
Hopefully with your new innovative ideas, nothing will go quite so bad.