‘Great Marketing Can Sell ANYTHING’.
I’m giving you a challenge. Go ahead, disagree with me.
Look at a clock (or your watch) and spend 15 seconds. Think of a terrible product, that became a massive hit SOLELY because of an awesome ad campaign.
Can’t think of one? It’s because it doesn’t exist. (Well, it ‘usually’ doesn’t exist and I’m not talking about exceptions here).
‘If your product is SH*T, there’s no great marketing that’s going to save you.’ Gary Vaynerchuk.
You have probably heard this a lot on social media. But before Gary, good old Ogilvy said the same thing. ‘Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.’
Why? ….
Bad Product, Hollow Promises
Take the example of Peloton’s Treadmill. They were marketed as a premium home fitness machine.
Customers can literally sue a company for making false promises through great ads. And hadn’t it been a concern, this law wouldn’t exist, right?
However, in 2021 they’ve received a lot of backlash after reports emerged that these treadmills posed safety risks. News of adults and children getting injured spread rapidly.
Later, they had to face lawsuits from affected families.
Let’s not forget Fyre Festival, which ran a massive marketing campaign (take the Fyre Festival as a product for now).
The luxury music festival was backed up by celebrities like Kendal Jenner and Bella Hadid.
Thanks to their bad customer support and almost no food and accommodation system, they were a disaster.
Billy McFarland was sued and later convicted of fraud and sentenced to 6 years in prison.
William McFarland, Mastermind of Fyre Festival – 6 Years In Prison, $26,191,306.28 Forfeited.
So yes. If you promise consumers a great thing through great marketing, you better keep that promise right.
But, A Product Doesn’t Necessarily Have To Be ‘Faulty’ to be a Bad Product
You can launch a good product, but if it doesn’t fit the market, or there’s hardly anyone who needs it, then it’s a bad product regardless of how good it is.
Take Google Glass, for example. In the early 2010s, everyone was hyped about its entry into the market. Sleek design, futuristic concept, you name it, the product had everything to be called a ‘groundbreaking innovation’.
Or, take the launch of Apple Vision Pro in 2024, a recent example that you might relate to. It had everything to be hyped about. It took augmented reality to a new height.
Now, both Google Glass in 2014 and Apple Vision Pro in 2024 have one thing in common. They failed to generate expected sales.
‘Google Glass – a fascinating failure?’ – BBC
Apple’s ‘Unclear’ Vision: So Close, Yet So Far Away
Will you call this a bad product? Of course not. At least, not when a tech giant like Google and Apple wants to bring it to the market.
It’s just their product wasn’t a good fit for the market. Or, should I say in terms of marketing, ‘Poor Product Market-Fit’?
Both Google Glas and Apple Vision Pro had a narrow target market. It seems that they were not targeting average consumers. The people who bought these products found that the use cases weren’t that clear, rather it was a bit ambiguous. Most importantly, these products didn’t solve any problem consumers were facing.