Firms today launch hundreds of products in the market. Some products become successful and many others fail to gain market acceptance. Marketers are forced to work in an uncertain environment. They often develop and launch products without knowing how consumers will react to the new products. Even with the support of market research new product failures have haunted companies from large multinationals to small local firms.
There have been several reasons for product failures, the common ones are as follows:
1. Technology
The most common reasons for product failures have been technical problems resulting in less than satisfactory performance of the product in actual use situation.The solar powered vehicle, wind-based power generation, and many drugs failed mainly because they couldn't perform as expected by the buyers.
2. Buyer Acceptance
Many new products fail to gain consumer acceptance and fail miserably in the market. Consumers often reject products if they are too complex to handle. This is the reason for the popularity of user friendly products such as the Microsoft software and aim and shoots cameras. Products that go against the culture and tradition of consumers are also rejected.
3. Inadequate Market Demand
Firms often overestimate the market demand for new products. When the products are launched in the market firms find the demand to be very slow. The slow demand often forces financially weak companies to withdraw the new product from the market.
Also Read
Many new products fail due to wrong selection of product positions, prices and inadequate promotional support. Wrong positioning of a product often creates problems for new products.
