Let’s Celebrate the 5% of Brands that Succeed
While working at Interbrand, the global brand consultancy, I pitched my CEO an idea. The main office in New York is on Broadway. It is a wonderful location. Years ago, the retail space on street level came available. My pitch was simple. Let’s take it over and profile our client’s products. Not to sell. More of an ongoing exhibit. It would showcase our work and relationships.
I pictured a John Deere riding mower, Tampa Bay Ray’s jerseys, and a Volkswagen beautifully displayed. I saw people intrigued and coming in to walk around in bemusement and confusion. Then they would be informed about Interbrand. I imagine buzz and new business results.
You get the idea, a rotating array of Interbrand’s work with amazing clients. A shareable installation. I still think the idea has legs but the cost was high and curating the space was a challenge (not insurmountable but there were competing priorities).
This weekend I came across an article that reminded me of the idea. There is one company left in America that makes washboards. The Columbus Washboard Company sells about 80,000 washboards per year. According to the company, 40% of sales are for washing clothes, 20% are sold for decoration, and 40% are used as musical instruments. Cool, quirky information and statistics. What really intrigued me was they have a museum of washboards.
Many companies with long legacies have museums and archives. I have visited the World of Coca-Cola and The Hershey Store. I have not yet made it to the Walmart Museum, Cadbury World or Dr. Pepper Museum. I have been in the HbC archives and the SPAM museum. There are hundreds of such corporate or brand museums throughout the world.
That got me searching and I found a rather enigmatic set of two articles about the NewProductsWork collection in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One article is from the Smithsonian. This is a collection of failed products. More than 140,000 in all. I would love to tour it. It looks like a grocery store of stumbled mistakes. It is hard to confirm whether it is still operating.
Apparently, a consulting business called, GFK owns it. GFK describes itself as, “the unparalleled, always-on, AI-powered intelligence platform and consulting service for the consumer products industry, globally.” What flimsy information out there suggests the failed product display is for GFK clients only.
A few years back, USA Today, profiled the “top” 50 product flops of all time. Google Glass and the Newton topped the list. Then there was Burger King’s Satisfries. A more expensive, less enjoyable snack. Harley-Davidson perfume should have been a non starter. Here is an admission, Heinz’s EZ Squirt Ketchup was an Interbrand project. It halted after six years.
Google these amazing failures: Facebook Home, a television show called Terra Nova, Arch Deluxe, Microsoft Bob, and S&W Mountain Bikes. I am nerd for such stuff and I have never heard of any these and many more on the list. This led me to the Museum of Failure curated by a Dr. Samuel West. It is a traveling exhibit of brands that failed to launch.
Not all brand museums need to be self-serving or failure-based. There is the Museum of Brands in London that is definitely worth visiting in person or online. It is a celebration of success. According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, there are over 30,000 new products introduced every year, and 95% fail. Let’s celebrate the 5%!
