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The Failure Of Edsel The Car's The Star

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Ford’s lack of knowledge in market demand directly caused the failure of the Edsel. The company invested heavily in developing and producing a car with big engine. However, the reality is that people did not want a big car that use so much gas. The introduction of the Edsel was unsuccessful because it was a product that the market did not ask for. Besides function, people did not like the look of the Edsel either. Since it looks very different from all the other cars in the market, most people were not ready for such a big esthetic challenge. According to the documentary Edsel The Car’s the Star, the majority of people disked the front design extremely. If Ford has done more research on market demand, they could probably design a look that …show more content…

However, the result was not as expected because their competitive analysis was inaccurate. Like Richard Feloni said in the article 4 lessons from the failure of the Ford Edsel, one of Bill Gates' favorite case studies, “Ford had presumed to invest $400 million (well over $4.0 billion in the 21st century) in developing a new product line without attempting to determine whether such an investment would be wise or prudent.” (http://www.businessinsider.com/lessons-from-the-failure-of-the-ford-edsel-2015-9) Last but not least, the Edsel was launched at a bad time. The car was introduced to the public during the economic recession in late 1957. When the vehicle came out, it was in the worst recession since the war. A man interviewed in the documentary said that “nobody wants to take a chance on something brand new if dollars were taken to begin with.” Even though Ford was unable to predict the recession, they could be more cautious about the economic situation before launching a product. A company can not produce a successful product that’s welcomed by the public without listening to their customers. To avoid the failure of Edsel, Ford should have communicating more with their consumers using methods such as survey questions, data analysis, and market

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