What Were They Thinking?:: Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Products That Flopped

To their credit, McMath, a business consultant headquartered in upstate New York, and Forbes, a freelance writer, don't simply present some of the worst product ideas of all time (rabbit jerky, Frito-Lay lemonade); instead, they try to use the failures of such products as Crystal Pepsi to impart basic marketing wisdom. In the case of the clear soft drink that disappeared without much fizz, the lesson is, Don't fiddle with the corporate cash cow. The Pepsi brand is too important to risk on such off-beat ideas. Insights such as ""sell benefits, not features"" are not new, though the authors give a twist by explaining that the pause that ""refreshes"" is a vastly superior message to the pause that's ""cold and wet."" But in this humorous account, tying those thoughts to products that failed certainly helps make them memorable. (Feb.)