Products: Chanel, Dove and the Museum of Failure

Author: CIMCOM

Sweden has just become home to the Museum of Failure, a quirky exhibition of branded products which didn’t work. Set up by Superlab psychologist and innovation researcher, Dr Samuel West, the museum is his reaction to our obsession with celebrating product success. With around 90% of new product innovations failing, just focusing on success does cast a very narrow prism on innovation. West contends that real progress comes about by deconstructing failures to learn the lessons of innovation. Two recent products departures for Chanel and Dove provide a clear lesson.

Chanel’s iconic product elicits disgust

When you think of Chanel, the brand’s quilted handbag, little black dress and heady Chanel No. 5 perfume probably spring to mind. These days the luxury haute couture label has extended its product range into ready-to-wear fashion, cosmetics, skincare, men’s fragrances and accessories. Last month, it launched a new product in its accessories line – the $2,000 (Australian dollar) boomerang in wood and black resin, that’s a cool £1,100, but it’s been an ethical blunder.

It’s not an entirely original idea. Hermès created a hand carved boomerang over a decade ago. But this luxury product with its high-end price tag has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The brand is accused of crass cultural appropriation. No aboriginal artists were involved in the Chanel boomerang design, but it clearly borrows from aboriginal heritage. Basically, it’s been seen by many as ripping off a disadvantaged indigenous culture for profit. Certainly, it’s a novel product concept for Chanel, and sometimes surprises generate a positive impact. In this instance, the bizarre pairing of an iconic aboriginal boomerang with the French luxe marque laid the brand open to being criticised for its cultural insensitivity. The new product was out of step with the values of today’s educated and informed consumers. Luxury brands can risk being seen as elitist and arrogant; this product fell into that stereotype since it demonstrated a lack of respect.

Shapely Dove bottles greeted with derision

Unilever has marketed its Dove products through its ongoing Campaign for Real Beauty since 2004. The campaign sets the brand apart from the typical portrayal of women as skinny, young and white, with a treatment designed to celebrate and empower women of all shapes, sizes, ages and ethnicities. So what could go wrong?

In the latest iteration of the campaign, Dove used its product packaging to communicate its diversity message. It’s manufactured a limited-edition range of its Body Wash product in a set of differently sized and shaped branded bottles which have been shipped to 15 different countries. The brand intended this product innovation to celebrate diversity:

“Now an iconic Dove product comes in all shapes and sizes too. Discover how we reaffirmed our commitment to beauty confidence with six exclusive bottles, that celebrate bodies of all shapes and sizes.”

There’s even a video created by Ogilvy & Mather London to explain the move.

But the multi-shaped bottles have really opened a can of worms. If you buy Dove Body Wash as a gift for your partner, which shape do you choose? And what message does that give them – from you? If you’re picking up a bottle for yourself, do you choose short and fat or tall and thin? And while you’re obsessing about your body shape, how is that making you feel empowered?

Regrettably instead of empowering real women these limited-edition products are more likely to give purchasers a complex. Social media has had fun with this initiative which unlike previous marketing efforts is so literal about body shape that it conveys a lack of understanding and respect. What were they thinking?

Even the video, which at the time of writing had almost 185,000 views, garnered 490 dislikes compared to just 348 likes.

Writer Charlotte Alter, thinks the controversy this product innovation has sparked, was the whole point.

The amusing Museum of Failure

At the museum of failure, there are more glorious product failures to see and analyse. Exhibits include Colgate Lasagne (even the name quells the appetite), Bic for her (pink biros, are you serious!) and Google Glass (the wearable tech product that failed to impress.) There’s over seventy failed products on display, with details presented in Swedish and English. As the museum explains: “Every item provides unique insight into the risky business of innovation.”

Currently the Museum is housed at Kulturhotellet, in Helsingborg, Sweden and has recently been on tour to London.

Visit the Museum of Failure website

Product innovation know-how

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Martin Berwick, Content Lead at CPL believes we should harness data and insight when developing product innovations:

“Product development is expensive, so it needs to hit the mark from the get-go. Data generated by consumers – purchase figures, plus all kinds of interactions and engagements – brings insight into customer behaviour and needs, and market trends. This insight can inform product development and insure against costly mistakes.”

Read his blog post: Five ways tech frees creativity