StartupTalky

Tag: failure

  • WeWork Case Study: A Fall From the Pinnacle of Success

    Here’s a thorough WeWork case study briefing the history, business model, and the fall of WeWork from the pinnacle of success. WeWork is an American organization that gives shared workspaces to other companies and organizations.

    Established in 2010, it is headquartered in New York City. WeWork oversaw 46.63 million square feet of space in 2018. WeWork structures and fabricates physical and virtual shared spaces and office administrations for people and companies. WeWork has over 700 locations in 38 countries for workspace.

    In January 2019, the firm declared its plan to rebrand as “The We Company”; it was valued at $47 billion at that time. In that year, troubles started brewing for the company.

    Adam Neumann left his position as the CEO and surrendered a greater part of ballot control in WeWork from 26 September 2019. WeWork also postponed its arranged securities exchange posting until the end of 2019 as issues began to arise in its corporate administration, valuation, and other business aspects.

    On September 30, 2019, WeWork officially pulled back its S-1 documentation. The proposed IPO was thus delayed. The organization’s valuation fell below $10 billion, not exactly the $12.8 billion it had raised since 2010.

    How Was WeWork Founded?
    Rapid Expansion of WeWork
    Business Model of WeWork
    WeWork Business Growth
    WeWork IPO Failure
    Future of WeWork In India

    How Was WeWork Founded?

    In May 2008, Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey started GreenDesk, an “eco-accommodating coworking space” in Brooklyn. In 2010, Neumann and McKelvey sold the business and began WeWork. Its first area was New York’s SoHo district with halfway financing from Manhattan land designer Joel Schreiber who obtained a 33% stake in the organization for $15 million.

    WeWork Founders - Neumann and McKelvey
    WeWork Founders – Neumann and McKelvey

    By 2014, WeWork was considered “the quickest developing renter of new office space in New York”, and was on track to turn into “the quickest developing tenant of new space in America. “During the monetary emergencies, there were these vacant structures and these individuals outsourcing or beginning organizations,” Neumann told the New York Daily News.

    “I knew there was an approach to coordinate the two. What isolates us, however, is community.” WeWork collaborated with several organizations, including new businesses such as Consumer, HackHands, Whole Whale, Turf, Fitocracy, Reddit, and New York Tech Meetup. In 2011, PepsiCo put a couple of representatives in the SoHo WeWork, who went about as guides to littler WeWork part companies.

    The first WeWork Labs opened in New York’s SoHo in April 2011. WeWork Labs works as a startup hatchery, furnishing an open workspace to empower joint efforts among individuals who “don’t have their business-related thoughts completely cooked.”

    WeWork Labs
    WeWork Labs

    Rapid Expansion of WeWork

    The company had 51 cooperating areas in the US, Europe, and Israel in January 2015– twice the same number as it had towards the end of 2014.

    On June 1, 2015, WeWork reported that Artie Minson, previous Chief Financial Officer of Time Warner Cable, would join the organization as President and Chief Operating Officer.

    On March 9, 2016, WeWork declared that it raised $430 million in another round of financing from Legend Holdings and Hony Capital Ltd., pegging the organization at $16 billion at that time.

    By October 2016, the organization had raised $1.7 billion in private capital. In October 2016, the organization reported its arrangements to open a fourth area in Cambridge/Boston region. It opened workspaces in Boston’s Leather District and Fort Point in 2014.

    On January 30, 2017, the Wall Street Journal composed that SoftBank Group Corporation is gauging speculation of well over $1 billion in WeWork Corporation, in what could be among the principal bargains from its new $100 billion innovation fund.”

    In April 2017, the organization began offering wellness classes in some of its areas and opened an exercise center at a New York location. In July 2017, the valuation of the organization came to around $20 billion.

    WeWork Valuation from 2012 to 2022
    WeWork Valuation from 2012 to 2022

    Later that month, it was reported that WeWork would expand to China using $500 million contributed by SoftBank, Hony Capital, and different loan specialists to shape “WeWork China”.

    In September 2017, WeWork ventured into Southeast Asia through the acquisition of Singapore-based SpaceMob, and it put aside a financial limit of $500 million to develop in Southeast Asia, the home of more than 600 million people. The association’s top rival in China is Ucommune, the main Chinese unicorn in the coworking space.

    In late October 2017, WeWork purchased the Lord and Taylor Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan from the Hudson’s Bay Company for $850 million. The arrangement incorporated the use of floors of certain HBC-claimed retail chains in New York, Toronto, Vancouver, and Germany as WeWork’s shared office workspaces. The deal was formally finished in February 2019.

    Tips To Launching Your Co-working Space
    As an entrepreneur, belonging to a co-working space can be a stepping stone to your growth. A co-working space refers to a place where you meet with other entrepreneurs to work on a project together. A co-working space brings together people from different industries. Thus, it increases the chances …
    StartupTalkyLakshya Singh

    Business Model of WeWork

    WeWork was established in New York in 2010 to offer cooperating spaces to business visionaries, new businesses, specialists, and enterprises. WeWork has developed quickly, making it one of the biggest and most obvious cooperating chains on the planet.

    It presently has representatives in over 700 areas around the world, incorporating stations in many U.S. urban areas and 38 nations that include Brazil, Germany, and Thailand.

    How Does It Work

    Superficially, WeWork’s business model resembles a moderately ordinary land play. Over the 700+ areas it operates in, everybody from solo business people to enormous organizations can lease everything from a work area to a private floor. WeWork is not the same as your normal land organization — it conveys an incentive to the inhabitants and the landowners.

    WeWork gives its occupants something that is conventionally elusive, an on-request adaptable space with momentary leases (even on a month-to-month premise at times). This takes care of the problem of continuous shifting, one that affects developing businesses.

    The process of shifting involves finding another office space, moving in, marking a long-haul rent, rebuilding the space, and moving out to begin everything once more elsewhere.

    At the point when an organization exceeds its WeWork participation, it can move up to a progressively extensive alternate space, a private office, or even a private floor — diminishing erosion from changes. Clients don’t need to consider all the particulars of leasing office space, and they gain admittance to a lot of office advantages (free espresso, quick web, etc).

    For landowners, WeWork offers huge incentives, including higher rents, an extended inhabitant pool, and increments in land esteem. In a blog entry distributed in 2018, the organization announced lease premiums between 15-29% in structures it managed in New York and Los Angeles. WeWork claimed a generation of $250 million in extra income for proprietors in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles alone.

    Space Used by WeWork

    WeWork feels managing a business workspace is an intense issue regardless of how enormous (or little) your association is— and it’s once in a while a center competency. Consultants and the employees of nascent stage companies don’t have the financial backing to pay for office space, and end up telecommuting or working out of some stop-hole arrangement.

    A below-standard working space could restrain joint effort and profitability. Small and medium-sized organizations battle with spending requirements and restricted assets, and development directions can make space needs a moving objective.

    Venture associations face close consistent strain to cut expenses and increment productivity — land and activity costs can be a difficult barrier to cross. WeWork positions itself as the answer to these issues. By giving turnkey, versatile workspace arrangements, the organization vows to wipe out the contact associated with finding, involving, and dealing with a workspace.

    Consultants and new companies get the advantages and preferences of having an office space without the expenses and obligations that accompany it. Small organizations get adaptable, reasonable space alternatives that can be reconfigured as needed.

    WeWork rents a couple of floors of a structure from a property director in a high-thickness urban zone. It revamps the space to incorporate a blend of private workplaces, meeting rooms, parlors, and open workspaces.

    It adds additional facilities such as espresso, office supplies, and brew on tap. WeWork pivots and leases workplaces to a blend of specialists, solopreneurs, new companies, and huge organizations.

    WeWork essentially fits a larger number of bodies into its spaces than a run-of-the-mill corporate office. The normal per-individual office space in the United States is just shy of 200 square feet, as indicated by the US General Services Administration.

    WeWork individuals can anticipate under 100 square feet. WeWork does this without yielding specialist profitability or fulfillment. Indeed, a central guarantee at WeWork is that its spaces are deliberately intended to cultivate greater efficiency and more development.

    Services Added With Value by WeWork

    Another factor adding to WeWork’s guarantee of “greater profitability, more development” is the worth-added administrations the organization offers to individuals. In 2018, it relaunched WeWork Labs, a hatchery-style program for new companies planned for helping them develop their business.

    In February 2019, the organization reported a redo of the WeWork application, complete with new ability-sharing highlights planned for making it simpler for clients to discover, interface, and team up with different individuals.

    Once individuals enter the WeWork environment, it becomes hard for them to leave owing to the benefits. The organization’s open recording archives report a net enrollment consistency standard of 119%.

    WeWork Space
    WeWork Space

    WeWork’s developing exhibit of significant worth included administrations — going from espresso and office supplies to showcasing programming and an administrations commercial center — push it past a basic landowner into a sort of full-administration proficient “hatchery” where an individual can arrange, and develop their business, adopt new abilities, and have the everyday details of dealing with a workspace dealt with.

    On the off chance that an organization or individual moves to another city, there will be another WeWork space sitting tight for them. If a vital accomplice or specialist organization is required, WeWork can help find the ideal option. What’s more, as the organization develops from a little startup to a large organization, WeWork’s administration scales to keep up with the upgrade.

    Analysis of Data

    An essential piece in the WeWork ecosystem is the utilization of information. WeWork has for quite some time been utilizing information to advise participating organizations on areas, where they ought to be set, and what the blend of workplaces, workspaces, and courtesies should be like.

    WeWork started to create products out of its information capacities with the “space-as-an-administration” offering “Powered by We”. Presented in 2017, Powered by We denotes a critical change for WeWork.

    Earlier, WeWork’s administrations were limited to the spaces that it involved. Through Powered by We, the organization started to grow its range outside its leases into the organization’s current spaces.

    This has a one-two-punch impact, empowering the organization to order the more significant expenses that accompany serving endeavor customers, while simultaneously shedding one of its most noteworthy wellsprings of both expense and hazard — the leases themselves.

    Share of Workspace

    The common workspace level is the least worth offering that WeWork has — not the organization’s most beneficial part, but a significant establishment for what’s worked above it.

    These mutual workspace collaborations are what many pictures when they hear the words “cooperating space.” Members come in every morning and either snatch any accessible work area space in a typical zone if they have what WeWork alludes to as a “sweltering work area” enrollment or, for $100 or so extra a month, settle in at their very own committed work area in the common workspace.

    As indicated by the WeWork site, these common workspaces are intended for new businesses and little organizations, specialists, advisors, and telecommuters. Hot work area participation starts at $190 every month and can reach upwards of $600 in costly urban communities like San Francisco. Committed work areas run from $300 to $700.

    Central Station by WeWork

    The level above office suites, central station by WeWork will be WeWork’s “white name” answer for big business customers. Instead of setting the organization up with a space inside a current WeWork premise, the central station is set up in independent areas sourced by WeWork in an area of the customer’s decision.

    Customer organizations pick one of four “configurable designs,” running from an open warm-up area to official suites. Customers also pick inner staff to oversee everyday tasks for their area, with WeWork taking what the site alludes to as an “in the background” job.

    WeWork Labs

    A striking case of how WeWork uses esteem-added administrations to draw organizations into the WeWork system comes as WeWork Labs. WeWork Labs is WeWork’s “worldwide development stage” — an in-house startup hatchery that enlarges the central WeWork workspace offering extra highlights, including devoted program directors, week-after-week occasions, pitch evenings, workshops, and financial specialist presentations.

    Relaunched in 2018, the program is at present offered in more than 700 areas — 154 in the United States and others in significant urban communities over the world, incorporating Brazil, China, Israel, Singapore, the UK, and Thailand, among others.

    The organization said 1,000 new businesses have been brooded through the program as of December 2018.

    The key factor that separates WeWork Labs from other startup quickening agents is the plan of action; instead of the standard hatchery model of taking value in the business, WeWork Labs charges a level expense, basically an up-charge to what the startup would some way or another compensation for space at WeWork.

    Costs for the program’s US areas go from $300 – $600 every month. There’s a key measurement to WeWork Labs too as effective organizations move on from the program and develop into undeniable organizations, they become potential clients for WeWork’s growing suite of administrations.

    Smartworks – Creating Stylish Co-Working Spaces for Enterprises
    Smartworks offers tailor-made offices and combines top-notch real-estate design, technology, and hospitality to create vibrant communities in the workplace. Check out Smartworks success story.
    StartupTalkyVidhi Punamiya

    WeWork Business Growth

    The We Co., the American firm which works collaborating office spaces under the WeWork brand, has posted vigorous income development in India, even as it reels under huge misfortunes universally, demonstrating the organization’s first open administrative recording.

    We Co. posted an overall deficit of around $689.7 million and an income of $1.54 billion in the initial half-year of 2019. According to a report by Reuters, it is hoping to raise $3-4 billion through the first sale of stock (IPO), which is probably going to be propelled in September this year.

    Since its entrance in India in 2016 through an organization with Bengaluru-based Embassy Group, WeWork has been forcefully extending its impression. At present, its services are available in over 40 locations in 6 cities.

    Internationally, We Co. is available in over 700 areas in 38 nations. According to the recording, the organization earned $3.5 million in the executive’s expenses in the half-year finished on June 30, enlisting a 118% bounce from $1.6 million in the year-back period.

    In January 2019, the organization’s valuation was expressed as $47 billion, however by September when an IPO was arranged and deferred, the valuation was decreased to $10-12 billion.

    Throughout the final quarter of 2019, WeWork’s evaluated market capitalization has kept on falling to a limited extent because of various examinations of Neumann’s conduct and strategic approaches.

    In 2018, WeWork’s misfortunes and income both multiplied. As per the Financial Times, the organization lost $219,000 every hour of every day from March 2018 to March 2019.

    As of December 20, 2022, WeWork’s net worth is $1.03 billion only a drop from $21.76 billion (2021).

    WeWork Income Statement from 2017 to 2021
    WeWork Income Statement from 2017 to 2021

    List of Top 30 Coworking Spaces in Bangalore
    Looking for a coworking space in Bangalore? Well, here’s the list of the top 30 coworking spaces in Bangalore along with their Pricing & Features.
    StartupTalkyJeenal Jain

    WeWork IPO Failure

    In January 2019, WeWork declared that it would move into a two-story structure in Tampa Heights in 2020 as a component of its venture into Tampa.

    On April 29, 2019, WeWork was documented privately for an IPO. On July 18, 2019, Wall Street Journal detailed that Adam Neumann sold $700 million of his WeWork stock before its IPO. The organization was hoping to raise over $3.5 billion from its IPO.

    The We Company recorded S-1 desk work to go public. Media inclusion featured the organization’s overwhelming misfortunes uncovered by the S-1 documenting disclosures, while experts communicated apprehensions over WeWork’s capacity to end up productive later on. The IPO unveiled that WeWork faced $2 billion in losses in 2018.

    Adam Neumann left his position as the CEO and surrendered a greater part of ballot control in WeWork from 26 September 2019. WeWork also postponed its arranged securities exchange posting until the end of 2019 as issues began to arise in its corporate administration, valuation, and other business aspects.

    On September 30, 2019, WeWork officially pulled back its S-1 documentation. The proposed IPO was thus delayed. The organization’s valuation fell below $10 billion, not exactly the $12.8 billion it had raised since 2010.

    Smartkarma, an expert on speculation research expressed, “We can’t understand the reshaping’s that would be important to verbalize a way to gainfulness here,” and noted it didn’t anticipate that the organization’s valuation should go beyond $20 billion.

    Future of WeWork In India

    WeWork India has its services available in over 40 locations in 6 cities with over 62,000 members occupying over 5 million square feet of space.  

    WeWork India
    WeWork India

    Since the dispatch of the American shared workspaces supplier in India, the Bengaluru-based Embassy Group had put $181 million into the WeWork partner. The target at present is the six main markets in the nation, including Bengaluru and Mumbai.

    The raising support plans come amid discussion around WeWork’s first sale of stock. WeWork’s parent, The We Company, pulled back its IPO seven days after the SoftBank-backed adaptable office startup removed author Adam Neumann as its CEO.

    “Despite everything, we keep up a great association with WeWork all-inclusive and will hold the brand,” said Karan Virwani, chief of WeWork India.

    The organization had hold of the establishment for WeWork in India till the end of 2021. It might want to hold onto the brand; however, WeWork holds the main right of refusal and can purchase out the Indian Realty designer.

    International Haven Group had paid around $200 million for the establishment two years prior. The Realty conglomerate holds an 80% stake in the establishment.

    Independently, Embassy Group intends to concentrate on business, modern, collaborating, and co-living portions to grow its impression in the nation.

    FAQs

    Does SoftBank still own WeWork?

    Yes, Softbank holds about 65% of the equity in WeWork.

    What happened to Adam from WeWork?

    Adam Neumann resigned from the position of CEO and gave up majority voting control in 2019.

    Can WeWork be profitable?

    It is hard to tell that WeWork will be profitable ever. The company has a negative cash flow. According to WeWork’s initial-public-offering disclosures, its losses are running ahead of its revenue. WeWork is not profitable on its preferred metrics either.

    What is the problem with WeWork?

    The problem is it has a negative cash flow. According to WeWork’s initial-public-offering disclosures, its losses are running ahead of its revenue. WeWork is not profitable on its preferred metrics either. Also, its whole business model is flawed with excessive leverage.

    Does WeWork make money?

    WeWork expects revenue of around $5 billion in 2022. On other hand as of December 20, 2022, WeWork’s net worth is $1.03 billion only a drop from $21.76 billion (2021).

  • Why Did Fashion Ecommerce Startup Voonik Fail?

    Between 2017 and 2019, horizontal eCommerce players like Amazon and Flipkart were experiencing business growth within India while vertical players in the eCommerce space were struggling. Among the worst hit were online niche fashion startups that failed to make a mark. These startups were quickly riddled with cash crunches, failed to secure funding, could not sustain consumer interest, and failed at customer relationship management. Within a space of a few years, many of these vertical online fashion startups disappeared from the market as quickly as they had begun. Among the many names was Voonik, an online marketplace for women’s fashion.

    About Voonik
    Funding of Voonik
    The Beginning of the End
    Reasons for Voonik’s Failure

    Why do Most Clothing Brand Startups Fail?

    About Voonik

    Founded in 2013, as an online marketplace for women’s fashion, Voonik was initially launched as a personal mobile application. The company was started by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan and was headquartered in Bengaluru.

    In 2015, Voonik acquired TrialKart and a year later Getsty, a personalized shopping portal for men. This allowed Voonik to take a step into the premium eCommerce segment with the launch of Vilara in 2016. Voonik also acquired three startups called Zohraa, Picksilk.com and Styl in a bid to build and expand their platform. Voonik announced the acquisition of Dekkoh, a personalization and styling app in 2016. This move was aimed at steering the Voonik platform towards personalization and connecting its users to personal stylists through a chat-based app.

    Funding of Voonik

    Voonik has raised a total of USD 34.5 million in funding to date from investors like Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, Seedfund, Beenos, BEENEXT, Parkwood Bespin, Tancom Investments, Kunal Shah, and more. Its latest round of funding, worth USD 6 million, was raised in February 2017 with RB Investments Pte. Ltd. as the lead investor.

    The Beginning of the End

    Voonik Revenue from FY17 to FY20
    Voonik Revenue from FY17 to FY20

    In November 2017, reports first emerged that the fashion retailer had requested 200 of its total 350 workforce to forgo their salaries for the next 3 months. This move was a part of the cost-cutting plans of the company as it faced stiff competition from Myntra, Jabong, and Amazon among other eCommerce marketplaces. However, the CEO and Co-Founder Sujayath Ali firmly denied such reports.

    He said – “This is incorrect information and we deny it. In an all-hands meeting, I had asked team members to be ready for an uncertainty in the worst case event of the salary payments being delayed. We have full intent of paying the salaries on time. It was an exercise of preparing the team to be ready for self-sustenance from operational cash flow instead of continuing to spend from investor money.”

    Just a year before, in 2016, Voonik had increased its spends on hiring, marketing and advertising resulting in the company struggling for cash burn within a year. Voonik also failed to secure any further funding.

    In a struggle for survival over the years, Voonik had also resorted to multiple pivots, the final one being in May 2019, when it began moving to a fully private label business. This was the beginning of the end.

    In February 2020, Voonik announced its merger with Bangladesh-based ShopUp. Both the founders of Voonik also joined as Co-founders. As per several media reports, this was a distress sale as Voonik failed to find buyers within India. ShopUp is a social commerce platform that helps micro-entrepreneurs in Bangladesh to set up a storefront on the social networking site Meta (erstwhile Facebook), access working capital and grow their business by automating many sales and operational processes.

    Reasons for Voonik’s Failure

    Most online fashion brands succumbed to the general economic slowdown. However, behind the failure of Voonik were various business reasons that led to the eventual merger of the company.

    No Clear Path

    Although it began as an online niche fashion marketplace, the company operated without a clear business strategy or goal. In one of the interviews, Sujayath Ali, one of the Founders of Voonik said – “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to give a full-year guidance. But, overall, the idea is to start focusing on growth.” This statement was indicative of their lack of clarity and the direction that the business was focused on.

    Incorrect Allocation of Funds

    Although the company was able to raise funding, it focused the majority of its expenses on marketing and advertising rather than establishing and correcting operational issues. This caused a huge cash burn in 2017, causing Voonik to delay salaries in an effort to reduce costs.

    Multiple Pivots

    This was a result of a lack of clarity. In the few years since its inception, Voonik pivoted five times which caused expenses to soar while business revenue suffered. With no clear idea, the company failed at raising any further funding as well.

    Conclusion

    In 2018, Voonik was also exploring the idea of offline channels through franchise stores in tier II and tier III cities. It was piloting its offline store in the small town of Thiruthuraipoondi in the Thiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu. However, Voonik was running in different directions without any real focus or clarity. This was a tailor-made recipe for disaster that struck hard and quickly. Voonik is a case study of a series of failed attempts that eventually ended in a distress sale.

    FAQs

    What is Voonik?

    Voonik is an online marketplace for women’s fashion. It was initially launched as a personal mobile application before developing a website.

    Who founded Voonik?

    Voonik was founded by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan in the year 2013.

    Has Voonik merged with another startup?

    In February 2020, Voonik announced its merger with Bangladesh-based startup ShopUp. Both the founders of Voonik joined the company as co-founders.

    Why did Voonik fail?

    Reasons for Voonik’s failure include:

    • No Clear Path
    • Incorrect Allocation of Funds
    • Multiple Pivots

  • Why Did Yepme Fail? | Reasons for Yepme’s Failure

    Vivek Gaur, Sandeep Sharma and Anand Jadhav, three veterans of the e-commerce and retail industries got together and launched Yepme.com in April 2011. The e-commerce company specialized in online retailing of men’s and women’s garments and accessories and was headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana.

    In a 2010 interview with Bloomberg UTV, the founders said they saw immense growth potential in India’s online shopping market, which was then dominated by the travel sector. As an online apparel retailer, Yepme shifted focus to private label fashion wear in August 2011 from brand apparel. They began promoting Yepme as a private label apparel brand with the main customer focus on tier 2 and tier 3 towns and cities.

    Yepme Funding
    Growth of Yepme
    Yepme and Competition
    Why Did Yepme Fail?
    Reasons for Yepme’s Failure

    10 Reasons Fashion Brands Fail and How to Avoid Them?

    Yepme Funding

    In the financial year 2011-12, through Series A funding, Yepme raised USD 8 million from venture capital firm, Helion Ventures Partners. The India-focused early to mid-stage venture fund witnessed the growth and came forward in the second round of funding totalling their investment to USD 20 million. Another USD 75 million was raised in September 2015 from investors led by the Malaysian state fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad. As per Tracxn, Yepme has raised a total funding of USD 89.1 million.

    Growth of Yepme

    Yepme.com began in 2011 with a great marketing strategy of targeting customers from tier 2 and tier 3 towns where the big brand retail stores were absent. Within a short span of time, it established its brand in the online fashion industry within the country with over 6 million fans on Meta (erstwhile Facebook) and approximately 4000 fans on Twitter in 2015.

    Its success run continued with the business magazine Forbes rating it among the top 5 eCommerce startups. Yepme won the “Web Only Brand of the Year” award in 2014 from e-Tailing India. It was recognised as one of the top 20 brands in the world by Stylophane, a digital marketing services company.

    In 2015 Yepme entered into a contract with Flipkart and Snapdeal, the eCommerce giants, to sell its products. In a bid to build a deeper connection with the customers, Yepme expanded its presence by opening its first offline store on January 14, 2016, at DT City Centre Mall, Gurugram. The store served as a place where customers could come and try on the clothes to get the best fit. They could then buy the clothes from the physical store or the Yepme online store at the same price.

    A company spokesperson had said in a statement – “The physical store serves as a shopping zone for customers and a starting point for purchases. And if the range at the store is not enough to decide, the customers can also browse the online store and place their orders right there.”

    Additionally, the CEO and Co-Founder Vivek Gaur said – “The brand is taking a step to get closer to our customer, as customers can now experience the touch & feel of the product and the diverse range of the fashion collection for both men and women. They can also try their best fit to make an intelligent purchase online or at the store.”

    From then on, Yepme’s offline presence grew to 4 stores, with 2 stores in Noida and 2 in Gurugram.

    Yepme and Competition

    Yepme was enjoying more popularity and sales than other similar private label brands like Zovi and Freecultr due to their winning business strategies and easy shopping experiences.

    • The website offered the use of regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada apart from Hindi and English for ease of shopping.
    • They offered a wide range of products.
    • Their delivery module ensured timely doorstep deliveries.
    • The back-end customer support was prompt in solving customer queries.
    • Their multi-channel marketing was reaching a wide audience.

    Why Did Yepme Fail?

    Yepme Financials (FY2014-15 to FY2015-16)
    Yepme Financials (FY2014-15 to FY2015-16)

    In spite of witnessing such growth and popularity, disaster struck in early March of 2017 when a group of the company’s employees approached the Labour Commission complaining of unpaid salaries. The employees further blamed the management for putting undue pressure on them to resign and return company assets.

    Increasing expenses forced Yepme on a cost-reduction spree, by shutting their four offline stores and shifting their warehouse to a much smaller facility from Bilaspur in Gurugram to Kabulpur in Faridabad. Yepme also fired some employees in the process.

    By mid-September 2017, Yepme had shut down two units – warehousing and quality control and had fired more staff. By this time, the news was already circulating about the impending bankruptcy and Yepme was on the verge of permanently closing its operations.

    Why ShopClues Failed? | Case Study of the Startup’s Downfall
    ShopClues became the fourth unicorn startup in India in 2016. But it couldn’t maintain its status for long due to its false branding, rivals, etc.
    StartupTalkyRevathy Nair

    Reasons for Yepme’s Failure

    The mortality rate in the online fashion sector is high and Yepme was a prime example. There were multiple reasons for the online fashion business’s failure:

    Too Early for Private Labels

    The founder of the now-defunct eCommerce platform Yebhi, Manmohan Agarwal observed, “They didn’t realize that private label comes at an evolved stage, not at the beginning.” Private labels are usually introduced extremely discreetly among an array of well-known brands. Big players like Myntra, Pantaloons and Shoppers Stop brought in private labels only after they established strong relationships with their customers.

    Low Average Cart Size

    The average cart size of customer shopping within the Indian framework is between INR 700 and INR 900. This plays havoc with the unit economics. The second big concern is custom fitting with private labels. And another concern was that people shifted comfortably to online shopping only post-2015. Yepme was launched in 2011.

    Big Horizontal Players Monopolize the Market

    The Indian eCommerce marketplace boasts of big players like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, etc., which were monopolizing the market even back in 2015. Secondly, the market size for unique collections is very small.

    Pravin Sinha says – “Branded online fashion space has been taken away by large horizontal players. If someone is eyeing to aggregate branded fashion, nothing is left for them now.” He was heading Jabong Operations till it got acquired by Flipkart.

    Conclusion

    Yepme, while a brilliant startup idea, was simply ahead of its time. They tried too much too soon and paid the ultimate price. However, there is no doubt that the online marketplace for fashion is ruled by a few eCommerce giants, and the competition for survival is fierce.

    FAQs

    Who founded Yepme?

    Yepme was founded by Vivek Gaur, Sandeep Sharma and Anand Jadhav.

    What happened to Yepme?

    Increasing expenses forced Yepme to go on a cost-reduction spree, by shutting their four offline stores and shifting their warehouse to a much smaller facility from Bilaspur in Gurugram to Kabulpur in Faridabad. Yepme also fired some employees in the process.

    What were the reasons for Yepme’s failure?

    The reasons behind Yepme’s failure include:

    • Too Early for Private Labels
    • Low Average Cart Size
    • Big Horizontal Players Monopolizing the Market

  • Why Did Quickbooks Fail in India?

    An accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit Inc., Quickbooks was first introduced in 1983. It is mainly geared towards small and medium enterprises and offers on-premises accounting applications. It also offers cloud-based versions that accept business payments, payroll functions and bill management and payment.

    In June this year the company made a surprising announcement – “As of July 1, 2022, no new sign-ups to QuickBooks products in India will be accepted. Prior to July 31, all existing customers will be switched to a free subscription that will enable them to continue using QuickBooks until January 31, 2023, with no charges applied. Customers who paid an annual subscription will receive a pro-rata refund for the unused part of their subscription.”

    It also announced – “The decision to retire QuickBooks products in India does not impact Intuit’s ongoing presence and commitment to investing in top tech talent in the country. The 1,300+ strong team in India continues to deliver bold innovation that impacts more than 100 million Intuit customers around the world,”

    What comes as a surprise is that Intuit announced an exit at a time when Indian SMEs are increasingly digitizing their processes including bookkeeping, inventory and even delivery. This has gained speed since the pandemic. Many SMEs are, also, collaborating with SaaS startups to increase efficiency.

    This move by Intuit will help its Indian competitors like Zoho and Tally to increase their market share. In fact, Zoho has already stepped in to fill the gap caused by Intuit’s exit.

    “At Zoho, we understand how challenging it can be for businesses to find a replacement for their existing financial system. Zoho Books will be glad to serve the needs of those businesses looking for an alternative solution, and help them transition smoothly,” said Prashant Ganti, head of products tax, accounting and payroll, Zoho.

    So, the question is – Why has Intuit QuickBooks decided to exit the Indian Market?  To understand this, here’s a quick look at what is Quickbooks and what are the services it offers.

    Quickbooks – When, Where and How Was It Developed?
    QuickBooks India Journey
    The Indian Disconnection

    Quickbooks – When, Where and How Was It Developed?

    In 1983, Scott Cook and Tom Proulx co-founded Intuit Inc, in California, USA.  The company first developed ‘Quicken’, a product for individual financial management that will be immensely successful.  Following this, it developed similar services for small business owners.

    The first Release

    Quickbooks was initially released as a DOS version based on the Quicken code base. The software gained success among small business owners with no training in accounting. Quickbooks continued to grow and soon claimed 83% of the local market in the USA by 2013.

    Professional Accountants, however, were quick to point out the weak links in the software – poor security control, absence of audit trail and non-conformity with traditional accounting standards.

    Subsequent Releases

    The criticism from Professional Accounts did not go unheeded. Intuit is set to work improving upon their software constantly.

    Year 2000 – Intuit developed Basic and Pro Versions and included full audit trail capabilities, double-entry accounting function and increased functions.

    Year 2002 – Intuit launched Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions for medium-sized businesses.

    Year 2003 – Started offering industry-specific versions with workflow processes and reports including terminology specific to the trade.

    Year 2005 – Cornered 74% of the US market

    Year 2008 – More than 50,000 accountants, CPAs and independent consultants were a part of the Quickbooks ProAdvisor Program.

    Year 2014 – Quickbooks released the Quickbooks 2015 versions including features being requested by users in the past.  It included improved version of the income tracker, pinned notes, an improved registration process and insights on the homepage.

    Year 2015 – Release of Quickbooks 2016 with improvement to existing features and new features like batch transaction, bill tracking, continuous feed label printer support, batch delete/void transactions etc.

    Year 2016 – Release of Quickbooks 2017 with improvements like automated reports, smart search and improved viewing of report filters.

    Year 2017 – Release of Quickbooks 2018 with added features like mobile inventory barcode scanning, multi-monitor support, search in the chart of accounts and mobile inventory scanning.

    Year 2018 – release of Quickbooks 2019 with added unique features like a history tracker for customer invoices, the ability to transfer credits between other jobs for the same customer and a payroll adjustment feature.

    Year 2019 – release of Quickbooks 2020 aiming at improving experience quality and reliability. All desktop versions were packed with new features like the ability to add customer PO numbers in email subject lines, send batch invoices to customers, automated payment reminders, collapse and expand columns and easy updates.

    Year 2020 – release of Quickbooks 2021 with improved payment processes and automated features.  Desktop editions of this version have streamlined bank feeds, automated receipt management, rule-based customer groups, payment reminders, customized payment receipts, data level permissions and batch delete sales orders.

    Intuit’s Quickbooks versions are available in many different international markets.  The Canadian, British and Australian divisions of the company offer Quickbooks that support the unique tax calculation needs of each of these regions.

    QuickBooks India Journey

    Quickbooks entered India in 2012 providing its products and services for accountancy and small businesses.  Its product portfolio included cloud accounting, inventory management, cash flow management and invoicing.

    With its entry, Quickbooks positioned itself to target 2 million broadband-connected small businesses. With its friendly features like affordability, accessibility, ease of use and ease of installation and maintenance, it quickly gained popularity.

    In 2017, Quickbooks covered a major milestone by making the software GST compliant. It also announced an agreement with Visa to strengthen business propositions for SME customers.

    The Indian Disconnection

    After a decade of operations in the country, it has announced its exit. It has also requested all its clients to download their data and transition out of Quickbooks. With a customer base of four million globally, Intuit’s Indian customers barely constitute 1-2%.

    Its official statement for exit declared – “​​This difficult decision to discontinue QuickBooks has been made as the company can no longer deliver and support a product that meets the needs of customers in India,”

    There are compelling reasons for the discontinuation of Quickbooks.

    • Indian SMEs constitute anything from a local grocery store to manufacturers or suppliers to big brands. This poses a unique challenge to the design of the accounting software.
    • It is mandatory to have a precise understanding of the challenges and requirements of the SME industry
    • The short time frame, especially for an international player, is a huge roadblock to developing an understanding of an SME market like India which is not straightforward.
    • Standardising a product or a service for this segment is not easy
    • Indian Government’s initiative of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ has also played a key role in promoting homegrown businesses like Zoho and Tally which offer similar services and are also cost-competitive

    Conclusion

    With this exit announcement, an era is coming to an end.  It’s a story that, on one side reflects the inability of a company to keep abreast of the SME requirements in the country, and, on the other spells triumph for homegrown SaaS companies offering similar services with a deeper understanding.

    FAQs

    Why did QuickBooks exit India?

    One reason QuickBooks is planning to leave India is the Indian market is really competitive.

    Can I still use QuickBooks after the subscription expires?

    Yes, you can use QuickBooks after your subscription ends but you will not receive any security updates.

  • Why Google Glass Failed? | Biggest Marketing Lessons to Learn from Google Glass Failure

    Have you ever wondered about the next level of revolution in technology? Well, a world-famous company had thought this through years ago. In fact, they were very near to making this revolutionary development in wearable technology. But, they failed! Must be wondering why? That company was Google, which took the initiative of bringing the most evolved technology measure.

    Years ago, Google developed a smart wearable product named Google Glass. This was known to be Google “moonshot” technology. The image behind the invention was utterly brilliant but, the product didn’t come to stand on its expectations. The product was highly criticized around every aspect from price to safety.

    Google focused on hyping and uplifting people’s expectations for its products but didn’t bring out the harsh reality or its lacking in the market. This led to the major failure of Google Glass. The product’s marketing campaign kept on promoting the product as the future’s precursor technology.

    But with so much dedication and evolved technology, how and why did the Google Glass fail? This revolutionary high potential holder product was largely rejected by the consumers from the mass-market. Google Glass failed in many elements such as health and safety concerns, extensively high price, heat issues and many more.

    In this article, we have discussed these issues briefly and brought out a case study on how Google Glass failed!

    Reasons for Google Glass Failure

    Marketing Lessons to learn from Google Glass Failure

    Google Glass failure case study

    Reasons for Google Glass Failure

    Concerns over Health and Safety

    As soon as the announcement and description of Google Glass came out among the people, there were some major concerns regarding its safety measures and how it could adversely affect our health.

    People were concerned whether it would be safe to use Google Glass every day. Because as per the description, the product was expected to radiate carcinogenic radiation very close to our minds and eyes. However, other brand’s products also emit many harmful radiations, but they don’t make direct contact with our skin.

    Moreover, Google Glass could capture any image at any time so there were some concerns raised for the privacy and piracy of lives. It could capture anything randomly without the knowledge of other people.

    No clear Functioning

    Google Glass
    Google Glass

    When a new product is launched in the market, the first question that comes is what issues does this product resolve. The functioning of the product is set before its invention. You cannot build a product based on whether people would be interested or not. Because planning the functionality of any product establishes the ground goals you are achieving with that product. Marketing strategy, promotion, target marketing and everything should be pre-planned.

    However, Google Glass didn’t stand on any of these scenarios. It had two functions: capturing pictures very quickly and searching anything on the Internet in seconds. There wasn’t any usual or practical usage of this product. Therefore, it doesn’t bring any major benefits to the customers.

    Failed Startups In India | Why Indian Startups Are Not Successful
    Sustaining a startup is perhaps the most difficult phase for any entrepreneur.While everyone advocates entrepreneurship as a shortcut to mint money and get rich [https://startuptalky.com/richest-person-india-list/] scheme, the uncertainty andconstant pressure to perform is a huge responsibility e…
    StartupTalkyLakshya Singh

    Battery Issues

    Poll result for Google Glass Battery Hours
    Poll result for Google Glass Battery Hours

    Google Glass had a fixed battery limit of 4 hours, which means you need to keep on charging the glass after every four hours. The product could be discharged any time without your knowledge and then, it would be just useless until you charge it completely.

    The energy consumption in this product was much more than usual. This would result in some major problems after purchasing. And, also there aren’t any standard charging specifications. No matter how many times you charge it, it will be down after a few hours.

    Overprice

    Even with these drawbacks, Google Glass cost around $1,500. Although people were highly disappointed with this product, Google didn’t minimise the pricing. It kept on with the price of $1,500.

    The concerns related to Google Glass were not just random, these issues majorly affect the usage and functioning of this product. These issues couldn’t be resolved after 2-3 sales, in fact, these required some well-researched and evolved changes.

    Language Issues

    Google Glass only worked properly with a native English speaker from the US or UK. But when it comes to sending or commanding in any other language, Google Glass wouldn’t recognise it.

    The major drawback is it cannot be corrected with the keyboard (as in smartphones) because there isn’t any. So it means you can only command in British or American English. That’s why it would become absolutely tough to handle.

    Why Blackberry Failed to dominate the Smartphone market? [Case Study]
    When recalling the old BlackBerry Era, the most magnificent and best premiumsmartphone around the world comes to our mind. Yes, we are all well aware of thepopularity and craze of blackberry in the early 2000s. BlackBerry smartphoneswere considered as the possession for all those symbolizing high…
    StartupTalkyPratyusha Srivastava

    Heating Issues

    There were some critical concerning issues regarding the heating of Google Glass. When you record a video of 10-15 minutes, it becomes excessively heated because of the intensive computation working. Then, you would need to cool it down immediately otherwise it could cause some high damage not definitively wrong for health.

    Marketing Lessons to learn from Google Glass Failure

    Before launching any revolutionary and high-tech product, you must take a look at the lessons to be learnt from the failure of Google Glass. These lessons are widely described in the following points.

    • Underline the everyday benefits of your product boldly, with the help of paid media who strengthen your product’s PR.
    • Release the product with a short and quick scheduled time to embrace the momentum of purchasing.
    • Do not repeat the mistakes done by Google in the case of Google Glass.
    • Launch your product with utter clearance on what goals you expected to achieve through your product.
    • Maintain and monitor your product advertising and marketing to get a better experience as well as the opportunity to amend the drawbacks.

    Conclusion

    Google had put a great fraction of creativity and technology with Google Glass. It did try to monetize wearable technology. But, it lacked some major elements which resulted in a complete backup for this product. Google may have some very great and interesting plans and ideas for technology but, it does lose in the basic points of checklist.

    Technology is evolving but, with this evolving technology, you must keep in mind that the requirements of consumers are fulfilled. The evolution of technology is in the hands of companies like Google but, the question is, whether the future is products like Google Glass or others?

    FAQs

    What does Google Glass do?

    Google Glass was a wearable computer that could function as a hands-free smartphone, letting users access the mobile internet browser, camera, maps, calendar, and other apps by voice commands.

    When was Google Glass launched?

    Google Glass was launched for public retail on 15 May 2014. The early prototype version “Glass Explorers” was launched in the US in 2013.

    How much money did Google Glass lose?

    Google lost around $895 million on moonshot projects – Google Glass.

    Why did Google Glass fail?

    One of the biggest reason Why Google Glass failed is because it lacked the clarity on why the product exists. The designers did not clearly define or validate, what solutions Google Glass would give for its users, or how customers would use the glasses.

    What were the main reasons for Google Glass failure?

    The main reasons for Google Glass failure were the issues in the wearable device:

    • Concerns over Health and Safety
    • No clear Functioning
    • Battery Issues
    • Overprice
    • Language Issues
    • Heating Issues

  • Why Did Myspace Fail to Compete Against Facebook?

    Myspace, launched in 2004, was one of the biggest social media giants of the early 2000s. However, it failed miserably. What happened? Was it running in loss, was it facing stiff competition from Facebook, was it about the acquisition from News Corp, was it the legal battles, etc. We are here to decode the probable reasons for the failure of Myspace and why it couldn’t compete with Facebook. Let us first see the introduction of this social networking site called Myspace.

    What is Myspace?
    Why Was Myspace So Popular?
    What Was the Reason Behind Mindspace’s Failure?
    The Acquisition of Myspace (Road to Its Downfall)
    Does Myspace Still Exist?

    What is Myspace?

    In the early 2000s, social networking sites were a new thing. MySpace dominated the social networking space online, averaging over 75 million visitors per month at its peak.

    MySpace was extremely unfortunate or rather went weak because Facebook, with its cutting-edge features like the uber-cool and updated news feed, quickly outperformed it and never looked back. However, this does not mean that Facebook’s emergence was the sole cause of Myspace’s downfall.

    It is also reported that the company’s administration and management were extremely poor which aided in putting the final nail in the coffin.

    Why Was Myspace So Popular?

    The meaning of social media has evolved a lot in the current times. We’ve evolved to be real and fearless on social media because it is one of the other worlds we live in. However back then it wasn’t like this, people were not easily open on social media platforms. They feared being online.

    To engage with other users, Myspace users would construct web pages for their profiles that showcased their interests. Instead of using their real identities on Myspace (as opposed to Facebook), users frequently used a made-up nickname.

    Myspace Profile
    Myspace Profile

    Users could post blogs, participate in forums, follow official accounts, and connect with friends in addition to interacting with friends. The primary goal of Myspace was to promote other musicians.

    Users could even listen to music and discuss them with others in a special section of the website. Later on, it added a classifieds and video area, which ended up being a smash hit, to compete with sites like Craigslist and YouTube.

    Myspace took huge steps in the advertisement and marketing industry and signed big deals with Google and hit record stats as well. Myspace was having a gala time in the next months of its launch.

    What Was the Reason Behind Mindspace’s Failure?

    Even though, we see that Myspace was launched back in the early 2000s when there were no or negligible competitors in this market. And of course, the site attained heights of success too.

    MySpace’s popularity can be credited to easy accessibility and synchronicity. The website was one of the earliest social media platforms when it was introduced in 2003. It was preceded by Friendster, which was also well-liked at the time. However, as a consequence of technological issues and an overabundance of targeted advertisements, Friendster’s popularity decreased.

    MySpace made it more convenient and was open to all users, allowed them to personalize their pages, and periodically added new features in response to user demands.

    Additionally, it served as a kind of forerunner to contemporary influencers by attracting a lot of creative individuals and enabling brand and user interaction. But as Facebook was launched, people got a wider platform with better facilities. People had the facility of making accounts with their real names and could use their real details, and photos which made them feel more connected with the outer world.

    On the contrary, it was the opposite on Myspace where people used fictitious names and photos which was not only harmful but the sense of connection was absent. Hence, Facebook was a whole new evolution. As a result, the majority of the users shifted to Facebook or rather made accounts there as well and with time forgot about Myspace being an online space.

    Why Did Google Stadia Fail to Impress Gamers?
    The gaming platform Stadia was introduced in 2019 by Google but was pulled off in 2021. Here’s a complete look at its launch and failure.
    StartupTalkyAishani Biswas

    The Acquisition of Myspace (Road to Its Downfall)

    The media behemoth News Corporation was interested in MySpace because of its popularity and purchased it for $580 million in 2005. MySpace was initially convinced by New Corp that nothing will ever radically change and that this would play a passive role in the growth of the company.

    MySpace was acquired with a new objective in mind. The need to increase sales was now more critical. MySpace was consequently deluged with aggressive advertisements, many of which directed users to suspicious pages requesting that they join up for credit card payments and other services.

    As portions were built to try and produce income that would fulfill News Corp’s impossible targets, money was drained from developer resources. In the end, users left the site for others because the community’s needs and the usability of the platform weren’t prioritised.

    Not only this but online harassment and bullying became a common thing after Myspace started focussing on News Corporations’ objectives more. There were severe cases of sex offenders trying to harass small children online. This not only raised questions on social media regulation but also harmed the reputation of Myspace as a safe space.

    The anger raged when there were suicide cases due to online harassment and money-draining people. There were many cases and lawsuits against Myspace and it couldn’t handle them well. Raged people complained that they did not want their children to be a part of such a platform which could induce negativity and leads to suicidal activities.

    Does Myspace Still Exist?

    Today when various social networking platforms exist, where is Myspace? Myspace has been attempting to increase its efforts in the music industry ever since. It occasionally adds new music features, collaborations, and so on. It still exists as a social media site but it is primarily dedicated to music.

    Myspace Website in 2022
    Myspace Website in 2022

    Despite multiple rebranding attempts, MySpace hasn’t ever come close to winning back what it used to have, and News Corp sold MySpace to Time Inc in 2011 for an undisclosed sum, originally supposed to be $35 million.

    The site still exists as a music-focused social media platform, but it is typically much smaller and nowhere near the powerhouse it once was. In 2019, it had to make a public apology for losing 12 years of online content matter during a server migration.


    All this accounts for Myspaces’ fateful failure and the position it is in today. The platform could have performed better had it focussed on its sole purpose of connecting people instead of generating revenue from ads etc.

    FAQs

    How did myspace fail to adapt?

    Mindspace had aggressive ads, it had a clumsy website design and the social media didn’t add new features.

    Why did myspace fail and Facebook succeed?

    Myspace was a platform that allowed users to use a nickname instead of their real name as Facebook allowed users to use their real name which was one of the reasons why Myspace failed.

    What ended Myspace?

    There were many legal battles against myspace as people misused the platform to harass or bully others.

  • Why Did Google Stadia Fail to Impress Gamers?

    If you are someone who loves gaming, Google’s Stadia is perfect for your games and entertainment purposes. Launched in November 2019, Stadia make your favourite games instantly accessible no matter where you are.

    It’s apparent that Stadia’s technology has been proven and works at scale, as evidenced by the recent successful launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, gameplay on all types of platforms, including iOS, extending our slate of YouTube integrations, and our global expansions.

    It was an attempt by Google to join the video games and entertainment industry by creating this platform. Unlike Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, Google’s focus was on cloud-based streaming, which means that instead of purchasing real gear like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, consumers only need a compatible device, such as a phone or tablet, and they can play from anywhere.

    Unsuccessful Launch
    Poor Advertising Plan
    Falling Back in Delivering Better Service
    Misconceptions About the Gaming Market
    Stadia Was Like a Stranded Product on Google’s Platform

    What Is Google Stadia?

    Stadia is a cloud gaming service introduced by Google. It was a new type of gaming platform that does not involve any console requirement to gain gaming experience. Instead, Google Stadia allows the users to play their games on any available screen over the internet.

    Google Stadia
    Google Stadia

    Google Stadia was introduced on 19th November 2019 and discontinued on 1st February 2021. Even after being a Google product with a great concept, Stadia failed to create its place in the market.

    There can be many reasons for the failure of the Stadia such as:

    Unsuccessful Launch

    Unfortunately for Google, the program received backlash when it first launched about a year and a half ago. The reviews suggested that the management could have devoted more effort to working out Stadia’s faults. From there, things only seemed to become worse, culminating in the latest studio shutdown and discoveries that made social media news.

    Google Stadia Reviews
    Google Stadia Reviews

    Whenever one adds in claims of odd money management and an apparent misunderstanding of how the games industry works whenever it comes to AAA ports, the streaming service has had a hard go of it recently. Stadia’s potential employers dropped 68% lower according to the business reports, a year after its unsuccessful launch.

    Critics instantly warned users against using the service because of its limited game catalogue and several technical concerns. It has also failed to acquire traction, even though COVID-19 was witnessing one of the most significant increases in gaming popularity in the medium’s history. So, when other gaming platforms gained popularity Stadia was losing its day by day. Which was strange because Google had Stadia’s back.

    Google Stadia Active User Count Of The Year 2019-2020.
    Google Stadia Active User Count Of The Year 2019-2020.

    Poor Advertising Plan

    Now, in circumstances like these, at least the advertisements and brand awareness go up. Since this was a gaming platform the creators did try and reach out to its audience (Gen Z) but, Stadia had received its fair share of setbacks on social media. On February 26, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published an article explaining, Google’s Stadia strategy and also tweeted about it.

    Jason Schreier on Google Stadia
    Jason Schreier on Google Stadia

    The article gave details outlining the platform’s growth from inception to debut in November 2019, “although Schreier claimed that the corporation was spending tens of millions of dollars on each Stadia port that went viral on social media.

    Essentially, instead of investing those resources toward independent developers or Stadia’s studios to create unique content for the service, Google was paying Ubisoft and other AAA video game developers ridiculous sums to bring their latest titles to Stadia.”

    Paying millions of dollars for games that had already been launched was even more distressing news, given that Google had only announced the closing of its in-house studios a few weeks previously. Instead of being developed by Google, all original content created solely for Stadia will have to come through partnerships with other studios.  

    Overall, Google STADIA has failed to live up to its creator’s expectations of being a game-changing platform. It doesn’t appear to be getting any better, either, given its bumpy history.

    List of Subsidiaries and Acquisitions of Ubisoft
    Ubisoft is one of the top gaming companies in the world headquartered in Montreuil. Take a look at the subsidiaries of Ubisoft.
    StartupTalkyRoshni Tamta

    Falling Back in Delivering Better Service

    During the launch event of Stadia, There were many promises done by the speaker.

    Google Stadia Launch
    Google Stadia Launch

    Stadia is not constrained by the limitation of traditional console systems. Instead, we have built a truly flexible, scalable, and modern platform that allows us to push performance beyond what was previously considered possible. This architecture gives us even more flexibility to scale. And thanks to fast transfer speeds between the Stadia instances in our data center, our platform can connect instances to dynamically expand the capabilities, along with the need of your games. As a developer, you’re used to being forced to tone down your creative ambition, [which is] limited by the hardware. But our vision with Stadia is that the processing resources available will scale up to match your imagination. In this new generation, the data center is your platform. Revealed by Stadia Head of Engineering Majd Bakar during the launch event.

    However, when the product was made in use, the reality found was quite different from the explanation. Stadia failed to survive users test and create a place in the market. Many users report claiming Stadia slow servers with poor resolution. Hence, this also added to the list of “drawbacks of Stadia”.

    Growth Of Indian Gaming Industry During Pandemic
    The Indian Online Gaming Industry is growing exponentially fast and is expected to be worth $1.1 billion by 2021, this is because of the Covid 19 pandemic.
    StartupTalkyPV Vyshnavi

    Misconceptions About the Gaming Market

    Google is a big name in the market. However, this name is majorly applied in cloud services only. It was the first time creation of a gaming product by Google. Hence, it can be assumed that Google was not aware of the trends going on in the market and might have a misconception about it.

    The gaming market no longer lacks any technology-related limits. Instead, it is the place where much new technology takes part as the first trial. Google might have taken the gaming market still as a newbie and didn’t minded to work more on the project.

    Stadia’s Game and Entertainment was the first in-house gaming studio developed by Stadia. It was pulled off after one year of discontinuing Stadia. The gaming studio was given the charge of creating exclusive games. However, the decision of pulling it off caused others a hazy impression of Google.

    Creating games takes time and the decision of closing the Studio within one year of stadia affected the employees working in the studio with multi-year reassurance. All these indicate the misconception that Google has related to the gaming industry and indirectly caused the failure of the platform as a whole.

    Stadia Was Like a Stranded Product on Google’s Platform

    The sentence stranded in a place might seem like an exaggeration to use for Stadia. However, in reality, the only connection between Stadia and other Google platforms was from 4K live on YouTube.

    These factors can indirectly affect the popularity of newly introduced products. Stadia was too late to realize this. It took the whole year for Stadia to be included in the 2020’s Chromecast with Google TV.

    For the initial months, Stadia was known to work with Pixel phones only. However, with the launch of Pixel 6, Stadia was nowhere to be seen in its bundle. Whereas, Stadia was marketed as a major point in the selling of Pixel phone.

    Stadia was forgotten by Google at such limits that Xbox provides YouTube premium as its perk. However, Google didn’t consider using the same tactic for its brand. With all these points, it can be assumed that Stadia was long forgotten even before its discontinuation causing a few percent of damage to its popularity which led to its failure.

    Conclusion

    Google Stadia was created with much hope and as a Google-backed product. Yet, at many points, Google failed to impress the gamers with Stadia causing an ultimate decision of discontinuing the service. Stadia was created as a gaming platform that can be used on any normal screen rather than using the console. However, due to many issues, it was pulled off in 2021 by Google. Some of the estimated reasons behind the failure of Stadia are shared above.

    FAQs

    What is Google Stadia?

    Google Stadia is a gaming platform developed by Google that allows its users to play games on a single platform using the same screen. It is a cloud video gaming platform that does not require any additional hardware to play games in it.

    Why did Google Stadia fail?

    Google Stadia failed due to many reasons. Some of them are poor advertising plans, improper implementation of strategies, bugs in the service, etc.

    Are games on Stadia Free?

    The games available on Stadia fall into different categories. One is free and the other requires a subscription. Few games are free on the Stadia to play.

    What happened to Google Stadia?

    Google Stadia stagnated on 1st February 2021 after its unfortunate failure in creating a name and meeting the user target.

  • Ankiti Bose – Story of Founder and CEO of Zilingo

    Through social networking applications, retail stores, and augmented realities, technology is transforming the way customers purchase. To market their brands in front of their customers, brands are adjusting to changes such as adopting more and more technology to make it more convenient for customers to shop.

    In an overly catered fashion industry, creating a novel and unique experience may set a business apart from the competition. Zilingo is such a fashion technology and e-commerce platform that worked with the idea of utilising technology to put up appropriate and efficient business within everyone’s reach.

    Ankiti Bose cofounded Zilingo and is also the ex-CEO of this e-commerce startup. She received various awards and recognition and even made to Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list, as well as Fortune’s 40 Under 40 2019. She was terminated from her role as the CEO in April 2022 after a trial to pursue money-related suspicions regarding Zilingo’s accountancy operations. Bose was then ousted from Zilingo in May 2022, .which eventually resulted in her quitting from the Zilingo board too on June 30, 2022.

    Ankiti Bose – Biography

    Name Ankiti Bose
    YOB 1992
    Nationality Indian
    Occupation Co-founder and former CEO of Zilingo
    Previous Jobs Venture Capital and Management Consulting at Sequoia Capital and McKinsey & Company
    Net Worth $5 million

    Ankiti Bose – Early Life, and Education
    Ankiti Bose – Family
    Ankiti Bose – Career
    Ankiti Bose – Zilingo
    Ankiti Bose – Early Challenges
    Ankiti Bose – Controversies Related To Zilingo
    Ankiti Bose – Awards

    Ankiti Bose – Early Life, and Education

    Ankiti Bose is an Indian entrepreneur, who is known for her keen determination and fashion sense. Zilingo, an eCommerce and fashion-technology startup, was co-founded by her, along with Dhruv Kapoor, a software engineer and an IIT graduate. But after an attempt to raise cash prompted doubts about Zilingo’s accounting systems, she was terminated by the board from her role and responsibilities in April 2022.

    Ankiti Bose with her Husband, Dhruv Kapoor
    Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor

    She attended Poddar School and Cambridge School in Mumbai, which forms the base of her education. She attended St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai to study economics and mathematics. She made Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list in 2018, and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and Bloomberg 50 lists in 2019.

    Ankiti Bose – Family

    Ankiti’s father, whose name is unknown, worked for a state-owned oil business as an engineer. Because of his job, Ankiti’s family had to relocate frequently as she grew up. Ankiti’s mother was a university professor, and her name is also unknown. She resigned from her job to take care of her family and her single child, Ankiti.

    Ankiti Bose – Career

    Bose gave a head start to her career in Bangalore with her first job in McKinsey & Company and Sequoia Capital. Bose realised that fashion marketplaces in Southeast Asia had a lot of space for penetration and expansion after visiting the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

    Over 11,000 individual retailers do not have an internet name in the market. While there was an investment in boosting internet connection, Bose observed that shops were unprepared to cope with major global firms due to a lack of training in finance, scalability, web designing, and sourcing.

    Bose resigned from her job as a financial analyst at Sequoia Capital in 2015 to start her own business, Zilingo. Bose created Zilingo while she was just twenty-three years old. In 2016, she relocated to Singapore to work on technology and distribution network solutions.

    In 2019, Zilingo secured $226 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at $970 million. It has over seven million active users on the global network as of 2019. Because of the trade conflict between the United States and China, American retailers left China, allowing Zilingo to grow in the United States. She has sought to get Indian textiles for Californian firms and has opened offices on both the West and East coasts.

    Bose developed a programme at Zilingo to teach Indonesian women how to make garments, recognising that about 40% of Indonesian women leave the industry after getting married. To help executives throughout the firm, Zilingo established a coaching programme. Bose participates in services that help and train female entrepreneurs.

    Ankiti Bose – Zilingo

    Co-founder and CEO of Zilingo - Ankiti Bose
    Co-founder and CEO of Zilingo – Ankiti Bose

    Zilingo is an online fashion marketplace service and e-commerce website launched in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor, who each invested $44,000 in the venture. Sequoia India provided initial money, and in September 2016, the firm secured an additional $8 million in a Series A funding round. In 2017, it secured an additional $18 million in a Series B round, and in 2018, it raised $54 million in Series C financing.  

    Zilingo was exporting to eight countries by September 2017 and had seller hubs in Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand, with 5,000 new merchants added in the preceding year.

    In February 2019, Zilingo raised $226 million in a new round of funding from Sequoia India, Burda, Singapore sovereign fund Temasek, and Sofina. The partners have secured $28 million with the full backing of heavyweight investors like Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper, and presently have 8,000 merchants and over two million consumers.

    Ankiti Bose – Early Challenges

    Ankiti signed up as a retailer to obtain the customer experience to truly comprehend the market and make Zilingo as welcoming as possible to merchants. Zilingo was not built on orders and commands; instead, it was built on as much personal experience as possible to become what it is today.

    Ankiti and her team quickly recognised that having only an e-commerce network was insufficient to assist these small firms. They were severely lacking in production, shipping, and other operations that a larger company would have. This is why Zilingo decided to create an online market platform that would help small businesses grow.

    In 2016, they supported organisations with product development and design, data analytics, logistics, and customer service by developing software to offer supply chain capabilities.

    Ankiti Bose – Controversies Related To Zilingo

    Singaporean B2B fashion e-commerce startup Zilingo has suspended its Indian founder and CEO, Ankiti Bose, after irregularities in the company’s accounts were reportedly uncovered during an attributable procedure for a fresh financing round.

    Bose has denied the charges and challenged her suspension, calling the firm’s move a “witch hunt” sparked by harassment complaints she filed against a corporate investor.

    The apparent accountancy issues surfaced just as Zilingo was in active discussions to seek $150-200 million in a fresh round at a projected valuation of $1.2 billion, setting the stage for it to become a unicorn.

    Ankiti Bose then retaliated with several charges after the company announced her departure as CEO following an inquiry into financial irregularities.

    Bose has threatened to sue the board saying, she was fired because of her rebellious nature with Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia managing director Shailendra Singh. She holds an 8.58% stake in the company and is attempting to reclaim the business’s $40 million in unpaid obligations, which creditors recalled following her discharge.

    The company, in a statement, said, “Following an investigation led by an independent forensics firm that was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate Ankiti Bose’s employment with cause, and reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action.”

    Ankiti Bose – Awards

    Year Award
    2018 Asia’s Forbes 30 under 30
    2019 Fortune magazine’s 40 Under 40, The Bloomberg 50, and Business Worldwide Magazine Most Innovative CEO of the Year – Singapore
    2020 Singapore Top 100 Women in Tech List

    FAQs

    Who is Ankiti Bose?

    Ankiti Bose is a 29-year-old entrepreneur who co-founded the e-commerce startup Zilingo.

    Who founded Zilingo?

    Zilingo was launched by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor.

    What does Zilingo do?

    Zilingo is a fashion technology and e-commerce brand.

    What is the net worth of Ankiti Bose?

    Ankit Bose’s net worth is reported to be approximately $5 million.

  • 21 Biggest Marketing Failures of All Time

    Advertisement failure can be a nightmare for a company. It may occur due to more focus on creativity than the product itself. Other reasons may include an improper tone or just the wrong timing.

    Advertising your brand is the best way to reach your customers. It helps to communicate the details of your product and increases brand value. It brings the attention of your target audience to your company.

    In short, it helps bring more money to your business. This makes advertising a very useful and powerful tool.

    In today’s world, it has become really easy to advertise your brand. There are several platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. that are free. You can advertise your product here without spending much.

    However, with this ease and availability of advertisement options, the frequency of advertisement failures has also increased. We often become an audience to such incidents. These blunders can cost a brand its goodwill and an ample amount of money.

    In this article, we bring for you the biggest advertisement failures of all times and the lessons to learn from them.

    1. Pepsi: Kendel Jenner Protest
    2. Dove: Body Shape Bottles
    3. McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish Burger
    4. Ford: Figo India Poster
    5. Sony PSP White Billboard
    6. Burger King: Smartphone Campaign
    7. Audi: Chinese Wedding Commercial
    8. Adidas: Boston Marathon Email
    9. Airbnb: Floating World Email
    10. Ink Coffee: Gentrification Sign
    11. Dove: Racist Facebook Campaign
    12. Bud Light Beer: Removing NO From Your Vocabulary
    13. Blackberry: Tweet From iPhone
    14. Kurl on: Malala Poster Ad
    15. KFC: Oprah Winfrey Free Chicken Giveaway
    16. Walker’s: Selfie Competition
    17. Facebook: VR Puerto Rico Tour
    18. Nivea: Invisible Deodrant
    19. Snapchat: Would You Rather!
    20. Starbucks: Blonde Espresso
    21. Bootea Shake: Copy and Paste Caption

    1. Pepsi: Kendel Jenner Protest

    An advertisement of Pepsi casting Kendel Jenner was released on 4th April 2017. In the advertisement, Jenner is shown resolving the issues of black people by handing over a can of Pepsi to a Police officer. The tagline of the advertisement was “Live Bolder”.

    Although, as per Pepsi, the purpose of the advertisement was to show Pepsi as a unifying tool for different people, the audience did not feel the same. There was a lot of outrage regarding the advertisement which was finally pulled back by the company.

    2. Dove: Body Shape Bottles

    Dove Body Shape Bottle
    Dove Body Shape Bottle

    Dove as a brand has been appreciated a lot for its real beauty campaigns. The company is a part of Unilever and has brought a great difference to the meaning of beauty for people. The company runs reality-based advertisements casting real-life women.

    They have always claimed that their motto is to celebrate body diversity and also, to spread the beauty confidence in women of all shapes. However, a 2017 advertisement of the company became a huge controversy.

    The company decided to launch a limited edition of body wash bottles in different shapes resembling women of different sizes. But, the campaign did not go as expected and was ridiculed a lot.

    It was said that choosing one out of different shaped bottles made women more self-conscious. Even Kristen Bellstrom of Fortune’s broadsheet newsletter criticized the advertisement.

    3. McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish Burger

    On May 12, 2017, McDonald’s launched an ad that showed a boy trying to find similarities with his dead father. In the end, the boy is seen happy as he finds that his father liked the same burger as he does.

    The ad was highly criticized and called upsetting. McDonald’s was accused of exploiting the misery and pain of children by selling food. Later, an apology was released by McDonald’s in which they said “This was by no means an intention of ours. We wanted to highlight the role McDonald’s has played in our customers’ everyday lives – both in good and difficult times.”

    4. Ford: Figo India Poster

    In 2013, Ford launched a poster campaign in India for its Figo car. It was produced by JWT India and focused on the larger trunk capacity of the vehicle. The tagline was “Leave your worries behind with Figo’s extra-large boot (trunk).”

    The advertisement showed caricatures of three tied and gagged women in the trunk. The caricature of Ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was shown in the driver’s seat. Berlusconi was charged and was known for his many affairs.

    As a result, Ford faced a huge backlash. Ford Marketing chief Jim Farley officially apologized publicly. Also, it resulted in the termination of a few employees at JWT India.

    5. Sony PSP White Poster

    Sony PSP White Poster
    Sony PSP White Poster

    In 2006, Sony launched a printed ad in Netherland to promote its white-coloured Playstation Portable. The tagline was “Playstation Portable. White is Coming”.

    The poster showed a massive white woman with aggressive expressions tightly holding the face of a black woman, who looks scared. This was called the racist ad and was criticized a lot.

    Sony later withdrew the campaign and issued an apology saying: “The images that were used in the campaign were intended solely to highlight the contrast between the different colours available for the PSP.”

    6. Burger King: Smartphone Campaign

    A smartphone campaign was launched by Burger King that let users see their menu and ingredients on their smart devices. They made use of Wikipedia as a platform. Although the campaign in itself did not have any issue, it was hacked by someone who altered the name of ingredients including poisonous substances such as cyanide. This caused an overnight panic. Finally, the company had to shut a potentially innovative marketing channel.

    7. Audi: Chinese Wedding Commercial

    A commercial was aired for the promotion of used Audi cars in 2017. The tagline was “An important decision must be made carefully.”

    The ad begins at a wedding scene and shows an old woman is seen running to the altar where his son is getting married. The woman checks the nose, ears, teeth, and other body parts of the bride. After which she gets down giving an okay sign. The campaign was highly criticized for objectifying women.

    8. Adidas: Boston Marathon Email

    Adidas was the sponsor of the 121st annual race in Boston, named Adidas Boston Marathon. A congratulations email was sent to all the Marathon finishers. The subject of the email read “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!”

    Adidas Boston Marathon Email
    Adidas Boston Marathon Email

    This might seem like a normal fun-filled heading. However, people were deeply offended owing to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing case. The incident had caused the death of 3 people and injured around 250.

    An official apology was issued by Adidas. In a statement to TIME, they said “We are incredibly sorry. Clearly, there was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.”

    List Of Best Storytelling Ads that Inspired Many
    Storytelling plays a very important role in advertising. Here are the best examples of storytelling ads that took the brand to new heights.
    StartupTalkyAvantika Bhardwaj

    9. Airbnb: Floating World Email

    On August 28, 2017, Airbnb sent an email to its subscribers. It was themed “Floating homes, waterfall slides, & more reasons to travel”. Also, the email said, “Stay above water, live the life aquatic with these floating homes.”

    Airbnb Floating World
    Airbnb Floating World

    Although it appears as a harmless email, it came at the time Hurricane Harvey was still creating havoc in Houston, Texas. Obviously, it was not taken with ease and faced criticism.

    10. Ink Coffee: Gentrification Sign

    A coffee shop located in the north of downtown Denver suffered huge backlash and even vandalism owing to a signboard placed in front of the shop.

    ink Coffee Gentrification Board
    ink Coffee Gentrification Board

    The board stated, “Happily Gentrifying the neighbourhood since 2014.” The founder and owner of the coffee shop Keith Herbert faced huge crowds of protestors. He later issued an apology saying, he was not exactly aware of the issues related to gentrification.

    11. Dove: Racist Facebook Campaign

    Once again in 2017 Dove landed into controversy owing to its Facebook ad. It was a four-panel image that had a black woman wearing a dark-coloured T-shirt in the first two panels. However, as the woman removes her T-shirt a white woman in light colour T-shirt comes out.

    Dove Facebook Campaign
    Dove Facebook Campaign

    The complete ad was a GIF featuring three women. The next woman was revealed as the earlier one who removed her T-shirt. As per the Company, the idea was to show “the diversity of beauty”. However, the ad was highly criticized for its racist nature. Dove removed the ad and apologized through Facebook.

    12. Bud Light Beer: Removing NO From Your Vocabulary

    All the bottles of Bud Light Beer released in April 2015, had a tagline printed on the label. It said “The perfect beer for removing “NO” from your vocabulary for the night # up for whatever”.

    Bud Light Beer Label
    Bud Light Beer Label

    People felt that the campaign was promoting rape culture and neglecting the power of consent. The certainly was a misleading advertisement.

    13. Blackberry: Tweet From iPhone

    A new smartphone was launched by Blackberry in 2015. For the promotion, a picture of the phone was shared on Twitter. Although the new smartphone appeared smart and sleek, problem was that the picture was taken using an iPhone.

    BlackBerry Tweet from iPhone
    BlackBerry Tweet from iPhone

    The picture was removed but, it had already got noticed with screenshots taken. This invited a lot of trolling for the company.

    14. Kurl on: Malala Poster Ad

    A print ad was released by Kurl On, a mattress brand in India. The ad showed a caricature of Malala Yousafzai being shot and different stages of her recovery. Then, she bounces back on Kurl on the mattress to receive the international award.

    Kurl-on Poster
    Kurl-on Poster

    The ad was one in a series of three. The other two featured Mahatma Gandhi and Steve Job. Although, the company meant no harm, using a sensitive incident like that of Malala disturbed public emotions inviting criticism.

    15. KFC: Oprah Winfrey Free Chicken Giveaway

    At that time, Oprah’s show was quite popular in the US. KFC saw this as an opportunity to advertise their newly launched Kentucky Fried Chicken. They offered a free meal to the viewers of the Oprah show by using a coupon that could be downloaded from the Oprah website. However, little did they know that the plan would backfire.

    KFC Free Chicken
    KFC Free Chicken

    Over 10.5 million people downloaded the coupons and applied for a free meal. The company finally had to cancel the deal under the reason of overwhelming response.

    16. Walker’s: Selfie Competition

    Walkers Wave Campaign
    Walkers Wave Campaign

    In 2017, a UK-based Snack Company named “Walker’s” started #WalkersWave campaign on Twitter. The visitors were asked to share their selfies. Through this people could participate in a lucky draw to win tickets to the Champion’s League final. However, the issues arose some miscreants instead of selfies shared pictures of serial killers and other criminals. These pictures appeared in an auto-generated video.

    17. Facebook: VR Puerto Rico Tour

    Facebook VR
    Facebook VR

    In 2017, a hurricane hit Puerto Rico. Mark Zuckerberg used the VR app of Facebook (Now Meta) to visit there through an NPR-produced 360-video of Puerto Rico. The idea was to tell people about the help Facebook has been providing in the disaster-struck country. However, the cartoonish avatars used in the video looked funny and this, Facebook was condemned for its insensitivity. The video appeared more of a show-off of the VR capabilities of Facebook. An apology was issued by Mark Zuckerberg clarifying his intent.

    18. Nivea: Invisible Deodrant

    Nivea launched a range of transparent deodorants in 2017. The ad campaign featured a woman, with her back facing the camera. She had black hair and wore a white-coloured dress. The tagline was “white is purity”. The advertisement was criticized for its racist nature.

    Nivea White is Purity
    Nivea White is Purity Ad

    19. Snapchat: Would You Rather!

    An advertisement was launched on Snapchat for a game named “Would You Rather?”, in 2018. The ad presented the users with the question “Would you rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown?” This was a disaster owing to the much highlighted 2009 domestic violence case of Chris Brown and Rihanna.

    Snapchat Would you rather ad
    Snapchat Would you rather ad

    Later, the ad was pulled off. Snapchat issued a public apology using its competitor app Instagram.

    20. Starbucks: Blonde Espresso

    Starbucks launched a new blonde espresso in 2018. This was a gentle drink and was said to be more suitable for the new coffee drinkers. However, the advertisement to promote this espresso was mocked owing to the vague language used. The landing page read Also, the coffee name like “Tall blonde” appeared weird to people for placing an order.

    21. Bootea Shake: Copy and Paste Caption

    In 2016, the shake company asked Scott Disick, a social media influencer, to promote their brand through Instagram.

    Scott Disick Bootea Shake Caption
    Scott Disick Bootea Shake Caption

    Well, he did what he had to. He copy-pasted the caption along with the promotional photo clicked for the post. However, he accidentally also pasted the instructions received from the company. Both the Company and Scott were heavily trolled.

    Lessons to learn from these advertisements

    • Choose the tone and timing of your advertisement carefully.
    • Keep political and social scenarios in mind while creating an ad.
    • It is better to focus on the product itself instead of trying to be creative.
    • Double-check your work before you finally release it to the public.
    • Be cautious with who you partner with. The influencers and celebrities that align with your work should be clear on what they are expected to do.

    Why Blackberry Failed to dominate the Smartphone market? [Case Study]
    Blackberry one of the brands that once dominated the whole mobile phone market but What led to its downfall, Where did it went wrong? Lets find out.
    StartupTalkyPratyusha Srivastava

    Conclusion

    Advertising is a double-edged sword. It is capable of creating an extremely positive or exceptionally negative image of a brand. We sincerely hope this article helps you choose your advertisement wisely.

    FAQs

    What are some marketing fails?

    Pepsi: Kendel Jenner Protest, Dove: Body Shape Bottles, Airbnb: Floating World, Nivea: Invisible Deodrant, Sony PSP White billboard, and Adidas: Boston Marathon Email.

    What is the most successful ad of all time?

    Apple – “1984”, Wendy’s – “Where’s the Beef?”, Tootsie Pop – “How Many Licks?”, Coca-Cola – “Meet Joe Greene are some of the most successful campaigns of all time.

    Why do most marketing campaigns fail?

    Unrealistic expectations, Less research, not targeting the right audience, and delivering a wrong message are some of the common reasons why most marketing campaigns fail.

  • How to Build trust among the employees?

    Trust is considered an important factor in any relationship. Building good relations and trust with clients and employees is a key to success and an effective team.  As an effective manager, you are always more concerned about the productivity of the employees, But if your actions show a lack of trust among the employees then they won’t be productive and supportive of your decisions. Faith, belief and trust are important factors for which every business organization should stand for. Here we present the important ways by which you can build trust among your employees:

    Invest in them
    Have Strong Moral Principles
    Be accountable for yourself too
    Understand the goals of employees and be supportive
    Value their pros and cons in decision making
    Accept their failures
    Give them important and valuable tasks

    Invest in them

    Investing in the employees is as important as investing in organizational growth. Investing and Nurturing them builds a sense of trust and safety. You can spend a part of your time connecting with them during their training period by better understanding their professional background, strengths, and weaknesses. This helps in the development and personal growth of the employee with the organization. If you start doing so, then this will not only make them develop and grow but it will also make them feel that you trust them. This is because people only invest in areas they trust and believe the most.

    Have Strong Moral Principles

    A business runs on the business plans, rules and policies of the organization. Similarly, a better human attachment can only run with strong moral principles. If you value people and have strong moral principles, then employees will have faith in the organization. This faith will generate trust among them. But if you don’t value moral principles then there will be more doubts and uncertainties. They will skip a lot of things and may start hiding the things if there lack of moral standards within you and your organization. This can be done either due to fear or doubts, but the outcome doesn’t go well. If the employees start hiding things from the employer, then there will be more threats to the organization.

    Be accountable for yourself too

    Every mistake or error in business has the same results no matter who does it. As the most senior in the organization, there will be no one to discover your mistakes or errors. But it may be carefully observed by the employees. They won’t tell you about it but it will become a buzz inside the organization. Even they may also follow the same track.

    Therefore, whatever rules or system is created, it should be followed by everyone. You also should be accountable for yourself, sometimes you need to accept your mistakes, without any hesitation. The others acknowledge you following the rules and even accepting your own mistakes creates a good working environment. This will make them trust you because you follow a system and don’t break it even when the matters come on you. But if you as the key person don’t be accountable for your own mistakes then employees will lose their trust in the organization this will create chaos in the organization. So it is important to be responsible, accountable for the duties to maintain a work-life balance in the organization.

    Understand the goals of employees and be supportive

    As the owner of the business, you know how much business goals matter. But on an individual level, you can realize how much your personal goals matter too. Everyone is positively driven, valuing each other work because all are working for their objectives. These goals and objectives matter a lot for everyone and got equal value.

    So if the employee goals are well understood by the employer, they help them achieve them. In this way, both the business and employees’ objectives get considered. So, when the employee’s objectives are considered by the employer, then the employees become confident of their goals and work with full dedication. This generates trust among them and they start working more efficiently.

    Value their pros and cons in decision making

    Employees in decision making

    Involving employees in decision-making is very important. Though the decision is finalized by the manager, the collective decisions are more often valuable. So during the company meeting, you as an employer should make employees feel valuable and useful.

    You should value their pros and cons in decision making. It may be effective or ineffective, but if you come to value it, it will make them feel important too. This will also show that you trust them and value their decision. So have a small discussion round or clarification on whatever the ideas/points are given by them. This creates a positive environment in the organization.

    Accept their Failures

    Failures are a part of life and it happens to everyone. Whether it’s a small worker or a big CEO, everybody has gone through a rough patch. There may be times when our employees fail and feel discouraged, But instead of firing them accept their failures and encourage them for their efforts. But if the organization is not supportive of their failure, they will fear failure and won’t try new things.

    Their innovation and ideas will stop because of the fear of failure. Failures make people learn and get experience from their mistakes. Encouraging them to try out new things and making sure it’s ok to fail but this shouldn’t make them stop trying out new things creates a safe environment for people to work.

    Give them important and valuable tasks

    Give them important and valuable tasks

    Sometimes, it is important to assign important tasks or roles to employees which are above their job roles. This will also make them feel valued and they will witness themselves as trusted in the eyes of their manager. And not only that, but it also prepares them to perform a higher standard job than their current position. This gives them experience as well as practice for their upcoming promotion.

    Conclusion

    Building trust among the employees is the main key to success in the business world. For an organization to succeed employees play a huge part. Good work and a supportive environment help employees to experiment on their work and achieve great results.  Building trust helps in an effective team and work environment.