Good Idea, Bad Idea Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mars

The Hershey Company selected 'Reese's Pieces' rather than their flagship 'Kisses' to appear in the movie and sales soared allowing the company to gain market share. According to Jack Dowd, the executive from Hershey's who approved the deal, they "...got immediate recognition for our product. We would normally have to pay 15 or 20 million bucks for it." The decision was a good one for Hershey but a bad one for Mars!

Answer: Tylenol

The recall involved 31 million bottles and a loss of more than $100 million dollars, not including the loss of market share which went from 37% to 7% after the scare. They reintroduced the product with triple-seal tamper resistant packaging and offered discounts to encourage consumers to purchase.
Though very costly, the immediate action and assumption of responsibility was a good idea. Johnson & Johnson recovered and have, over the years, featured among the "Fortune" magazine's 'Most Admired Companies List'.

Answer: Alexander Graham Bell

The patent was offered (and turned down!) for $100,000 and is widely acknowledged as the single most valuable patent in history. Orton later realised what he had turned down and went on to compound his mistake by spending millions challenging Bell's patents and attempting to build his own network - which he was subsequently forced to turn over to Bell! Ouch, BAD idea.

Answer: 3 months

Coke launched 'New Coke' as a response to Pepsi gaining market share - the televised advertisements of the 'Pepsi Challenge', with consumers choosing Pepsi over Coke were having an impact. Coke spent two years, $4 million, and conducted approximately 200,000 'taste tests'. With hindsight, it turned out that the focus of the research was too narrow, focusing only on taste and ignored Coke's name, history, packaging and cultural significance. Bad idea!

Answer: True

It was a bad idea for a number of reasons. Cultural factors played a part - by discounting the price, the reputation of the detergent was lowered. It alienated wholesalers by minimising the margins they could make and did not take into account that, at the time of the launch, most Japanese consumers shopped in local convenience stores.

These small retailers had limited shelf space and would not stock items that they made low profits on!

Answer: ABC

ABC turned down "The Cosby Show", which was eventually purchased by NBC. It went on to be the number 1 show for four straight years and continued to win in the ratings for the 8 years it was broadcast. It also moved NBC from last to first place in the network wars. Good for NBC; bad for ABC.

Answer: 1927

Although the Model A was another huge success, the decision to delay bringing a new model to the market was a bad one. Ford's market share slid to 57% of U.S. automobile sales in 1923 and continued to decline to 34% in 1926. In 1927, Chevrolet was on top. The Model A returned Ford to first place in 1929, but they never truly recovered their dominance.

Answer: Decca Records

Decca Records also turned down The Yardbirds and Manfred Mann, however they redeemed themselves by signing up The Rolling Stones - ironically, it was George Harrison who encouraged Dick Rowe to scout them!

Answer: 4 to 5 years

The strategy was successful. Amazon survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble and finally turned a profit in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Answer: Bloomsbury

Nigel Newton, the chairman of Bloomsbury, credits his then 8 year old daughter Alice with 'discovering' Harry Potter - he says he took the sample, given to him by JK Rowling's editor, home and gave it to his daughter. According to Newton "She came down from her room an hour later glowing saying, 'Dad, this is so much better than anything else.' She nagged and nagged me in the following months, wanting to see what came next." Well done Alice!