Recently, a very interesting incidence took place in the avenue of marketing & advertising in India. A leading coffee manufacturing co. (name not tobe disclosed) actually toyed with the idea of making the consumers fool by masking the deterioration in the quality of their product to call it an innovation.:DD
The leading coffee brand was being sold throughout the country by the varient name- 'Classic' since many decades. But as we know, the coffee industry is not in a very good condition these days, or whatever might the reason be, the quality has also suffered drastically. so the 'coffee barons' toyed with the idea of masking their shortcomings by making the Indian consumers a fool. They advertised and marketed this low-quality product as the 'Mild' varient.;) They tried very hard to 'shove' the product into the consumers preference by bolstering it with many intellectual ads on TV (based on 'mild' relationships of mankind), but it proved tobe futile. Coz, the consumers were not ready to accept the coffee in 'mild' form.>:-[ They always preferred a strong and refreshing cup of coffee. So the ad proved tobe counter-productive and finally after a 5-6 months trial-period, the ad barons returned back to the same age-old 'classic' varient.B) Though, the quality has not improved, still the consumers have welcomed the reversal because at least they don't feel to be cheated for what they have paid..:D