{"id":127863,"date":"2015-09-01T15:29:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T21:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/01\/predicting-the-next-flop.html"},"modified":"2015-09-13T12:13:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T18:13:05","slug":"predicting-the-next-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/01\/predicting-the-next-flop.html","title":{"rendered":"Predicting the next flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

What would happen if you could find individuals who always choose the products who are going to fail? Would that be helpful as, sort of, an anti-focus group?<\/p>\n

'Let’s say that some chap — let’s call him “Herb Inger” — simply adored Clairol’s Touch of Yogurt shampoo. He couldn’t get enough of Frito-Lay’s lemonade (nothing says “thirst-quenching” like salty potato chips, after all). He snapped up Bic’s range of disposable underpants. Knowing this, you get hold of Herb and you let him try out your new product, a zesty Cayenne Pepper eyewash. He loves it. Now you know all you need to know. The product is doomed, and you can quietly kill it while it is still small enough to drown in your bathtub.<\/i><\/p>\n

A cute idea in theory — does it work in practice? Apparently so.'<\/i><\/p>\n

http:\/\/timharford.com\/2015\/09\/meet-the-flop-pickers\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Such people do seem to actually exist, going from one product to another (in various categories) and always getting frustrated how their latest favorite thing has been discontinued.<\/p>\n

It's only been tested in a convenience store setting, and there's apparently no other identifiable criteria for these folk. It's unclear if it would work with, say, TV shows — though that might explain the track record of so many shows I've really enjoyed over the years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What would happen if you could find individuals who always choose the products who are going to fail? Would that be helpful as, sort of, an anti-focus group? 'Let’s say that some chap — let’s call him “Herb Inger” — simply adored Clairol’s Touch of Yogurt shampoo. He couldn’t get enough of Frito-Lay’s lemonade (nothing … Continue reading “Predicting the next flop”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/20150611155327-pizza-hut-latest-mashup-hot-dog-pizza-crust5B15D.jpegimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/17\/margies-kitchen-orange-herb-butter.html","url_meta":{"origin":127863,"position":0},"title":"Margie’s Kitchen: Orange Herb Butter","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Feb-15 5:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie's Kitchen: Orange Herb Butter http:\/\/bit.ly\/17M6Odd #recipe View on Twitter","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11561,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/01\/more_meetings.html","url_meta":{"origin":127863,"position":1},"title":"More meetings","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-Aug-07 12:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Pepsi, Lemon Herb Tea, and Fritos -- Meeting Snacks of Business Champions!...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1285\/976204313_9e6c21f8fe.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29027,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/07\/romney-once-again-with-the-flip-flop.html","url_meta":{"origin":127863,"position":2},"title":"Romney, once again with the flip-flop","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 7-Aug-12 1:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again, he asks us to ignore that he's attacking Obama for stuff the he, himself, supported when he was governor of\u00a0Massachusetts. \u00a0Indeed, he doesn't even ask, he just doesn't even bring it up. Embedded Link Romney Claims Waivers He Used To Support Will \u2018Gut Welfare Reform\u2019 Mitt Romney\u2019s campaign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132751,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/03\/the-fall-and-rise-of-young-justice.html","url_meta":{"origin":127863,"position":3},"title":"The Fall and Rise of "Young Justice"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Feb-17 3:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Received wisdom from various inside sources indicated that the excellent YJ animated series was canceled after only two seasons because of -- well, rumors[1] that it wasn't drawing in enough boys in the audience (girls being discounted because they wouldn't buy enough action figures)Well, Khary Payton, who did (and presumably\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6185,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/30\/ch_ching_6.html","url_meta":{"origin":127863,"position":4},"title":"Ch-ching","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 30-Apr-04 5:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sacagawea Dollar has been pretty much a flop, after over $65MM was spent on its roll-out. Sure, collectors grabbed some for their collection, but very few people (and businesses)...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45600,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/30\/microsofts-big-innovation-skipping-a-number.html","url_meta":{"origin":127863,"position":5},"title":"Microsoft's Big Innovation: Skipping a Number","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Sep-14 1:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently \"8\" was such a flop they've decided to go right to Windows 10. Yeesh. Microsoft unveils Windows 10: 'It wouldn't be right to call it Windows 9' New operating system comes three years after launch of the poorly received Windows 8 and skips 9 altogether View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127987,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127863\/revisions\/127987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}