Copycat cupcakes don't cut it - marketing mistakes - What were They Thinking? - Column

American Demographics, Jan, 1997 by Robert M. McMath

Products fail for many reasons, but the most common may be that they aren't original. This doesn't stop manufacturers from launching copy after copy, however, sometimes without any discernible difference at all from the original. Even the me-too products that create a point of difference may have difficulties, especially when those differences only enhance the flaws of the original.

In the early days of microwave ovens, before people had completely figured out what they were good for, Procter & Gamble's Duncan Hines division introduced its Microwave Cake Mix. This late, 1970s' product failed, as did virtually all other microwave cake mixes, mostly because it didn't work very well. Specifically, the cakes had a tendency to fall. They were also priced higher than conventional cake mixes.

About ten years later, Americans had become more familiar with microwave ovens, and so had manufacturers. Research during the intervening years had found that microwave ovens could make acceptable cupcakes, which seemed less affected than larger cakes by power differences among oven models or variations in baking results caused by altitude.

Procter & Gamble introduced Duncans Cups in 1991, a self-contained "kit" of microwaveable cupcakes. They stirred up a lot of initial consumer interest because they were a handy-sized and quick treat that people could prepare on impulse. Even younger children could make them with minimum supervision. Duncans Cups did well enough, anyway, to catch the eye of General Mills.

Betty Crocker MicroRave Singles from General Mills was a mix that made two giant cupcakes or two small cakes, depending on ones perspective. The idea may have been to target the nations growing market of one- and two-person households.

But the Singles cakes were more than twice the size the Duncans Cups, so they didn't bake as well. Furthermore, since the MicroRave Singles mix was packaged as a twin pack, customers could easily calculate how much they were spending on each serving. This was less true with Duncans Cups, although consumers and retailers weren't crazy about their prices, either.

Duncans Cups ultimately went the way of virtually all microwaveable baking mixes. But Microrave Singles lasted even less time than their predecessor because they didn't fix any of the problems that Duncans Cups had, and added a couple more.

The lesson here is to avoid entering a horse in a race before its entirely dear that the race is really on.

Robert M. McMath is director of The New Products Showcase & Learning Center in Ithaca, New York, a collection of more than 60,000 once-new consumer products, most of which are no longer sold.