Jalapeño soda? Aerosol mustard? Fingos? These are just three of the more than 65 000 products (both successes and failures) on the shelves of the NewProductWorks Showcase.

The Showcase includes food, beverages, health and beauty care, household, and pet products introduced from 1965 to the present. While you probably can’t personally visit the company, you can visit its new Website http://www.newproductworks.com . Study the “Hits and Misses” categories http://www.newproductworks.com/product_poll/hm_index.html , such as “This Month’s Picks,” which are new products that have the potential for success; “We Expect Them to Be Successes,” which are those that probably will be commercial successes; “Jury Is Out,” products whose future is in doubt; “Failures,” which are recent products that have failed miserably; and “Favorite Failures,” which are those that cause people to ask “What were they thinking?”

1		Study several of the failed products listed on the Website and try to identify the reasons discussed earlier in the chapter that may have led to their failure.
2		Contrast these failed products with those that are deemed successes to learn why they became “sure-fire winners!”