A company has a great product and naturally wants consumers to think of it as the best they can buy. So the marketing team rolls out an advertising campaign showing why the product is superior to the competition on features and price and is rewarded with robust sales. Instead of being able to bask in that success, however, the company starts to hear a lot of complaints and get a lot of returns. Clearly, the strategy backfired—but why?
A version of this article appeared in the October 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review.
