Tech Reviewer: Do Bad Reviews Kill Companies?

[sq225917]

It's the response to a bad review that can cause a problem. I specialized in technical resilience and disaster recovery. There are many examples where something went wrong, the company immediately accepted it, did frequent and honest comms and introduced a fix. These companies survive and in fact thrive, because people feel confident that any issues will be resolved.

There are companies that remain silent, or deny the problem, or lawyer up. These fail.

To survive though, you need depth and budget. If you have neither, no matter how well you handle it, you'll be in trouble. Keeping a "war chest" is essential.

I worked for a sporting goods brand, every single version of one product failed in use, we fixed them, replaced them all. It was the making of us.

 

[egellings]

My impression is that a bad review can kill a product more quickly than the product itself will because with the review, every prospective buyer who sees the review will be tipped off and not waste the time and money on the product. If the product is poor but not reviewed, there will be a larger number of uninformed people buying it and finding that they made a poor purchase decision. As a result, a company making a poor product and getting a bad review will get snuffed out more quickly. Eventually, an unreviewed poor product (or its company, if the company is a one pony show) does get killed by word of mouth, but that takes longer, and by that time, quite a few copies of the product could have been sold.

 

[tomtoo]

Bad paid reviews with a given outcome kill fair companys.

 

[pinger]

Yes thats why they pay for good reviews by their advertising

 

[jhaider]

Anyway, I think bad products kill companies, but a dishonest bad review could kill them also...

Can’t help but think of this one after reading that:

Home review

We had high hopes for the SB-C700 speakers. We are sadly disappointed.

www.whathifi.com

Didn’t kill the company but arguably killed the speakers.

 

[Ron Texas]

Obviously, Eric at Tekton thinks bad reviews will kill him.

 

[Smaestro]

tesla is a great example of this
at one point tesla's market cap was many multiples more than every other car company... combined
and we know tesla have vast resources but how come they produce such a flawed product and attract some controversial reviews and yet... they still exist???
there's going to be 'cult of personality' companies where they can survive despite the bad press

Tesla's market cap has not that much to do with them being a car company. Tech has large potential to shape the future, and therefore profits. The debate is lively among investors about wether Tesla should be valued as a tech company (= based on its future potential), or as a car company (= based on the traditional yearly figures and a short future projection).

Tesla themselves are trying very hard to promote, to investors, that they aren't a car company:

• Showing that their cars can self-drive. This paints a possible future where people don't drive themselves at all, and cars are shared / autonomous, etc. Tesla tried to paint a picture that every car sold in the future will be a Tesla, and that you won't even think of the vehicles as cars at that point.
• Promising that this self-driving AI is so advanced, that they can use this to dominate the AI market. They show this with their robot.
• And yes the cult of personality amplifies it all.

My opinion btw is that Tesla is massively overvalued on the tech. Their self-driving is uncertified and uncertifiable, and will therefore not be allowed in Europe, no matter how good their system is, perhaps other regions follow. Also their self-driving AI has not shown any benefits over competitive AI developments. Perhaps they'll be better than competitors at acquisitions.

i think a good example would be the big three german car companies... BMW Mercedes Audi/VW/Porsche
given the various controversies they've had, how come they still sell?
it comes to a point where some companies are immune to a lot of poor reviews?

Because the controversies aren't that big as the media portrays them. Consumers were indeed outraged about Volkswagens dieselgate. For a whole week.

Also, there is no such thing as a controversy-free car company, in the last couple of years:
Nissan committed tax fraud.
"King of reliability" Toyota has had a string of recalls and fraudulent scandals in the last year alone.
"Second king of reliability" Honda has committed tax fraud, and tried to cover up and not recall super-defective airbags.
"King of safety" Volvo got hit with a $100+ million fine last year for not recalling unsafe trucks fast enough.
And then some controversies have become the industry standard, such as any sportscar company (Ferrari) combining sales with regular cars (Fiat) so that the emissions are "okay on average".

the companies mentioned here like Fisker were always teetering on the edge and have not gotten the 'mass zeitgeist' of the public imagination
if you want to case a wider net, how about companies like Rivian and Lucid Air?

Mass zeitgeist depends on whether the masses can actually get the car or not. Fiskers for a long time only made a single high-end offering, and it wasn't really that great for the time, though it was unique. Luxury offerings are a niche, very dependent on macroeconomics. Then all of a sudden they entered the highly populated SUV EV market, with a product that is not in any way better than what exists. Why should the masses be excited?

Lucid, also a single high-end offering. The difference is that the Air is great, and they have a name to capitalise on. But unfortunately for them they won't yet. There's another $80.000 SUV coming in 2025. The first affordable Lucid for the masses is planned to be delivered in 2028.... So again nothing for the masses.

Rivian is doing it better. It made a name with a high-end product that was genuinely good, and they have affordable models lined up to be produced soon. Rivian is the only of these three that can get that mass appeal. IMO.

 

[Smaestro]

Here is Marques off to kill another product...