{"id":8540,"date":"2019-03-03T16:55:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T00:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=8540"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:44:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:44:50","slug":"teddy-bear-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=8540","title":{"rendered":"Teddy bear madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe<\/a>\u201d \u2013\u00a0a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.<\/p>\n

\n

Build-a-Bear Workshop\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0USA & Canada
\nProject type :\u00a0<\/strong>Sales promotion
\nDate :<\/strong>\u00a0Jul 2018
\n<\/strong>Cost :\u00a0<\/strong>Undeclared\u00a0repetitional damage<\/p>\n

Synopsis :<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of an idea and in doing so miss important issues that lie just below the surface. In a marketing campaign gone awry, US based ‘Build-a-Bear Workshop’ gained world-wide attention by attracting too many customers to their stores. \u00a0So many, that customers were left to wait in line ups that snaked around the mall. \u00a0The ‘pay-your-age’ promotion allowed customers to build a teddy bear for the cost of their age. \u00a0If you’re 5 years old you’ll pay $5 rather than the usual $20 and up. \u00a0An instant hit, word spread rapidly through social media and families with children at home for the school holidays made a beeline for the mall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Build a bear – Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International – Source: T Vigen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With limited in store capacity, locations quickly filled up and management had to quickly deploy staff to marshal line ups outside. To control the crowds, doors were closed and in some locations mall security were called to maintain order. \u00a0Within hours it was clear that the one-day promotion could not accommodate all of the children\u00a0wanting to participate and many families were left in tears as they found their wait was in vain.<\/p>\n

The story is obviously an illustration of what can happen when risks aren’t managed\u00a0and you could consider attracting more customers than anticipated to be an upside risk (opportunity risk). It is however also an illustration of how upside risks can tip over to become a negative risk one capacities have been exceeded. Yes, takings for the day were likely higher than ever seen before\u00a0(the entire chain\u00a0operated at maximum capacity for the full day), but the damage\u00a0to reputation may have offset those gains. Although having said that, they do say that all publicity is good publicity, so who knows. \u00a0The TV and media coverage may result in more brand awareness paid for with the\u00a0tears\u00a0of many disappointed children.<\/p>\n

Contributing factors as reported in the press:<\/strong>
\nLack of risk management – failure to develop\u00a0contingency plans. \u00a0Failure to anticipate demand. \u00a0Poor assumptions.<\/p>\n

Reference links :<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. ‘Pay your age’ promo causes chaos for Build-A-Bear<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe\u201d \u2013\u00a0a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world. Build-a-Bear Workshop\u00a0\u2013\u00a0USA & Canada Project type :\u00a0Sales promotion Date :\u00a0Jul 2018 Cost :\u00a0Undeclared\u00a0repetitional damage Synopsis : It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of an idea and in doing so miss important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,77],"tags":[100,129,153,93,147],"class_list":["post-8540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-private-sector","category-failed-project","category-why-projects-fail","tag-examples-of-failed-projects","tag-failed-project","tag-risk-management-failure","tag-why-do-projects-fail","tag-why-projects-fail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8540"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9973,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540\/revisions\/9973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}