Betty Crocker Cake MixThe story of Betty Crocker Cake Mix from the 1950s is a popular business legend*. It is often told as a cautionary tale to business students about the results of launching products without understanding the consumer's psyche.In 1952, General Mills launched the Betty Crocker Cake Mix in the USA. The product contained the following ingredients: dehydrated flour, sugar, powdered eggs and additional flavours.Housewives could just add water to the mix before baking, and voila! A cake would be ready. The ease of use of the product was revolutionary at the time.However, the product flopped.After some consumer research, General Mills changed the product and made it harder to use. They removed the powdered egg from the ingredients. Thereafter, housewives needed to add an egg separately to the mix before baking the cake.The new product started selling like hotcakes!Question: Why did the product fail initially?*Note: We call it a legend because some sources dispute the actual reason behind the cake mix's initial failure. Nevertheless, it is a popular story and provides valuable insights.The presence of powdered eggs within the ingredients prevented the housewives from baking vegetarian cakes.The housewives did not trust ready-to-bake products.The housewives were expected to be excellent cooks and hence felt guilty about using a product that was so easy to use.The housewives did not want to bake cakes.