The board of Rapidfood, a manufacturer of food snacks, decided to launch a new variety of snack after initial tests appeared to indicate that there would be a lot of demand for it. The launch was backed by an expensive advertising campaign on various media.

Unfortunately the launch coincided with a major government campaign to promote healthy eating. Rapidfood's new snacks came under particular criticism from the press because of the allegedly unhealthy ingredients they contained. As a result demand for the snack has been minimal, and the costs of manufacture and marketing have not been covered by revenues.

The board's error in deciding to proceed with the launch of the product was a: