Harbingers of Failure | Are there people you DON'T want to buy your product?

This is kind of like the polar opposite of the "mavens" Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Tipping Point. This is also much like the concept of negative results in science - few pay attention to what not to do or look at the "negative image" to give them a better view of the "image" they'd like to see.

Abstract: We show that some customers, whom we call ‘Harbingers’ of failure, systematically purchase new products that flop. Their early adoption of a new product is a strong signal that a product will fail - the more they buy, the less likely the product will succeed. Firms can identify these customers either through past purchases of new products that failed, or through past purchases of existing products that few other customers purchase. We discuss how these insights can be readily incorporated into the new product development process. Our findings challenge the conventional wisdom that positive customer feedback is always a signal of future success.