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Being a consistent market leader is absolutely an indicator of a successful design. Appealing to your personal sense of style is absolutely not.

No, market leadership is a function of sales relative to competing products. Sales are driven entirely by the perceived value of the entire package offered to consumers. Sony's Betamax was a better product than JVC's VHS, but the VHS format was the market leader because it was the best value to consumers. There was nothing really wrong with the VHS, it was just not the best.

Like the VHS, The Cruze, Focus, and Corolla are wildly popular worldwide not because they are the best designs, but because they offer the best value to the most consumers.

All three of those cars are bland and uncomfortable and neither are the best in their class....but they are cheap to own and operate, and they sell at price points that maximize value to consumers, and both are widely available at thousands of dealers and can be serviced and repaired virtually everywhere cheaply.

The Chevy Traverse, Toyota Camry, and Chevrolet Tahoe are all top (or near top depending on the year) sales leaders within their class. They may provide the best value and this the most compelling choice to consumers, but none are the best cars in their class.

The Mercedes GL, for example, is widely considered to be one of the best 7 passenger SUVs on sale today. It is similar to the Betamax where the Chevy Traverse is similar to the VHS. For mainstream products, consumers find more value in lower price points and ease of maintenance than in the quality of the materials, how well it handles, state of the art tech features, etc. The Traverse outsells the GL not because it is better, but because it is a vastly better value to a wider market.

Instances where the best product happens to be the best seller in their class are more common at much higher price points where costs are less of a concern to the consumer.

This post was edited on 11/20/14 at 2:33 pm