The man who combined two of our passions

The Marketing Magazine Vol. 1 Issue 1

march 2007

ADS ON THE MOVE:

The four P’s and the big B

The disruptive marketer

Marketing guru: Kevin Keller

Ad Buzz

BRANDWAGON:

Coordinators:

Devesh Bijalwan

Gaurav Sharma

masterP’s:

Editor:

Suresh Kr. Varisetty

Design & Layout:

Wencesl Khyllep

BRANDWAGON

It gives us immense pleasure to launch the first ever Marketing Magazine ‘Master P’s’ of IIFT’s Kolkata campus. Our objective is not only to understand the 4Ps but to go beyond them. Creativity is everywhere from Dabbawallas to Dell, but a plat-

form is needed to unleash creativity and encourage innovativeness. That is where ‘Master P’s’ comes into the picture. It is a platform for all the creative minds to ex-

press their ideas.

My special thanks to the Gaurav and Devesh, the co-coordinators of ‘Brandwagon’: The Marketing club at IIFT, for their invaluable contribution

throughout the magazine. I would also like to appreciate the creativity of Wencesl in designing the magazine to give it such a wonderful and attractive form.

Our issue starts with Ashwini Verma’s analysis of celebrity endorsement by taking Amitabh Bachchan as an example. Abhishek authors our cover story about Kerry

Packer who combined cricket with Marketing. Pankaj explains us how creativity can make a difference in advertisements through Volkswagen’s ad campaigns.

Prabhash joins the group of people who vehemently opposes the SUVs through his article ‘Disruptive Marketer’. It has always been an argument on exactly how

many P’s are relevant to Marketing. Gaurav Verma adds 2 more P’s to profes-sional services in his article: ‘Starting a Professional Services Brand’. Rajat Jain

starts his series on the worst ever branding mistakes of all times with the example of ‘Ford Edsel’ in this issue. As a part of our commitment to exploring the different kind of Marketing practices we have ‘Herd Instincts’ from Jitin and ‘Drip Marketing’

from Niharika. Ajay chooses Kevin Keller as the featured Marketing guru for this issue. Without advertisements, Marketing will never be complete in itself. Rishi in

his ‘Ad Analysis’ categorizes 3 ads as good, average and poor. Gaurav Pundlik argues the relevance of German made automobiles. Finally we felt that some

brands become a part and parcel of our lives. Nike is one such brand. Hence we incorporated the periodical events of Nike and its logo history.

We would like to thank all the contributors for their untiring efforts in helping us come out with this issue.

The speciality of our Magazine is the ‘Advertisement Challenge’ where the reader is given a series of pictures and would be required to make sense out them and create his/her own advertisement. Apart from all things, we lighten our reader’s

hearts with our cartoons and trivia.

We believe in constant improvement and continuous learning. We will appreciate your feedback to be sent to masterps.iift@gmail.com for the improvement of

‘Master P’s’.

For internal circulation only. Not for commercial purposes

what’s in:

the 4 P’s and the big B 4

(ashwini talks about the man’s market-ability)

herd marketing 6

made in germany??? 8

the nike story 11

(they did it……..and how?)

starting a professional services brand 13

(from 4 P’s to 6 P’s….the more the mer-rier)

mar(cric)keting 16

ads on the move 18

(an advertising game)

the disruptive marketer 19

(love for SUV’s=disdain for mankind??)

guru of the month: Kevin keller 21

interesting re(ad)s 23

drip marketing 25

ad buzz 27

(a review of 3 of the latest ads by rishi)

off the mark 29

(everything wrong about the Ford Edsel)

Hero-worshipping, whether it be cricket or bolly-wood, has been a trend that the current genera-tion shares with its grandfather’s generation. Successful marketers have always tapped the popularity of such ‘stars’. The basic premise in getting a celebrity to endorse a product is that the instant recognition provided by the celebrity cuts through the clutter. Amidst an overload of adver-tising, this feature guarantees an advertisement's ability to stand out and generate awareness. If there is a fit between the personality of the celeb-rity and the brand characteristics, top-of-the-mind recall is also ensured. If the endorser en-joys wide popularity among different geographic and demographic segments, so much the better.

But a possible drawback of using celebrity en-dorsements is the attachment of the brand with their career or even personal life. Cricketers and

Film stars have been the major sufferers. Latest example could be the replacement of Virender Sehwag by Salman Khan for the endorsement of Mayur Suitings.

Amitabh Bachchan is an exception to this nor-mal life cycle of a celebrity in terms of endorse-ments. An immensely successful actor of more than three-and-a-half decades in the Hindi film industry, a failed politician, a stumbling busi-nessman and anchor of just one TV programme KBC- his is a unique combination. It is note-worthy that during the first two-and-a-half dec-ades of his acting career in more than a 100 films, he never endorsed any product.

What set him apart from others and drew a host of marketers to leverage his personality was his popularity across the length and breadth of In-dia, cutting across the barriers of age, income, region and language.

One of his strengths was his unblemished per-sonality. As an endorser stakes his reputation and credibility in endorsing products, the cleaner the track record the greater the trustwor-thiness. This aspect was exploited by Cadbury's well for a come-back for dairy milk. Nerolac Paints was another brand that leveraged his credibility by having him assure the audience, `Hum keh rahe hain' in its commercials.

When Eveready's storyboard for its torch-light ‘Jeevan Sathi’ revolved around the

Ashwini Verma

The 4 P’s & the big B

product as a dowry item, Ami-tabh put his foot down and re-fused to endorse it. Respecting his feelings and recognizing the advertisement's limita-tions, Eveready shelved it. In-stances such as this reinforce his credibility and strengthen his brand value.

The campaigns for Pulse Polio, Unicef and People for the Ethi-cal Treatment of Animals (PETA) featured him promi-nently to have a big impact on the audience.

The critical issues: To ‘B’ or not to ‘B’

His endorsements cost between Rs 5 crore and Rs 12 crore, which is very high and questions are being raised about the returns

marketers is - how to stretch such a widely leveraged person-ality? How does one ensure that the enormous amounts invested in this expensive brand ambassa-dor are well utilized? There's no stopping his endorsements, how-ever. He is expected to sign deals worth Rs 30 crore to Rs 50 crore over the next couple of years.

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The endorsement value gets eroded and the brands end up as just another product among the many endorsed and do not stand apart. The question is, how many product categories can his per-sonality traits traverse? Market-ers now face a dilemma in ex-ploiting Amitabh's persona fur-ther. A wide range of emotions such as humor and anger have been exploited from his acting repertoire. The challenge for

B R A N D W A G O N

on having him as a celebrity. For multinationals with deep pockets such as Pepsi, having Amitabh as a brand ambassador and renewing the contract may be affordable. But for others, the temptation to use him as a one-off exercise is strong. For ex-ample, ICICI did not renew its deal with Amitabh after it expired in 2002.

Overexposure, however, is the major issue, with Amitabh endorsing too many products. His face has promoted a slew of products in categories as diverse as beverages, paints, financial services, garments, automobiles, stationery, food supple-ments, personal care, real estate, batteries, televi-sions, chocolates and jewellery. Moreover, he has a `guest appearance' in P&G's commercial for its detergent brand Tide (shot while filming Baghban).

However, the enigma of his personality faces the risk of being unraveled. Exclusivity can no longer be associated with him. The audience gets con-fused when the same celebrity plugs many brands.

‘In this land of Vertically-challenged, anyone who

stretches past 6 gets a shot to be the king.’

Heard about “HERD” marketing? No it’s not just some esoteric marketing jargon which would dwindle away with time. It in fact has taken the world of marketing by a storm and is changing the way in which marketers can create need.

Over the past 10 years or so cluster of cellophane wrapped bunches of flowers seem to have swamped Britain’s roadsides. It is a phenomenon that satirical magazine Private Eye has dubbed the “cellotaph” syndrome-the setting up of floral shrines to the victims of traffic accidents. But how did these shrines start?

One line of explanation is that each flower is the result of an independent decision based on some cost benefit trade off or is driven by a desire to ex-press an individual’s grief. This is what we assume when we conduct marketing research: we ask indi-vidual consumers what they do now, why, and what they might do in future. We also work on the basis that individuals decide what they do inde-pendently of others and can tell us about it.

Almost everything of worth in our world including the power we have over future of the planet comes from this “herd nature” and our ability and passion for social interaction and collaboration. The same is true of the technologies that are reshaping the

media environment: SMS and internet are built on our species inherent desire and need to interact with others. Recognizing the herd instinct has important consequences for the marketers. For a start, it ex-plains why mass behaviour is so hard to change. Marketers should be expert at changing mass-behaviour and putting consumer at the heart should be the raison d’ettre.

One of the primary assumptions in herd marketing is to look at marketing function as C2C rather than B2C. This means recognizing that the most impor-tant relationship is not between the company or brand and any given consumer, but between latter and other individuals.

The acceptance of our herd nature is changing the

Jitin Shanker Bhasin

Herd marketing

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way some media players are evaluating media channel options. While most of the media world is getting excited about moving on from count-ing audiences and weighting them according to their wallets, to counting them according to how ‘engaged’ they are with the medium. Global agencies such as NAKED have proposed that the real currency of the media world should be the extent to which an audience passes messages on to others: the “propagation value”. At the same time we as marketers of the future should also heed attention to the fact that different target au-diences would serve as “marketers” to different sections of the society. Marketer of a lifestyle product would be better off to partner with NDTV or STAR TV instead of DD to advertise the products. Apart from the target-thrust mis-

match, you would also fail to reap benefits of word-of-mouth (C2C) marketing in the latter case.

We as marketers of tomorrow should focus on the most influential customer, “the prized catch” who holds greatest sway over the majority of his/her peer group. One should focus on the types and sources of influence that shape customer be-haviour both positively and negatively and think about their opinions and actions and even more importantly your reactions to it!!

SNIPPETS:1. AdvertorialA journalistic term coined by combining the words advertisements and editorial. It denotes articles or features which are paid by advertisers. Usually items of this category are commercial in nature and have little news value.

2. The Difference Between Optimism, Pessimism & MarketingThe Optimist says, "The glass is half full."The Pessimist says, "The glass is half empty."The Marketing Consultant says, "Your glass needs re-sizing."

Gaurav Pundlik

MADE IN GERMANY????

Our whole society is unimaginable without automobiles. They have more become a part of our mental culture than our physical culture. They carry such an emotional appeal that we sometimes do not stop from expressing our personalities through a particular liking of a brand .It's true for everyone, and especially for

1996, and the other surprisingly by deciding to move into sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) segment under the name of Cayenne. Equally radical was Porsche’s choice of locations to build these SUVs.

While rival carmakers such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, and Lamborghini have

has much higher wages than Eastern Europe. Moreover, unlike BMW or Daimler-Benz, Por-sche did not move closer to the main U.S. mar-ket.

And this all for keeping it “Made in Germany”.

But because of this “Made in Germany” tag , the controversial Cayenne turned out to be Por-sche's best-selling automobile ever as it really played off the idea of ‘what exactly Porsche was and what it stood for‘.

Does Location really matter in a globalized world?

BMW made a decision to locate in Leipzig

of Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, and Bentley. Sometimes in their quest for image building, dilemma of selecting customer segments and attaining bottom-line, companies go for risky moves.

Porsche is the case in point.

Almost a decade ago, Porsche found itself at such crossroads. Known for its classy sports cars, the firm had taken a hit in 1987 stock market crash and suffered a great loss due to its overdependence on the U.S. market.

The firm chose not one but two routes to bring revival in sales and recover itself. One, by launching a new two-seater, the Boxster in

those who base their purchase decision and aspirations on choice than just price. When it’s the question of lux-ury foreign brands we cannot neglect the likes

been happy to locate where la-bor costs are cheaper, Porsche erected a small facility in Leip-zig in eastern Germany which

vs

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Cayenne model launched in 2004

BMW made a decision to locate in Leipzig rather than go abroad for targeting cash rich cus-tomers in eastern Germany and it built a plant that employed thousands of people and is a ma-jor manufacturing site, while the Leipzig plant for Porsche is much smaller and employed around only 400 workers.

Naturally a question arises, Can products just be manufactured anywhere? One possible answer can be: Think about relative productivity costs. In Germany in 2001, the labor costs were about 25-26 Euros per hour. In the Czech Republic they were about 4-6 Euros per hour. So it's quite dramatic and if you still end up producing in Germany there have to be huge productivity level differences between Germany and Czech Republic which actually was the case.

Appeal of National Products

There must be some reason why Opel claims “The difference is German engineering”. Ger-man companies, known for their craftsmanship, generally compete as niche producers, particu-larly those that manufacture high-quality goods that demand a premium price. In 2004-2005 Ger-many became the number-one exporter of quality manufactured goods in the world, and its market share was around 10 Percent, surpassing that of the United States. As other firms around the

world innovate, improve in competitiveness and quality, how long will customers is willing to pay brand premium based upon nationality of the product. The quality differentials are also shrink-ing over time in almost all product categories as Japanese luxury car makers like Toyota, Nissan have famously shown.

That's an issue justifiably worrying German firms “How are they going to survive as a whole either through the name, quality, or particular excellence in its price?" And Porsche is no ex-ception.

Reinvention

Porsche has been accomplishing a tedious task of reinventing itself between '93 and the present. In a sense Porsche is incorporating Japanese pro-duction processes of lean manufacturing while still producing German-made cars and maintain-ing the German reputation for quality automo-biles. For past 6-7 years, German workers have been moderating their wage demands, allowing German firms to become more competitive vis-à-vis other European countries. Improved pro-ductivity is helping unit labor costs in Germany decline over time. While these are positive trends, the problem is that these “super-successful luxury” machines are not creating new jobs in Germany.

Moving its production to Central Europe from Germany means paying low wage rates for skilled workers which in fact was the German firm’s strategy in early part of 20th century. But the wages in those parts are rising very fast rela-tive to rise in productivity levels negating the advantage of facility shift. So that is an issue for Porsche moving abroad. We shouldn't be looking at a static number (costs), but really should be thinking about it more dynamically (environmental and social factors) over time.

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Then, it's about brand

If we ask “by moving into SUV market did Por-sche remain true to its brand”? Is Porsche brand too much dependent on its German roots? Is Cay-enne Made in Germany or not?

The answer is: The Cayenne is clearly German-designed and inspired. Only when you think of it in terms of a pure manufacturing product Cay-enne has invited some controversies because its components were partially manufactured in Volkswagen’s Slovakia plant. To stop these con-troversies, Porsche’s CEO Wiedeking shocked the investment world by purchasing roughly a 20% stake in VW. To defend himself and “Made in Germany” brand, Wiedeking says “It's near impossible to maintain 100% national brand be-

cause of the long supply chains among parts sup-pliers”.

In many ways, Porsche has unconsciously gone back to its roots. After leaving Mercedes, Ferdi-nand Porsche founded his own design firm in 1931 with his son and his son-in-law, Anton Piech (the father of Ferdinand Piech of VW).

In addition, Ferdinand Porsche also had Central European connection, since he was born in Bohe-mia (now Vratislavice in the Czech Republic). What then do we call Porsche, ‘Made in Ger-many’ or ‘Made in Central Europe’?

Jest in case

Nike's Heritage

NIKE, pronounced NI-KEY, is the winged god-dess of victory according to Greek mythology. She sat at the side of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympic pantheon, in Olympus. A mystical presence, sym-bolizing victorious encounters, NIKE presided over history's earliest battlefields. A Greek would say, "When we go to battle and win, we say it is NIKE." Synonymous with honored conquest, NIKE is the twentieth century footwear that lifts the world's greatest athletes to new levels of mas-tery and achievement. The NIKE 'swoosh' embod-ies the spirit of the winged goddess who inspired the most courageous and chivalrous warriors at the dawn of civilization. (from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

The SWOOSH logo is a graphic design created by Caroline Davidson in 1971. It represents the wing of the Greek Goddess NIKE. Caroline Davidson was a student at Portland State University in advertising. She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes and she started doing some freelance work for his com-pany. Phil Knight asked Caroline to design a logo that could be placed on the side of a shoe. She handed him the SWOOSH, he handed her $35.00. In spring of 1972, the first shoe with the NIKE

SWOOSH was introduced.....the rest is history! (from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

History

The Nike athletic machine began as a small dis-tributing outfit located in the trunk of Phil Knight's car. From these rather inauspicious beginnings, Knight's brainchild grew to become the shoe and athletic company that would come to define many aspects of popular culture and myriad varieties of 'cool.'

Nike emanated from two sources: Bill Bowerman's quest for lighter, more durable racing shoes for his Oregon runners, and Knight's search for a way to make a living without having to give up his love of athletics. Bowerman coached track at the Univer-sity of Oregon where Phil Knight ran in 1959. Bowerman's desire for better quality running shoes clearly influenced Knight in his search for a mar-keting strategy. Between them, the seed of the most influential sporting company grew.

The story goes like this: while getting his MBA at Stanford in the early '60s, Knight took a class with Frank Shallenberger. The semester-long project

The nike story

Suresh Kr. Varisetty

P A G E 1 2B R A N D W A G O N

was to devise a small business, including a mar-keting plan. Synthesizing Bowerman's attention to quality running shoes and the burgeoning opinion that high-quality/low cost products could be produced in Japan and shipped to the U.S. for distribution, Knight found his market niche. Shallenberger thought the idea interesting, but certainly no business jackpot. Nothing more be-came of Knight's project.

Cut to 1963. Phil Knight traveled to Japan on a world-tour, filled with the wanderlust of young men seeking a way to delay the inevitable call of professional life. Seemingly on a whim, Knight scheduled an interview with a Japanese running shoe manufacturer, Tiger--a subsidiary of the Onitsuka Company. Presenting himself as the representative of an American distributor inter-ested in selling Tiger shoes to American runners, Knight told the businessmen of his interest in their product. Blue Ribbon Sports--the name Knight thought of moments after being asked who he represented--was born. The Tiger execu-tives liked what they heard and Knight placed his first order for Tigers soon thereafter.

By 1964, Knight had sold $8,000 worth of Ti-gers and placed an order for more. Coach Bow-erman and Knight worked together, but ended up hiring a full-time salesman, Jeff Johnson. After cresting $1 million in sales and riding the wave of the success, Knight et. al. devised the Nike name and trademark Swoosh in 1971.

By the late '70s, Blue Ribbon Sports officially became Nike and went from $10 million to $270 million in sales. Katz (1994) describes the suc-cess via Nike's placement within the matrix of the fitness revolution: 'the idea of exercise and game-playing ceased to be something the aver-age American did for fun,' instead Americans turned to working out as a cultural signifier of status. Clearly, the circumstances surrounding the shift are not this simple; it is one of the aims

of this project to discover other generators of popular attention to health.

If Nike didn't start the fitness revolution, Knight says, "We were at least right there. And we sure rode it for one hell of a ride" (Katz, 66). The 80s and 90s would yield greater and greater profits as Nike began to assume the appearance of ath-letic juggernaut, rather than the underdog of old. "Advertising Age" named Nike the 1996 Mar-keter of the Year, citing the "ubiquitous swoosh...was more recognized and coveted by consumers than any other sports brand--arguably any brand" (Jensen, 12/96). That same year Nike's revenues were a staggering $6.74 billion. Now in the year 2005 Nike’s revenues were $13.74 billion and in the year 2006 revenues were a staggering $14.95 billion.

STARTING A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

BRAND

Gaurav Verma

A brand is a promise of benefits that will be gained. Brand should live up to the promise and customers should perceive that the service lives up to its promise.

In the services sector the brand 'promise' is achieved through an ever-shifting dance of action and reaction between providers and clients. Every single interaction has an impact on the reputation of the brand. And once consumer perceptions of the reputation are set in the minds of the consumer, it is very difficult to change them. So each interac-tion must deliver on the benefits expected by cus-tomers.

Think of certain public-sector companies in the services sector - say airlines or telecom providers -who are stuck with a legacy of negative brand per-ception because they didn't live up to their brand promise in the past. However effectively they op-erate now, and believe me some of them run as well as or even better than their private-sector counterparts, consumers find it difficult to give them any credit.

For services, there are no barriers to competitors copying any new service. Yesterday's innovations become today's basic requirements. The banking and insurance sectors are good examples, as soon as an idea is introduced by one firm, clone services are quickly rolled out by competitors.

As a professional services marketer, you'll have to face an uphill struggle in developing your brand.

One thing firms must adhere to common norms, and mass advertising is generally not accepted or allowed. Another issue is that consumers of pro-fessional services are very sensitive to quality is-sues - whether real or perceived.

So professional firms have a much smaller oppor-tunity to impress each client than general services firms. They have to create a far more powerful im-pact in every single interaction, and thus have to employ a larger basket of tools synchronized to deliver the same message.

Marketing Mix for Professional Services.

In addition to classic 'four Ps' of marketing –'products', 'price', 'place' and 'promotion'. Services are marketed through the additional factors of 'people', 'processes', 'productivity' and 'physical evidence'.

For Professional services we can add another 2 Ps, 'Proof' (proof of expertise and prior experience) and 'Plurality' (the multiple channels through which professional services reach end-users).

When starting a relationship, these two factors are the most important, since same delivery standards and quality levels provided to different customer organizations (or even to the same people in the same organization at different times) get perceived very differently. A customer's purchase decision therefore starts with a search for explicit proof of

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capability, and that's what the marketer must first provide. New firms must therefore attack the prob-lem on several fronts.

Start with the basics - client attention

New firms find providing Proof' particularly diffi-culty since there's no previous track record. At such a time, the profile of the firm's executives and their experience becomes very significant and comes in for a lot of scrutiny. That's why new firms hire the 'right' people and publicize it strongly, since that assures clients of high-quality services.

By contrast, the older consulting firms don't do this, they always are able to - bring in top guns at the time of pitching for business, but then switch-ing teams around at the time of executing the work.

New firms should make sure that top people are involved in the work well beyond the extent prom-ised and that the client notices it and appreciates it. This can be leveraged in references and testimoni-als.

Everything affects your brand. Even your tie:

Plurality is another factor. Most products and services communicate with and reach customers through a whole host of channels - electronic and print media, online, hoarding and store displays, etc. whereas in case of professional services customers draw their opinion from a number of formal and informal sources, ranging from past clients to cigar-room chats to comments in blogs and chat-rooms. These sources are almost never under the control of the marketer and it’s impossible to control the message being received.

Large firms get around this problem by sponsorship of events and brand ambassadors. Small firms, who cannot afford this level of spending, must focus on impressing clients who are directly interacting with the members of the firm.

That’s why; the smaller professional services firm must develop codes of conduct, appearance and be-

P A G E 1 5 B R A N D W A G O N

havior, and not just technical methodologies. That's why marketers at professional services firms have to be involved in Operations like em-

ployee training, customer interaction processes, report developments, etc. which have a direct im-pact on client perceptions.

Hey John what about Core Con-sultants?

They are new and haven’t done any big projects. I’m skeptical.

Speak the language -- consistently and continu-ously

Professional services need a 'quiet' style. Profes-sional services are by and large sold one-to-one and driven by relationships. Consumer-style mass marketing is hardly ever used.

Firms should focus on 'Conversations' rather than 'sales meetings', ‘Low-key and restrained’ rather than ‘loud’, 'Clients' rather than 'customers', 'Value' rather than ‘Costs’. Firms entering the in-dustry from other segments, such as technology firms moving into professional services consulting must learn a very different mind-set and communi-cation style from that used in technology sales.

The marketing cycle is also usually much longer, and so there's a greater need to deliver the same message consistently and over a much longer pe-

riod of time.

To Conclude

Branding professional services firms is tougher than it looks. The lack of options and the amazing variety of ways that clients get information means that they develop their own notions of what the brand may stand for. Marketers, especially for new firms who must deliver as good a customer experi-ence as their older rivals, must therefore consider issues normally not thought to be in their scope, to deliver their message.

v

v

Abhishek Ravichand

Watching cricket in a cozy bedroom or dining room(for singles like me) may not be a big deal for most of us, but do you know who brought cricket to your house; who got the cricketers who used to look pristine in their white outfits wear those clownish colorful outfits, may be no: the answer is Kerry Packer. Before you start wondering the rele-vance of this article in this magazine, I want to as-sure you that this article is more of a discussion of successful marketing strategy rather than a com-mentary on cricket.

Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer AC (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005), son of Sir Frank Packer, was an Australian publishing, media and gaming tycoon who owned the Nine Network. He was famous for his outspoken nature, wealth, ex-pansive business empire and clashes with the Aus-tralian Taxation Office and the Costigan Commis-sion.At the time of his death, Packer was the rich-est and one of the most influential men in Austra-lia.

But,what probably made packer famous,especially outside australia was the contribution he made to world cricket.It all started in 1976,frustrated in his pursuit to acquire the rights to broadcast cricket matches in australia by the coziness of relations between the Australian Cricket Board and the Aus-tralian Broadcasting Corporation .

Packer decided to introduce world series ricket.He signed up players of national teams by offering them exorbitant salaries. WSC was conceptualized as a made-for-TV cricket series. On December 2, 1977 to be precise, Australian cricket lovers turn-ing on their television sets had for the first time a choice in their bill of fare. Live from the Gabba on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation came the soothing sights and sounds of a traditional Test, the first of a series against India. Live from Mel-bourne's VFL Park on Channel 9, meanwhile, came the unfamiliar images of what purported to be a revolutionary new variant on the game: a Su-pertest, brought to you by World Series Cricket. The play itself, between an Australian team led by Ian Chappell and a West Indian outfit captained by Clive Lloyd, did not actually look all that dif-ferent.

While some of the ideas brought into WSC were intelligent - fielding circles, drop-in pitches and batting helmets, for example - some of the market-ing ideas were bizarre,to say the least. Sledging was encouraged as part of the “excitement” of the

"There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?"

Mar(cric)keting

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game, TV ads of West Indian opener Roy Fredericks giving an obscene gesture to Dennis Lillee were repeatedly shown(or at least trying to, through his batting glove). Kids were encouraged to run onto the field and thump their heroes on the back whenever a batsman reached 50 (and I saw occasions where they were actually being mar-shaled into position by WSC ground staff, ready to leap the fence.) Press releases claimed that the WSC supertests were more exciting than the offi-cial Test matches because more fours were being struck. Though Packer had more stars than Broad-way: the Chappells, Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, Doug Walters, David Hookes versus Lloyd, Viv Richards, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts. Attendance in this ‘Supertest’ was far from satisfactory, fewer than 500 were scattered round the concrete tiers of VFL Park.

Things started to click, however, in WSC’s second season, 1978-79. After NSW Government inter-vention, WSC was permitted to play on the Syd-ney Cricket Ground instead of the grungier Sydney Showground next door. And to bring the game to more mid-week spectators and to prime-time TV audiences, night cricket was developed. Flood-lights strong enough to safely view the ball, which nonetheless had to be painted white; coloured uni-forms for the players, even though the West Indi-

ans started off in poofy pink; umpires in brown jackets and black shirts; blackened sightscreens. And - so that Channel Nine could fit more ads in -a shortening of the over from eight balls to six.Packer was so passionate about getting the crowds into the stadium that in the very first day-nighter at the SCG in November 1978. With thou-sands of people queuing outside an already seem-ingly-packed ground, Packer ordered the gates to be opened so that they could get in free.

It is worth pointing out that packer did not make cricket popular, in fact packer coveted cricket’s popularity. What he improved was cricket's ability to exploit its popularity commercially. This he did in a variety of fashions, jazzing up television cov-erage, promoting the players as personalities, pitching the game as a product to the public that could be consumed over five days or one, by day or night, in white and colored clothing. This was his biggest achievement he marketed cricket like a product, using the principles that may appear to be straight from Kotler’s book.

Packer had his fair share of criticism, he was de-rided by purists for spoiling the game and bringing the taboo commercial element in the game, he could also be held responsible for creating one of the biggest rifts in world cricket, the players who signed up for WSC received lengthy international bans, and the series eventually fizzled out, but the World Series "circus" changed cricket forever. His business sense, his audacity and his belief in the project gave the support to a bunch of people will-ing to innovate in an attempt to make the game more marketable. One can’t deny the fact that his 'circus' saved cricket from a slow and painful death.

ADS ON THE MOVE

CREATIVITY PAYS.1. SHOWN ABOVE ARE 6 SNAPSHOTS FROM THE LATEST AIRTEL AD.

2. USE THEM AS AN INTRODUCTION TO COME UP WITH YOUR OWN AD.

3. NO RESTRICTION ON THE PRODUCT, BRAND OR COMPANY.

4. ENTRIES SHOULD INCLUDE A BRIEF ON THE PRODUCT.

5. RELEVANCE & CONNECTIVITY TO THE SNAPSHOTS IS A MUST.

6. LATE DATE FOR ENTRIES: 31 MARCH, 2007

7. SUBMISSIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS: masterps.iift@gmail.com

Prabhash Trivedi

disruptive marketer

What would you wear on a bright sunny day for a visit to the zoo? A pair of gum boots and raincoat? Well, such an analogy is seen everyday on our roads. Go to the cities with their narrow roads and heavy traffic and you would see a lot of small cars, big cars and yes, the giants called SUVs.

Yes, the SUVs, built to conquer rugged terrains, the impossible contours and to boldly go where no car has gone before. Hey wait! Now what the hell are these reckless adventurers doing on our docile roads? Mingling with the lowly, minion, servile cars?

Well the answer is quite simple. It’s doing a lot of things- and none of them are any good! In a sce-nario where the roads are cramped and threatening to burst with too much cars (and SUVs), these monsters are taking up the precious space which could accommodate at least two more cars. Not to mention the parking space, which is at a premium at most shopping hubs of our cities. Plus these juggernauts have an appetite that eats up a major chunk of our coun-tries fuel. Come on people don’t we all appreciate a little efficiency? Also factor in the fact that the sheer size of these behemoths poses serious danger

to the lives of us lesser men who are sensible enough to prefer cars. Perhaps a car owner’s worst on-road nightmare is to somehow miraculously drive around the city, going about their mundane chores while at the same time perform amazing maneuvers to stay clear of these giants and their drivers (who also, quite interestingly seem to ac-quire qualities similar to their steed).

No, no don’t get me wrong. I do not hate SUVs! I am a normal human being just like all of you. I too like to go to the zoo on a bright, sunny day and watch the beautiful wild ani-mals. They are won-derful things, these wild animals. Strong, powerful created by God to conquer the atrocities inflicted on them by the wild. I

enjoy very much to admire them through the bars of their cages. I like them even more when I see them in their natural environments. I bet you would too! But I doubt if any of you would like them as much if they were to escape the zoo and come prowling on the roads.

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So, all you SUV owners out there……..get the hell off the road!

Next issue: “SUVs: Mankind’s greatest invention”

or maybe “Small Cars Suck!” Haven’t decided yet!

Snippets:

Marketing Two-Upmanship

A retailer was dismayed when a competitor selling the same type of product opened next-door to him, displaying a large sign proclaiming "Best Deals".

Not long after he was horrified to find yet another competitor move in next-door, on the other side if his store. It's large sign was even more disturbing- "Lowest Prices".

After his initial panic, and concern that he would be driven out of business, he looked for a way to turn the situation to his marketing advantage. Finally, an idea came to him. Next day, he proudly unveiled a new and huge sign over his front door. It read,

"Main Entrance"!

We will be soon moving to the second year in which all of us have to opt for some specialization. Brand Management is a dream subject for any marketer because ultimately a person has to de-velop one or other brand. Who better to give com-ments on Brand Management other than Prof. Kevin Keller? Before going to his comment on Brand Management let’s see his current profile.

Professor Keller is acknowledged as one of the international leaders in the study of brands, brand-ing, and strategic brand management. Actively in-volved with industry, he has worked on a host of different types of marketing projects. He has served as brand confidant to marketers for some of the world's most successful brands, including Ac-centure, American Express, Disney, Ford, Intel, Levi Strauss, Miller Brewing, Procter & Gamble, and Starbucks.

Education.

Keller has completed his education from AB, Cor-nell University, 1978; MSIA, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1980; PhD, Duke University, 1986.

Awards:

Dissertation Awards, 1986

American Marketing Association, American Psy-chological Association Division 23, Association for Consumer Research, Marketing Science Insti-tute

Harold H. Maynard Award, Journal of Marketing,

1993; Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award, 2003

Has been awarded the 2005 ZIBS Distinguished Theory Award by the Zyman Institute of Brand Science (ZIBS), a network-based organization lo-cated at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. The award is given annually and honors significant contribution to the field of brand sci-ence.

Kevin Keller on Brand and successful sustaining the Brand

Kevin Lane Keller has helped some of the world's most recognizable companies create and sustain successful brands. He's also seen many companies

Name: Kevin Keller

Primary Title: E.B. Osborn Professor of Marketing

Primary Dept: Marketing

Areas of Ex-pertise:

Marketing; branding; brand equity, and brand management; integrated marketing communications and advertising.

Kevin keller

Ajay Chhabra

P A G E 2 2B R A N D W A G O N

fail.

He feels that brand fails because of many reasons but the most im-portant reason for the failure of brand is that people fail to grasp the importance of a well-articulated brand. He feels that brand isn't just a name or a logo design, it's a relationship between a product and a user. Just as peo-ple have to connect on multiple

levels, brands have to connect with their audience in different dimensions. He feels that for a brand to have a successful relationship, it's got to have breadth as well as depth.

Keller feels that strong brands are reliable, yet they're also dynamic by nature and must evolve in order to stay relevant. The quest for relevance is key, but changing a brand in the wrong way and losing its relevance is one of the primary reasons successful brands fail. He says that there is a fine

line between evolving the brand and destroying the equity promise.

Companies need to approach the idea of suggests that you don't spend 10 years appealing to middle-aged women and then suddenly turn around and start trying to connect with 25-year-old women. You're almost certainly going to alienate the peo-ple who have an investment in your brand, and there's no guarantee you're going to be successful with the new group.

Keller feels that brands should not wait for the world to change before they evolve. He feels that the audience is a constantly moving target’s changing needs, changing motivations, changing hot buttons. If you're not changing with them, you're on your way to becoming irrelevant.

Jest in case

Interesting Re(ad)s

Pankaj Kothiyal

"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it."

Stephen Leacock.

Volkswagen Van came up with this brilliant idea to promote its carrying capacity as against many other cars:

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Volkswagen comes with yet another winner for its Polo car in this classic advertisement. A little back-ground may be essential to understand this one. The football rivalry between Germany and Holland is as big as that between India-Pak in cricket. This ad, which has the headline “Extremely Well Built.” has a group of german football team supporters travelling in a VW Polo car among a gang of Dutch fans. And the rest is self-explanatory.

One last piece from Volkswagen for its Nueva Passat car. Here the emphasis on the luxurious back space available in the car.

Drip marketing:

One of the most valuable assets in any business is people who don’t buy from you—today. These are the potential customers, and form the majority of the prospects for the business. Attracting these prospects can be achieved through a marketing strategy like using Drip marketing.

What is drip marketing? It is a direct marketing strategy that involves consistent contact, such as sending out several promotional pieces over a pe-riod of time to a group of sales leads and existing prospects.

The trick here in this strategy is to build one’s brand equity by reinforcing a message, image or theme. . Every time you put your brand in front of a customer or potential customer, you create an impression, which impacts the perception of your brand. When that perception is consistently re-peated, you build a brand that becomes easy to rec-ognize and remember.

The phrase drip marketing comes from the com-mon phrase used in agriculture and gardening called "drip irrigation. Drip marketing was a re-sponse to the "Law of 29," the belief among some marketing professionals that it takes 29 "hits" for a marketing message to successfully turn a prospect into a client.

Drip marketing isn’t a new strategy. It’s been used time and again in insurance circles. However in recent times new web-based technology is making successful drip marketing more affordable and manageable than ever. If well engineered a drip marketing campaign can be extremely effective. Besides the message quality (relevance), the fre-quency and timing of its delivery has a huge im-pact on the effectiveness of any opportunity gen-eration campaign.

The concept of drip marketing is simple. Instead of one big concentrated marketing blitz, you create a long-term campaign that touches prospects repeat-edly. . An effective way to use drip marketing is to consistently do something each month to keep your name in front of your current clients and pro-spective clients. By doing this, the sales cycle can

Drip marketing

Niharika Gogineni

P A G E 2 6B R A N D W A G O N

be diminished and a steady amount of business produced.

Specifics methods of drip marketing include:

Postcards

Newsletters

Promotional or Sales Brochures

Catalogs

Brochures

FAX broadcast

Email Newsletter

Drip marketing these days is being extensively used for online promotions. e-mail drip marketing is a powerful way to stay in contact with previous clients and cultivate new prospects who are not ready to take immediate action. Drip marketing systems allow you to set up and then automatically send a series of timed e-mail messages to any group of people with a common interest—first-time buyers, move-up sellers, etc.

There are three points in the typical sales cycle where drip e-mail can be used for profitable re-

sults:

1. Pre-transaction Cultivation – Once initial con-tact has been made with a prospect drip campaigns can help build rapport and trust with prospective customers, which would probably induce them to buy your product or service.

2. Transaction Support – During the time that the customers are actually buying the product a drip campaign is a great tool to help clients stay abreast of their transaction’s progress.

Post-transaction Marketing – After the transaction is closed emails can be used for building referrals. Regular e-mails will keep one in the forefront of past clients’ minds and increase the likelihood of repeat business.

However, it must be kept in mind that drip e-mail should only be used to work with leads that have already been contacted and from whom permission has been granted to e-mail them but must never be used to generate new leads. Otherwise, one might inadvertently spam prospects and do irreparable damage to the business’ online goodwill.

Jest in case

Ad buzz

Rishi Kumar Singh

It has always been difficult to analyze the ad of various popular brands due to sheer emotions they are able to bring with them. Many ads which I have tried to evaluate are brands which are centu-ries old, very popular and nevertheless trustwor-thy. But of course all ad-men are not always right. They sometimes do fail, owing to their over-banking upon the star power or sheer lack of mate-rial or core substance. But some are able to click the grey matters leading to an interest towards the same. In this article I have tried to do justice to some popular brands. I don’t know whether I will succeed in the same or not, but of course I will try my level best to pass my verdict as an audience on these ads.

Brand: LIFEBUOY SOAP

Starring: A group of kids with their mothers.

Move over to soap. Here is an advertisement, which speaks volume without any big name at-tached with it. Mind well! The customer knows his pick and of course you cannot fool him to buy anything just by showing a bubbly and sexy ac-tress using it. The message is clear. No brainer. The ad clicks with me (and audience ...of course I am representing them here) and conveys the mes-sage directly. The absence of a big name behind the brand, in fact helps the advertisement set afloat.

So what’s the ingredients and the recipe of the ad which makes it palatable? The ingredient is “a bunch of small kids” which normally finds more emotive connection with the audience. Cleaning,

d a n c i n g , bathing and of course go-ing to school after com-pleting the chores (a so-cial responsi-bility of every kid!! Kids learn

it). The recipe: Kids do create mess and are nor-mally exposed to the dirt and dust affecting their health. But don’t worry the soap is there to help you keep clean. The message is clear: “Live your age…and yes maintain your health; the soap is there with you..koi dar nahin” and of course “Go to school daily”..Phew! Many birds killed with a single stone. A finely executed ad without any hunky-dory things and, of course, cleavage show.

And yes of course you don’t require to watch “Lage raho munnabhai”…Gandhigiri…The kids are quite capable of passing the same message “Clean your environment...don’t wait for anybody else”..Munnabhai be careful…This is the uprising of a small battalion, which can cost you your ca-reer.

Verdict: My showcase in drawing room

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Brand: TATA SKY

Starring: Hrithik Roshan and a confused jocular character

D-uh! One more ad without any new thing to con-vey. Hrithik Roshan looks cool but definitely lacks that crucial punch which will hardly hint anybody to buy “Tata Sky”, not atleast me. Come on, watching the match with the hunk, doesn’t impress the audience and neither motivates them to look into the deal. What’s the deal after all? Watching the match with Hrithik. Haan! If that would had been conveyed by a sweet and sexy actress (Take Priyanka for my case) that would had been a deal. Come on everybody knows, the of his chances se-lection for a treat? Don’t ya! And yes the man with a green grass covering doesn’t provide me any cue as to what the advertise wants to convey. The punch line “zingalala” looks too clichéd to click. The message looks quite obfuscated and hidden behind the charisma of the actor. A confusing ad,

with the talent and raw power of an actor wasted.

Verdict: My s t o r e r o o m shelf

Brand: Lux Soap

Starring: Aishwarya Rai(double role …a real and a cartoon) and three spot boys to call the least.

Aishwarya Rai, as a nymphoma-niac-looking car-toon or heroine!! That perhaps creates more confusion. Is she returning to her roots, I mean advertisements (modeling)? Per-haps she is better at the latter. One thing is clear. She knows Frisbee throwing. And what’s more, she knows! Hmm..Perhaps bathing (of course it is a soap advertisement, pal!). Is she being shown bathing in the ad? No! The crux of the previous ads of the legendary soap seems to be missing here. So after all what is the ad about? Is it show-ing the curves of a beauty queen, which perhaps everybody knows, or showing that she has become thinner, or perhaps she doesn’t have any movie in line? And where’s the product which she is vouch-ing for. D-Uh…. I just kept looking at the better “filled up’ areas of the actress. And of course, a girl would rather prefer to show her beauty and curve in a public place and not a nice, panoramic and a lonely island. And why only Frisbee throw-ing? Can the ad-maker explain this?

I would rather prefer to look at some other soap where the message is quite clear. Perhaps Pears click me over here. Or maybe Hamam or Godrej Fair Glow…’Gora bana de’

A totally worthless ad, without any message con-veyed, but yes with only one outcome: “Aishwarya can now switch between a real and cartoon character at the drop of a soap”

Verdict: My bowl.

The process of branding was developed to protect products from failure. Branding dates back to 1880’s with companies like Campbell, Heinz. It was a huge success in that era.

Fast forward to 21st century and different picture emerges. They have become a victim of their own success. Now if a product fails, it’s the brand that’s at fault.

In this series we will look through some of the biggest branding mistakes by some of the biggest giants like Microsoft, coke, Pepsi, ford, etc. and analyze what went wrong.

We will start with the classic example of brand failure: “Ford Edsel”.

FORD EDSEL

Among many US marketing professors, the story of the Edsel car is considered the classic brand failure of all time. Dubbed ‘the Titanic of auto-mobiles’, the Edsel is certainly one of the biggest branding disasters to afflict the Ford Motor Com-pany

The Edsel car was launched amid a vast amount of hype. Although the car didn’t appear in show-rooms until September 1957, ads promoting it had begun to appear months previously bearing the teaser slogan: ‘The Edsel is Coming".

Ford decided though, to fuel public interest, the car itself should not be seen in the ads, and even when Ford dealers started stocking the car in their showrooms, they were told they had to keep the vehicles undercover. If they did not they risked a fine and the loss of their franchise with the com-pany.

As Ford hoped, interest was fuelled. The company did not think for one moment that the product would not be able to match the hype, and would lead to a consumer backlash. After all, more work and research had gone into the development of this car than almost any previously.

However, some of the research had already proven futile by the time of the launch. For instance, part of the market research process had been to find suitable name for the new car. This should have been a good idea. After all, the highly popular Ford Thunderbird car, which had been launched in 1954, had gained its evocative name as a result of market research findings. This time, research teams were sent out to New York, Chicago and Michigan, where members of the public were asked what they thought of certain names and to come up with their own suggestions. There was also a competition among employees to come up with the best name, and the company even con-tacted the popular poet Marianne Moore. Her brief was to find a name which would signify a ‘visceral feeling of elegance, fleetness, advanced features and design.’ Her rather eccentric suggestions in-

Off the mark

Rajat Jain

P A G E 3 0B R A N D W A G O N

cluded Mongoose Civique, Resilient Bullet, Uto-pian Turtle top and the Varsity Stroke.

Altogether, the company now had a pool of 10,000 names to choose from. Too many, according to company chairman, Ernest Breech, as he scanned through the names during a meeting of the Ford Executive Committee in November 1956. ‘Why don’t we just call it Edsel?’ he asked, exasperated.

Henry Ford II, the grandson of Henry Ford, agreed. Edsel was the name of his father, and the Ford founder’s only son.

Not everyone held the same opinion though. The PR director, C Gayle Warnock, knew that Edsel was not the right name. It had been an early sug-gestion, and had not been liked by those members of the public who had taken part in the market re-search (in word-association tests, it had been asso-ciated with ‘weasel’ and ‘pretzel’ – hardly the best associations for a dynamic new car). Warnock had preferred other names on the list, such asPacer, Ranger, Corsair or Citation. When the decision was made, Warnock made his feelings perfectly clear. According to Robert Lacey in his book Ford: The Men and the Machine, Warnock responded to the new Edsel name by declaring: ‘We have just lost 200,000 sales.’ For Warnock, a rose by any other name clearly didn’t smell as sweet.

As it turned out, the name was the least of the Ed-

sel’s problems. There was also the design. The first blueprint for the Edsel looked truly impres-sive, as Robert Lacey writes in his book on Ford. ‘With concealed air scoops below the bumpers, this first version of the car was original and dra-matic – a dreamlike, ethereal creation which struck those who saw it as the very embodiment of the future.’ However, this magnificent design never got to see the light of day. The people who held onto the purse strings at Ford decided it would simply be too expensive to manufacture

The design that eventually emerged was certainly unique. Edsel’s chief designer, Roy Brown Jr had always set out to design a car that would be recog-nizable instantly, from any direction. And indeed, there is no denying that the first Edsels to emerge in 1957 fulfilled this objective. In particular, the car’s front-end bonnet and grille commanded the most attention. ‘The front end design was the most prominent feature,’ confirms Phil Skinner, re-spected Edsel historian, ‘If you consider other cars from the mid-1950s, they all looked somewhat alike. Basically it was two headlights and horizon-tal grille. By having the big impact ring in the mid-dle – what we now call a horse collar – it really set the Edsel apart.’

Although some members of the automotive press commended this distinctive look, most were unap-preciative. One reviewer famously remarked that it looked ‘like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon.’ While another thought the front-end grille was less like a horse collar, and more like a toilet seat. (The customer comments later proved to be even worse with some saying that the grille looked like a ‘vagina with teeth’.

However, Ford had good relations with the press and Warnock, the PR director, was determined to maximize the media coverage immediately before-hand after the launch date. Articles subsequently appeared in both Time and Life magazines herald-

B R A N D W A G O NP A G E 3 1

ing the Edsel as a breakthrough and explaining how it had been planned for over a decade – a bla-tant exaggeration on the part of Warnock as Roy Brown had only begun designing the car in 1954. The promotional brochure to mark the September launch of the Edsel also promised a great deal. ‘There has never been a car like the Edsel,’ it promised. This was a big claim, but Ford had equally big ambitions. The company expected to produce 200,000 units in the car’s first year. This constituted around five per cent of the entire mar-ket.

Anyway, the pre-publicity had initially seemed to work. Car showrooms became packed with curious visitors, desperately seeking their first glance of the car. In the first week of its launch, almost three million members of thus public visited Edsel showrooms. The Edsel they saw had a number of distinct features, in addition to the ‘love-it-or-hate-it’ front-end grille. For instance, the car was the first ever to have self-adjusting brakes and an elec-tronic hood release. It also had a very powerful engine for a medium-range car. However, these features weren’t enough

In the minds of the public, the car simply didn’t live up to the hype. And unfortunately for Ford, neither did the sales. Edsel sold only 64,000 units in its first year, way below the number anticipated. Ford launched 1959 and1960 Edsel models but sales fell even further (to 44,891 and 2,846 respec-tively). In November 1959 Ford printed the last ever ad for the car and halted production.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

The marketing campaign was certainly a key fac-tor. In simple terms, Fordhad overstated its case. Buoyed by the success of the Thunderbird only a few years previously the company must have felt invincible, and this was reflected in the rather too self-assured advertising material

However, no-one can excuse Ford of underexpo-sure. On 13 October 1957the marketing campaign for Edsel took product promotion to new heights when Ford joined forces with the CBS television network, to run a one-hour special called The Ed-sel Show. The show, a parody of 1950s favorite The EdSullivan Show featured celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. But even with such prime-time promotion Ford was unable to shift anywhere near enough units of the car. Con-sumers didn’t care whether it was ‘revolutionary’ or not. All they knew was that it looked ugly and had a name that sounded like ‘weasel’. Further-more, in an age when all the successful cars had tailfins, the Edsel was finless. According to Bob Casey, curator of transportation at the Henry Ford Museum, this fact meant that the Edsel ‘didn’t quite fit into people’s vision of a car’.

In addition to misguided advertising, bad looks and a stupid name, Edsel faced a further problem –it was too expensive. As Sheila Mello explains in her informative book, Customer Centric Product Definition, the launch of the Edsel coincided with a move towards cheaper models:

Ford’s decision to highlight the Edsel’s powerful engine during a period when the buying public was gravitating toward smaller, more fuel-efficient cars alienated potential customers. The first mod-els in the showroom were the most expensive, top-

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of-the-line models, resulting in what we refer to today as sticker shock. Unfortunately, too, while some Edsel models were more expensive than comparable cars, they had an equivalent or greater number of quality problems. Often parts didn’t fit properly or were simply missing, since Ford fre-quently built Edsels between Fords and Mercurys on the same assembly line. Many dealers were ill equipped to replace these parts or add accessories

The car ended up looking more expensive than it actually was because of poor timing. In the 1950s, US new car models typically appeared in Novem-ber for the following year. For instance, a 1956 Thunderbird would have come out in November 1955. However, Edsel was launched in September, two months before the other new models arrived. It was therefore a 1958 car competing against 1957 models – and more importantly, 1957 prices.

In fact, the situation was even worse than that. Not only had Edsel decided to push its most expensive models first, but the 1957 models it was competing with were being offered at a discounted price in order to sell them before next year’s models were wheeled into the showroom.

A high price may have been acceptable if it had been worth paying. However, the experience of those few early Edsel customers quickly gave the car a reputation for mechanical problems. Edsel now popularly stood for Every Day Something Else Leaks.

One thing though was completely beyond Ford’s control. After a boom period for the US car indus-try during the mid-1950s, the end of 1957 saw the start of a recession. In 1958 almost all car models saw a drop in sales, some by as much as 50 per cent. Ironically, one of the very few models to wit-ness an increase in sales that year was the Ford Thunderbird.

LESSON FROM EDSEL

Hyping an untested product is a mistake. ‘I learned that a company should never allow its spokesper-sons to build up enthusiasm for an unseen, un-proven product,’ confessed C Gayle Warnock, the PR director responsible for the publicity surround-ing the Edsel launch.

Your name matters. At the most basic level, your brand is your name. It doesn’t matter how impor-tant the brand name is to the company, it’s what it means to the public that counts. If the name con-jures up images of weasels and pretzels it might be a good time to scrap it.

Looks count. Visual appearance is a key factor in creating a brand identity for most products. It was the distinctive shape of Coca-Cola bottles which helped that brand become so big. In the car indus-try, looks are particularly important and as Edsel proved, ugly ducklings don’t always become swans.

Price is important. Products can be too expensive or too cheap. When some brands price themselves too low, they lose their prestige. However, with a car such as the Edsel, the high price couldn’t be justified in the minds of the public

The right research is important. Ford spent time and money carrying out the wrong kind of market research. Instead of hunting for names, the com-pany should have been concentrating on whether there was a market for its new car in the first place. As it turned out, the market it spent millions trying to reach didn’t even exist

Quality is important. Of course, product quality is always important but when it comes to cars it is a matter of life and death. Bad quality control proved an extra nail in Edsel’s coffin.

C S R :