Brand Failures

Tired brands 281
The problem, it appeared, was not with the car itself, but with the brand.
According to Jeremy Clarkson the Rover name has a certain stigma attached
to it. ‘It’s just about the least cool badge in the business,’ he said. ‘Rover, the
name, is a dog.’
Of course, this may only be a matter of opinion. The sales figures, on the
other hand, are a matter of fact. ‘A look at the numbers shows that the buyers
are bargain hunters who flock to the showrooms only in response to extraordinary
discounts,’ reported the BBC. The sluggish sales associated with the
Rover 75 were therefore symptomatic of a broader problem regarding the
Rover name itself. The company had become, in the words of one journalist,
‘a living symbol of the UK motor industry’s decline.’
‘The Rover 75 was the turning point. It was supposed to be the car that set
the seal on Rover’s renaissance,’ says Jay Nagley of the Spyder consultancy.
‘The Rover 75 was a good car, but the problem with Rover is the image.
People in that market sector didn’t necessarily want the Rover image no
matter how good a car it was attached to.’
By March 2000, BMW had had enough. With Rover piling up £2m losses
a day, the firm decided to break up the company.
Lessons from Rover
If the name doesn’t work, change it. Critics suggested the Rover name should
be dumped and rebranded as Triumph.
Concentrate on the brand not the products. ‘The problem is the brand rather
than the cars,’ said motor consultant Jay Nagley.