Brand Failures
Brand Failures Brand Failures
24 Brand failures Mustang was the shift from a product-centric focus to a customer-centric one.’ This view is supported by Lee Iacocca, who oversaw the creation of the Mustang as Ford president, before taking over the reins at Chrysler. In his autobiography, Iacocca explains the approach behind the Mustang: ‘Whereas the Edsel had been a car in search of a market it never found, here was a market in search of a car. The normal procedure in Detroit was to build a car and then try to identify its buyers. But we were in a position to move in the opposite direction – and tailor a new product for a hungry new market.’ As a result, the Mustang went from strength to strength and is still in production today. So while the whole Edsel episode may have been a costly embarrassment for Ford in the short term, it helped the company learn some valuable lessons which it has carried with it to this day. Lessons from Edsel Hyping an untested product is a mistake. ‘I learned that a company should never allow its spokespersons to build up enthusiasm for an unseen, unproven product,’ confessed C Gayle Warnock, the PR director responsible for the publicity surrounding the Edsel launch. Your name matters. At the most basic level, your brand is your name. It doesn’t matter how important the brand name is to the company, it’s what it means to the public that counts. If the name conjures 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 industry, 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 company 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.
Classic failures 25 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.
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Classic failures 25<br />
Quality is important. Of course, product quality is always important but<br />
when it comes to cars it is a matter of life and death. Bad quality control<br />
proved an extra nail in Edsel’s coffin.