Hotpoint re-launch

So, another £11 million goes west as Hotpoint try to recover the damage done by the last 3 years of cr@p product, reliablility and service.

Takes me back ……… Many years ago (when Adam was a lad?), I worked for Addis, the housewares and toothbrush giant (then..) as their print and packaging buyer. I was actually one of the most hated people in Britain for some years, because it was all my fault that you can’t get into a toothbrush carton (You should stab it with a biro – but we weren’t allow to put that on the carton). However, we digress.

In 1986, the great re-launch was announced. New logo, style, colours etc. The lovely Sue in design and myself looked at the ideas and after an only mildly beery lunch rattled up four new logos to replace the beautiful copper plate logo which had served for the last 100 years or so in two hours one Friday afternoon. Cost? 2 junior executives x 2 hours + 2 mildly liquid luncheons – hmm – maybe £80?

Anyway, we tossed it all upstairs. 6 months later, the new logo was announced – Addis in block capitals, reversed out of a blue oval logo, with a blue line round the outside (You can see it to this day). Total cost? £200,000 !! AND identical to no.2 on the sheet that Sue and I cooked up! AND – no credit!

Addis, for over 250 years (!) had turned a profit, until 1986, when the marketing people finally took over from sales and basically sold out to the own-brand multiples. 2 years later, I was cossetted in the arms of C–et, and Addis were absorbed into Curver. Strangely enough, the then current MD was married to the chairman of Curver’s daughter. Anyone smell fish?

Where was I going with this? There was a time when companies designed and built a good, solid, worthy product, and told the sales staff – SELL. Now, we have machines designed by commitees of marketing oiks to meet “assessed market challenges” and other such gobbeldygook. So multiple models, short production runs, inadequate product testing and Behold! Hotpoint now no longer a brand in it’s own right….. A N D…. – product relaunch! £11 million, and self inflicted. And a new logo that looks like a roofing slate.

I wonder how much THAT cost?

No sympathy from me I’m afraid. Perhaps the Dyson washer is a return to the old days. “Look at this, it’s brilliant, buy it if you want it, BUT, you pay!”. So, it may not be a million seller, but it appears to be a profitable low volume venture.

See you all in a week, I’m having a break. Discuss this, preferably maliciously, to your hearts content.
Regards,
Penguin.