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I’m posting this in a public forum so that Harry can read it.
Well done Harry the program as good, very interesting history in how it all went wrong, horribly, for Hoover and to a degree for Maytag as well. I can also well imagine there’s a lot went on that was perhaps a bit too risky for the BBC to show.
I chuckled a bit as I distinctly remember a conversation at the time of all this with some people from Candy saying that they wouldn’t touch Hoover due to the adverse publicity that it would bring as, at the time, they were the only ones really in the frame to buy it. There had been a few to see Hoover, but no offers for it and I think that Maytag just wanted rid of Hoover in the hope that the problem would no longer be theirs.
At least it should never happen again and the large corporations should learn from history, something that they seem not too good at at times.
Well, maybe…
BT have just launched an almost identical campaign to sell broadband! 😕
K.
It’s strange how this just rumbles on and on. At the time this was far from a disaster – Cambuslang were running a night shift for months for the first time in YEARS.
Simple idea – spend £100 – get a free flight. The bit everybody forgets is you could get a choice of 3 free flights, but not your choice – what Hoover’s agents could rustle up around the time and destination you wanted was as near as anyone was ever going to get. And yet – people organised weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries, God knows what else, then had the GALL to complain when they didn’t get what they wanted!
Personally, I thought it was to Hoover’s credit at the time when they pointed out that if people bothered to read the rules of the competition, they’d find out what they’d signed up for!
Truly, a sign of the totally self-interested, self-centred and downright selfish times we live in.
Hoover as we know it died due to the Americans reshuffling and selling the business on. Typically, the Americans never really got their heads round the little appliances we have (I think it’s called the Cadillac Syndrome in the Automotive world… It’s why Rootes/Talbot died.) and found it all a bit too complicated and confusing. While most of us in the trade have issues with Whirlpool; they have at least allowed the European division to do the European thing without trying to insist they promote American type products. You can get them if you really want to, but it’s the Italian end which is actually running Europe. They just tell the bean counters how good it is!
So, did this spell the end of corporate honesty and the capitulation to the all powerful consumer? I rather suspect it did – no manufacturer is likely to offer any sort of “interesting” promotion these days!
Regards,
Penguin.
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