excellent example of maximum concentration on advertising and promotion.
Obviously, the 1958 Edsel was launched on the assumption that the design of the car was not a vital factor in marketing an automobile and that the name of the car was of minor importance. The name could be chosen for sentimental reasons, those in charge must have reasoned, since, after all, the advertising and promotion will be the biggest and best ever.
The marketing failure of the 1958 Edsel is one demonstration of the falsity of the assumption that with a big advertising budget and great promotion campaign you can sell anything.
Another demonstration that a big advertising budget is not all that is needed to sell a product is the case of a manufacturer of a breakfast food. The agency for the breakfast food was interested in developing a new marketing theme. The agency men decided that in order to get a fresh sales approach, they needed a new package. They sold management on the idea and a new package design was created.
When the marketing effectiveness of the new package design was measured by means of tests conducted on an unconscious level, it failed to pass the tests. The brand managers and the agency executives did not like the test results which contradicted their opinions and were not in tune with the marketing theme they conceived.
The research findings were disregarded and the new packages were produced and delivered to the stores. However, they remained on the store shelves. Although a big advertising campaign backed the introduction of the new package, the old consumers did not recognize the brand in the new packages and the new packages did not attract new consumers.
The company was forced to discontinue the new packages and cut off the new campaign. The old familiar package reappeared on the market.
The launching of the 1958 Edsel car and the introduction of a new package for an old brand of breakfast food are both excellent examples demonstrating that an advertising campaign by itself, no matter how good or how big, does not assure having a successful marketing program.
Not only advertising specialists are often guilty of considering their special field the only major factor in marketing. Package designers frequently stress packaging above everything else.
Designers are creative individuals. They love to create new ideas and new forms. They naturally strive to change. They normally consider everything that is new superior to everything that is old.
The greatest contribution of designers is their originality and creativity, which can, under some conditions, be negative factors in marketing.
Consumers in general are tired of the old, but fear the new. They are stimulated by and are also made to feel insecure by the new. Many people are attracted by new objects and new forms, but they resist them because they are strange. Although the old forms and objects give people feelings of security, they are often boring or unstimulating.
Research has shown that people readily accept something new about the old. The old part makes them feel secure and confident; the new aspect is stimulating and interesting.
The question is how much of the old and how much new should there be in a product in order for it to have maximum consumer acceptance?
We get the answer to questions of this kind from research, the kind of research that reveals true consumer attitudes and shows actual behavior of consumers in relation to the product or article.
Such research has disclosed that a new package is not always more effective than the old one, that the package of good taste is not always the best marketing tool and that the most original design is not always the best for a particular product. Marketing experience has later confirmed the results of tests that were conducted on an unconscious level.
Sales people often have their eyes focused at one point. They are frequently guilty of considering aggressive selling techniques as the most important factors in marketing. Sales managers are apt to disregard everything else in a marketing program and stress only aggressive selling. They put all emphasis on the sales pitch and on beating the pavements.
Sales specialists often stress competitive pricing as the key to increasing the volume of sales. If the product does not move fast enough, lower the price, is the dictum of many a sales manager.
Too rare is the sales manager who studies the nature of the advertising or looks into the effectiveness of the package or point of sale material.
Production men also are generally over-specialized. They, too, are immersed in production problems and often fail to see the company-and-consumer relationship as a whole or the marketing side.
The automotive engineer is convinced that the car having the best engine will have the greatest sale. The average engineer can’t understand or believe that styling has more to do with selling a car than the engine. It makes no sense to him.
The production manager of a candy manufacturing plant could not believe that the candy with the most expensive ingredients did not have the greatest consumer acceptance. Quality is an objective reality to a production man. Good is good for everybody. The best is the best for all, according to many production managers.
Our highly industrialized, complex society must have specialists. Knowledge has become so wide and great that no one person can possibly know all or even the basic principles of more than one or two fields of knowledge. We must rely on specialists. However, we should always keep in mind the weaknesses or dangers inherent in specialization.
Specialists generally look for their specialty. They are apt to overlook the real weakness, the true source of trouble, because they look with the eyes of the specialist. They find only what they look for because they unconsciously and naturally look for the thing in which they specialize.
When I was a boy I heard the following story: A benevolent ruler of a city state was reaching the age of retirement. He was making plans to hand over the governing duties to one of his assistants. He could not decide which of two would be the better ruler. Both of them flattered him and catered to his wishes. But what would either one of them do if he were master? That was the question. So the wise old man sent the two young men out to do a research job. Each was given an assignment to make a journey to a well known distant city state to study its people. He wanted a report on the integrity, honesty, diligence and cooperative spirit of the residents of that city state.
One young man brought back a report that this city state was full of rascals, gangsters, crooks and ne’er-do-wells.
The other young man’s report disclosed that the citizens o£ that city state were good, honest, hard-working and cooperative.
Each of them found the kind of people he was looking for. The one who looked for goodness found it. The other who searched for evil found it.
All of us are apt to see things according to our own yardsticks. We generally find what we are looking for, and too often we fail to see anything that we are not looking for, no matter how vital it may be.
To assure success, marketing men must guard against this danger. They must look at all the four sides of the marketing structure. They must examine all four walls that support the marketing roof. They must concentrate on all the sides that make profit possible.
The Product
The most important side of the marketing structure is the product. A product that is not as good as that of competition is not likely to be a great success, no matter how good everything else is.
A strong promotion, a large advertising budget or an appealing package
