Why is it when it comes to marketing and selling the Americans still leave the Brits in the dust?
It doesn’t need a marketing genius to understand why the US’s “cash for clunkers” plan caught the nation’s imagination scheme and ran out of money in less than a week while the UK’s “car scrappage scheme” has taken more than two months to burn through its allocation of cash.
This great idea to boost the countries’ respective car industries was conceived in Britain but as has happened over the decades the Americans came up with the marketing pizzazz.
Let’s face car scrappage scheme sounds boring. And worse the word scrappage contains a not very well hidden four-letter word, tailor-made to cast doubt on whether buyers will be getting a good deal.
Also car scrappage scheme doesn’t make it with headline writers.
Cash for clunkers on the other hand creates a great mental picture and the alliteration is an absolute winner with journalists. Even the plan’s official name CARS (Car Allowance Rebate Scheme) is clever.
I have never considered myself a copy writer but “bungs for bangers” would definitely have created a lot more buzz in the UK and sums up the government’s plan to bribe folks into buying a new car. Any other suggestions gratefully accepted.
The long-time negative on Britain is that the country is full of bright people, who can invent and design lots of great stuff but unfortunately those same folk have no respect for the science of actually selling what they make and look down on salesmen.
Now I haven’t lived in the UK for nearly 25 years so I had hoped something would have changed. And I am sure there is improvement. But when I see phrases like “car scrappage scheme” I know sales and marketing still doesn’t get much respect in the UK.
3 comments:
First time since 1980 I visited a car dealership as a prospective customer. I met the same salesman I met then (if not him, a clone), but this time he hovered around my 1988 Mazda pickup like a virgin at the Oracle at Delphi - did we have a clunker? No, as it turned out; 18 mpg is way too green. Now if it had been 17 mpg... I wonder what the rules are in the UK - how much can it cost to ship the old Mazda?
How does a 1988 truck get only 18 mph? Has it a lawn mower engine?
Mpg. You gotta burn gas, or even petrol, to qualify as a clunker. The old Mazda churns right along on the freeway, but its sin is that it goes too far on a gallon of fuel.
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