Ask a group of young marketing hotshots about the ‘Grey Market’ and they are bound to say: “.. Ahh you mean Stannah Stairlifts. Jokes about the old and aging inevitably mention Stannah. Examples of ‘bad advertising’ are bound to include Stannah. Get the message – Stannah is a marketing no-no. Strange, that it also happens to be a very successful company.
It appears that the company has just handed its £2 million above-the-line advertising account to Leagas Delaney who will be responsible for “reinventing the brand”.
Stannah’s marketing manager is quoted as saying the agency will be responsible for highlighting the positive aspects of stairlifts: “It is about creating more of an emotional attachment to the brand and talking to people about the product category in a different way”. Another quote says: “This is not just a product for very old people – we want to encourage people to purchase it earlier in life”. What marketing claptrap.
Look it another way. Stannah has achieved the marketing nirvana of becoming integrally linked with the product category. Think of a stairlift you think of Stannah.
You don’t buy stairlifts for fun. You don’t think to yourself: “should we have a holiday in Barbados or buy are stairlift”. If you need one you need one. However you dress the thing up, buying a stairlift means you, or somebody close to you, needs the thing.
Stannah, don’t waste your money on something that is bound to be ridiculed by the marketing press. Just keep doing what you are doing and making lots of money. Dick Stroud
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