There has always been marketing ploys; ‘buy one get one free’, ‘free prize in every box’, etc. But there is no promotion to match the Great Hoover Disaster.
In 1992 The Hoover Company’s branch in England had a large surpluse of washing machines and vacuum cleaners which were gathering dust in a warehouse.
Some genius decided that there should be some kind of ‘buy one get free gift’ promotion to move the stock so they went through a number of ideas until they hit upon this gem.
Hoover decided to promise free airline tickets to customers who purchased more than £100 worth of its products.
Hoover did not imagine that a huge number of customers would buy the products not because they wanted them but to get the tickets.
At first the offer was two round-trip tickets to Europe. Then it was decided to include America.
The number of consumers increased remarkably, unbelievably. The cute bit is that the price of the tickets was far more than the £100 purchase.
Not surprisingly, Hoover was overwhelmed.
People were lining up for vacuum cleaners to get the tickets and Hoover, for some reason, maybe a corporate brain freeze, did not think so many people would mob their stores, buy their goods and demand their tickets.
When Hoover couldn’t fulfil, they were taken to Court. The first cases began In 1994,
The BBC picked up on it and the matter gained even even wider public attention.
A number of Hoover executives were sacked for their parts in the fiasco, including the Managing Director, the Vice President of Marketing and the Director of Marketing services.
The case dragged on until 1998. It cost Hoover almost £50 million, and they had to provide the tickets.
This caused British division of Hoover to go bankrupt and it was sold to an Italian company.
Although this story is absolutely true, it is hard to believe.
How could a company like Hoover, in 1992 make such a ridiculous offer?
But it did.
Investigations found that people bought the appliances and dumped them for they wanted the tickets. Hoover couldn’t get out of their ‘bargain.’
It is one of the worst marketing disasters of all time.
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Nice blogging.
Thanks for writing about "The Hoover Vacuum Cleaner"
The post is really amazing!!
Although this story is absolutely true, it is hard to believe.
best of luck.
:-)
very sad news.
:-(
feeling pain for the Hoover company ENgland.
:-(