For Many Big Companies, the Edsel Lesson Is Yet to Be Learned

Ford rolled out the Edsel in September 1957 to great fanfare quotEDayquot as the company trumpeted it amp160The underwhelmed public quickly deemed the car too ugly too expensive and too mechanically suspect amp160Ford sold little more than 100000 of the chromefestooned vehicles amp160only about onefourth of its goal amp160before the company euthanized the Edsel two years laterquotThere was a massive gap3939 Elliot writes quotbetween the original concept for Edselamp160as a new Ford brand 39for the younger executive or professional family on its way up39 and the actual carsquotFord of course has gone on to produce many other popular innovative models amp160But that quotmassive gapquot was by no means a oneoff lapse in the way big companies think or in their understanding of the public39s priorities amp160Even today there is often a big disconnect between what people expect from some of the world39s most prominent brandname corporations and what customers actually experience amp160That includes companies whose green talk doesn39t live up to the public39s perception of their environmental track records amp160Or executives whose lofty rhetoric doesn39t match the value that consumers perceive from their companies39 products amp160Or quotdisruptorquot companies that distinguish themselves with innovative new services but don39t seem to care enough about the larger social goodThose were among the business shortcomings revealed in the most recent quotauthenticity gapquot publicopinion survey by my employer FleishmanHillard amp160Across nearly 300 companies in more than two dozen key industries our survey of more than 5000 quotengaged consumers3939 found that while individual companies and even entire industries often do exceed consumer expectations too often they fall way shortamp160 The survey results the companies and a description of the methodamp160can be found hereIn the nine categories of expectations we measured the biggest authenticity gaps were found in quotbetter valuequot quotcare of the environmentquot and quotcaring for customersquot amp160Consider the lodging industry for example amp160Our researchers asked about some of the world39s most prominent hotel companies organizations whose very reason for being is to lavish their customers with comfort and care amp160And yet of all the industries we looked at the hotel industry had one of the largest authenticity gaps in customer care amp160the gulf between hotel guests39 desire to be pampered and catered toamp160and the experience they reportedThe lodging industry39s authenticity gap might indicate that some hoteliers are indeed falling down on the job amp160But it also speaks to basic human nature The higher our expectations the greater the potential to be disappointed amp160Because a guest at a namebrand hotel expects to be well cared for the more likely he or she is to downgrade the innkeeper for any experience that is less than perfectionWhat to make of our authenticity gap findings amp160For consumers the results mean their opinions count now more than ever given the forcemultiplier effect of social media amp160For big companies whatever their industry the gaps mean they still have a lot of workamp160to do if they want to live up to the high expectations the public has for brandname businesses amp160To the extent the authenticity gap might be more about perceptions than realities it means companies need to do a better job of communicating what they39re doing rightAs for the odious Edsel a brand name now synonymous with failed expectations the historian Michael Beschloss has noted that Ford executives essentially ignored research indicating that potential customers would be turned off by the car line39s name amp160The marque was meant as a tribute to Edsel Ford the deceased son of founder Henry Ford and father of the company39s president at the time Henry Ford IISome people at the company evidently believed that a corporate executive39s name held more cachet than consumers did amp160And that too in some ways resonates with another of our authenticity gap findings Consumers are much more likely to listen to what a company39s employees have to say about a business than whatever the top executives communicateTo Ford39s decision makers quotEdselquot conveyed corporate royalty amp160To consumers Beschloss writes it sounded too much like quotpretzelquot or amp160worse yet amp160quothard sellquotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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For Many Big Companies, the Edsel Lesson Is Yet to Be Learned

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Tim Race

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For Many Big Companies, the Edsel Lesson Is Yet to Be Learned

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