Rover
and Out
"Eau de Leather. The Rover 25 GLi with
full leather interior as standard. From the 2005
collection. A heady infusion of wood style fascia,
electric sunroof, electric windows, alloy wheels
and a CD-Tuner. Pour Homme. Pour Femme. Pour £8,995."
Double page advertisement in Good Housekeeping,
May 2005
Confession: I used to drive a Rover.
Back in 1987, it was my second company car (when
such things were tax efficient) - a Rover 216
Vitesse in British Racing Green. It had a good
spec (including Honda engine and gearbox) in the
price band I was allowed. It was my first rung
on the executive saloon ladder.
Then the foot-wells started to live up to their
name. When it rained, water seeped into the carpets
and puddles would appear around your shoes. On
very wet days, sudden braking started a small
wave at the back that would lap onto your ankles
in the front.
The dealer said it was a factory fault, which
he then fixed on the third attempt. I asked him
why it was still very wet inside. "Sorry
about that; we put it through our car wash and
forgot to shut the back window."
That was my experience in one of the longest
car crashes in history.
Multiple parents
For the past 20 years, Rover has been like a problem
child being passed from one foster home to another,
hoping someone else will correct its behaviour.
But the moves between the Japanese, the Germans
and some British aerospace engineers just seems
to have added to its problems. 2004 productivity
figures speak for themselves: 16 cars per head
at the company's Longbridge plant; it's 320 each
at Nissan in Sunderland.
Now that MG Rover is in receivership, financial
questions are being asked of the 'Phoenix Four'
who failed to reach agreement with Shanghai Automotive
(SAIC) to ensure its survival. But focusing on
the money misses a key lesson: the demise of MG
Rover was a failure of direction, strategy, product
and branding.
In short, a failure of marketing.
Don’t sit in the middle
When the company restructured, post the British
Leyland era, it had some great brands - Land Rover,
Jaguar, Mini and MG – but it also had some
that were tired and passed their sell-by (Austin,
Morris, Riley, Triumph, Wolseley). The stars were
separated; appropriately, the dogs were packed
beneath the Rover name.
Combined with poor build quality and a dreadful
record of industrial relations, the Rover brand
was saddled with the baggage of the entire British
motor industry
Like any overloaded vehicle, Rover decided to
take up space in the middle of the road. Think
Rover, and you don't think zippy hot hatch (its
one big hit in that sector was the
MG Metro). Nor do you think top of the range executive
saloon. Rover's position was middle price, middle
management and middle England. And through all
its change of ownership, management and direction,
it kept coming back to the central white line.
But even then, it failed to deliver what its
market wanted. Consider the ad at the start of
the memo: it appears in 'Good Housekeeping'. Imagine
the profile of the GH readership. Now add into
the equation that Rover sponsored "Smooth
Classics at Seven" on Classic FM.
Are you building up a picture of its target market
– a certain age, a certain income, with
certain expectations? These are not people who
see a wood style fascia as part of a 'heady infusion'.
Takes time to build a brand
Brand and product must be consistent and feed
one another. You cannot make an upmarket, lifestyle
pitch for an inadequate product. And whatever
the virtues of the GLi, the CityRover –
built by TATA Indica of India to sell at £5000
– totally undermined the Rover brand values.
Brands take time to build. You can't sustain
a brand by zigzagging from one strategy to another.
Exemplar of this is BMW, who have been with the
same advertising agency - WCRS - for 25 years.
While the agency is very good, the quarter-century
speaks more about BMW management, and the value
they place on consistency.
Compare that with Rover, who in the five years
to 2000 went through six agencies. Even as recently
as December 2004 it was all change, when the company
announced it was setting up a new standalone organization
to handle sales and marketing.
Play to your strengths
If there's a glimmer of light in the Rover portfolio,
it's the MG brand. John Moulson of Alchemy recognised
that in his failed bid to buy the company in 2000.
Alchemy released an 8-page summary outlining
a clear marketing strategy for MG sports cars:
a partnership with Lotus; re-entry into the US
market; participation in motor sport. Pick a niche
and focus on it.
Keeping both brands on the road, MG Rover launched
the MG Z Series in 2001, and was then censured
twice for headlines that encourage aggressive
driving, and showing it blurring past a 'reduce
speed now' sign. That may have been the right
message for the target audience (who probably
don't listen to Classic FM), but if you can't
run the ad, then they'll never know.
Despite the setbacks, the MG brand is still much
the stronger of the two. Year-on-year figures
may be relative, but they tell their own story:
In Q1 this year, while Rover's sales were down
33%, MG increased 10%,
This saga still has some plot twists to play
out; BMW still owns the rights to the Rover brand
name, so Shanghai Automotive may yet make Rover
cars in China. And rumour has it that Mr Moulson
is still in the wings looking for a bargain MG.
Rover tried to pull itself upmarket, but for
all the progress it made in design and build quality,
the competition was too big and too far ahead.
The brand never recovered from its long, painful
heritage.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
– even if it is wearing 'Eau de Leather'.
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