Misadventures in Branding

 In watching old episodes of The Price is Right they frequently give away cars.  Most of them in 1982 are crappy little hatchbacks or economy cars.  But occasionally they give away (or try to) a Cadillac Cimarron.  Any Phantom Readers, what do you think a 1983 Cadillac Cimarron looks like without going to Google? 

You probably think it's some big fancy car.  But the Cimarron was actually an upgraded Chevy Cavalier economy-size sedan.  It was not really very popular, not just because American cars in general weren't hugely popular in the early 80s but because when people thought "Cadillac" they didn't think a Cavalier with leather seats and a sunroof.

After propping up the Cimarron for about six years, they finally dumped it in 1988.  The people at GM learned their lesson...for about 10 years.  Then they did the exact same thing!  They tried to again have a economy Cadillac, called the Catera, which was pretty much a Pontiac Grand Am with leather seats and stuff.  And guess what?  It failed.  Because still when people think "Cadillac" they thought a big fancy car--or SUV.

GM is not the only company to have failed this way.  Other companies have done similarly dumb things.  Like when Lincoln made a pick-up truck.  Or Mercedes made a station wagon.  Or Porsche made a crossover.  Or recently I saw Toyota minivan commercials where they were trying to market it as a vehicle for young people instead of a vehicle for families.

For products--including books--it can be hard to fight public perception.  As much as Cadillac might have wanted to get a foot in the economy market, it didn't really make sense.  Who would pay about twice the economy car price for an economy-sized car?  There isn't much value to the consumer.  I guess the thinking was it was so someone could get a Cadillac without spending Cadillac money.  But if you said, "Check out my Cadillac" and then show them a Cimarron or Catera, people would probably think you'd bought a Cavalier or Grand Am and glued a Cadillac badge on.  You'd be better off getting a used Cadillac than buying some crappy little one.

About 20-25 years ago the stodgy old Bill Knapps restaurant decided they would shake things up by rebranding with hip new restaurants and the slogan, "That was Then, This is Wow!"  And what happened?  They alienated the old farts who frequented the place and the hip young crowd still didn't want to go to Bill Knapps.  Within a year or two the whole chain went out of business.

Authors can of course have the same struggle.  That was why JK Rowling tried to release her thriller series under a pseudonym.  She--and probably the publisher--was worried people wouldn't want a thriller from the author of the Harry Potter series.  But then it turned out people would buy it--though not as much.  Or when Stephen King did some not really horror books he used the name Richard Bachmann, though like JK Rowling's books they eventually leaked the real author's name so people would buy it--though maybe not as much.  

If Eric Filler put out a YA book do you think people would buy it?  Not in the same numbers.  In music there have been big flaps when a musician and/or band changes his/her/their sound like when Dylan went electric or U2 going to a poppier sound with Zooropa.  It's not like that sunk Dylan or U2, but it might have hurt sales a little.

So most of the time it's just better to stick with what you're good at.  No sense getting greedy.  No one can have it all.