Sunday, June 04, 2017
  Error, not error

I was thinking about cars named after people and animals. Read an article about Pininfarina's 1961 dream car, the Jacqueline. Pininfarina was trying to get Cadillac to make the car, and the name (as in Jackie Kennedy) was meant to be part of the appeal.



It was a DAMNED PRETTY car, but GM didn't bite. It's clear from actual results, if not from written history, that AMC did bite on the styling. The perfectly pretty 1963 Rambler clearly follows the same lines, and the timing is about right. Ed Anderson gets full credit for the '63. I doubt it. His previous "own" designs were clumsy, and his previous designs with official help from Pininfarina were pretty. So the influence, official or otherwise, seems like a good bet.

= = = = =

Naming cars after people other than the company founder has always been a jinx, so it's easy to see why nobody picked up the name.

Around 1930 Marmon named its sub-luxury car the Roosevelt, after Teddy. Just in time for the other Roosevelt to become a hissing and a byword to Marmon customers. A little later Studie named its new cheap car the Rockne, after Knute. Just in time for Knute to get killed in a plane crash.

This should have been an obvious marketing error. Politics and football are team sports, with passionate fans and anti-fans for each politician or coach. When you pick one side you automatically lose the anti-fans as customers, even though they might have liked the car.

So we don't have a Cadillac Ivanka or a Chevy Nixon or a Ford Paterno.

Naming after the company founder is not a marketing error. If you don't like Henry Ford, you aren't going to buy his products no matter what they're called, so you're not a potential customer repelled solely by the name.

But in fact Ford made a personal-name error later without realizing it. Starting in 1960, Ford ran wild with wild animals. Romantic-sounding animals. No plain domestic names like Dog or Cat or Horse or Fish. Ford wanted Mustangs, Cougars, Lynxes, Panteras, Pintos, Mavericks.

Pinto was a partial mistake. The name must have seemed wild and romantic to Ford's NYC marketers, but in fact pinto is just a color scheme for horses, like tabby or brindle. Considering the fashion for strange color schemes in the '70s, it's odd that Ford didn't make any pinto Pintos; though many Pintos ended up as pintos because their owners didn't feel like repainting repaired fenders.

Maverick was a complete mistake that came full circle, accidentally becoming the most appropriate name ever for a Ford. Those NYC marketers were apparently thinking that a Maverick was a wild Texas Longhorn. In fact Maverick was a rancher who was famous for not branding his cattle, which is not a good omen for brand-conscious marketers. And Maverick's grandson Maury was famous as a Left Populist politician in the '30s.

Full circle. Unfortunately the car wasn't wild or populist or anything special at all. It was durable and domestic and uncomfortable and inefficient. Should have been called Turtle.

Later thought: Lincoln is a major exception to the rule. I guess the jinx doesn't apply with people who are far enough in the past that they have fossilized into household words. It certainly applies to people who are alive at the time of the naming, because living people can surprise you.
 


<< Home

blogger hit counter
My Photo
Name:
Location: Spokane

The current icon shows Polistra using a Personal Equation Machine.

My graphics products:

Free stuff at ShareCG

And some leftovers here.

ARCHIVES
March 2005 / April 2005 / May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / September 2005 / October 2005 / November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / August 2008 / September 2008 / October 2008 / November 2008 / December 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / June 2009 / July 2009 / August 2009 / September 2009 / October 2009 / November 2009 / December 2009 / January 2010 / February 2010 / March 2010 / April 2010 / May 2010 / June 2010 / July 2010 / August 2010 / September 2010 / October 2010 / November 2010 / December 2010 / January 2011 / February 2011 / March 2011 / April 2011 / May 2011 / June 2011 / July 2011 / August 2011 / September 2011 / October 2011 / November 2011 / December 2011 / January 2012 / February 2012 / March 2012 / April 2012 / May 2012 / June 2012 / July 2012 / August 2012 / September 2012 / October 2012 / November 2012 / December 2012 / January 2013 / February 2013 / March 2013 / April 2013 / May 2013 / June 2013 / July 2013 / August 2013 / September 2013 / October 2013 / November 2013 / December 2013 / January 2014 / February 2014 / March 2014 / April 2014 / May 2014 / June 2014 / July 2014 / August 2014 / September 2014 / October 2014 / November 2014 / December 2014 / January 2015 / February 2015 / March 2015 / April 2015 / May 2015 / June 2015 / July 2015 / August 2015 / September 2015 / October 2015 / November 2015 / December 2015 / January 2016 / February 2016 / March 2016 / April 2016 / May 2016 / June 2016 / July 2016 / August 2016 / September 2016 / October 2016 / November 2016 / December 2016 / January 2017 / February 2017 / March 2017 / April 2017 / May 2017 / June 2017 / July 2017 / August 2017 / September 2017 / October 2017 / November 2017 / December 2017 / January 2018 / February 2018 / March 2018 / April 2018 / May 2018 / June 2018 / July 2018 / August 2018 / September 2018 / October 2018 / November 2018 / December 2018 / January 2019 / February 2019 / March 2019 / April 2019 / May 2019 / June 2019 / July 2019 / August 2019 / September 2019 / October 2019 / November 2019 / December 2019 / January 2020 / February 2020 / March 2020 / April 2020 / May 2020 / June 2020 / July 2020 / August 2020 / September 2020 / October 2020 / November 2020 / December 2020 / January 2021 / February 2021 / March 2021 / April 2021 / May 2021 / June 2021 / July 2021 / August 2021 / September 2021 / October 2021 / November 2021 /


Major tags or subjects:

2000 = 1000
Carbon Cult
Carver
Constants and variables
Defensible Cases
Defensible Times
Defensible Spaces
Equipoise
Experiential education
From rights to duties
Grand Blueprint
Metrology
Natural law = Sharia law
Natural law = Soviet law
Shared Lie
Skill-estate
Trinity House
#Whole-of-society

Powered by Blogger