Inexplicable management decisions ...

[CopperCyclist]

Was at work the other day and called to the report of a male in a supermarket, exposing himself and using toilet rolls off the shelf to simulate sex acts. When I heard the job I thought 'Thats f****ng Charmin'

Still think this joke is why they changed their name

 

[Browser]

Deciding that the Ford Pinto would still be sold, despite Ford management knowing it had a nasty habit of catching fire if shunted by another car due to the proximity of the fuel tank to the rear bumper.

Cancelling the APT program (though this was, I will admit, more political than management).

 

[subaqua]

You're right and I am typing in the dark or that's what I'd have written.

I worked for Siemens in Upplands Vaesby where Daim / Dime / Dijm bars are made back in... '98 I think, could have been '99. I'd ask someone to check but unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn't have my dates of employment.

local chocolate for local people

 

[ohnovino]

We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap".

That Gerald Ratner "joke" cost his company half a billion pounds. Whoopsy.

 

[gbb]

The one I noticed the other day was when I went into Makro to stock up on a few bits - they were selling crates of Cushelle toilet paper at two for the price of one.

I recall that it used to be called "Charmin" and had that rather catchy advert with a bear in the woods, wiping his butt with Charmin - it was the kind of advert that stuck in one's mind and as a result, Charmin seemed to sell well as a "luxury" toilet paper alongside the likes of Andrex.

Then, all of a sudden, they changed the name to "Cushelle" (what kind of a name is that?!) and replaced the bear with a rather ineffectual Koala who didn't seem to do very much at all.

The result is that Cushelle seems to have plummeted from "luxury" to Lidl Smartprice ... or lower, all because some brainiac decided to ruin a really well branded product.

It makes me wonder who makes these decisions ... !

There's other instances, and if i'm right, it makes sense.
Charmin i assume is still available. The manufacturers have a product and want to expand their sales. Makro (and probably others) have a gap in the market, so rebrand their toilet rolls and sell them to whoever will buy them. Sales are sales, 99% of people will never reaslise they're the same product.

A similar example. A friends wife works at a meat packing plant. The meat comes along a conveyor, they pack it into Tescos packaging. As the day goes on, the orders will change and they're then packing it into Aldis packaging. Its the same meat...some is going into budget retailers, some is going to (supposedly) upper market retailers.

Its the easiest thing in the world to rebrand/rewrap the same product to increase sales. Sales is king.

Same with citrus fruit. My ex works used the same fruit, irrespective of whether its going to Aldis to sell cheap, or to Tescos to sell at twice the price.

 

[Red Light]

We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap".

That Gerald Ratner "joke" cost his company half a billion pounds. Whoopsy.

No, the journalist who was after his front page story credit for his fish and chip wrapper, cost the company half a billion pounds and many many people their jobs. They did a TV review of it recently and Ratner had both said it many times before and was encouraged by his colleagues that his draft should be less stuffy in his speech and include a few of his jokes. They interviewed the journalist who ran the story too who was still as pleased as punch with himself because he said "the moment he said it I knew I'd got myself a front page story" He seemed totally unphased by what his "front page story" did to the employees of the company who all lost their jobs as a result.

Self deprecation is a traditional form of British humour but it takes a modern British journalist to twist self deprecating humour into destruction of people's lives for their own short term gains.

</rant>

 

[BrumJim]

You know that we have been selling disgusting brown sugary sweet fluid and telling the people that it tastes marvellous, and this is the drink that you have always been looking for? And after many years of advertising, they now believe us?

Lets change the taste.....

© Coca-Cola company.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Inexplicable management decisions?

Probably almost all decisions made by American video game companies in the early 80's, in particular I'd highlight Atari who at one point were offered to be able to invest in Apple and Nintendo but declined/messed it up

 

[Dayvo]

Not too sure what this Koala Bear is trying to do! Lick his own dime, I reckon!

http://dajm.org/

 

[PBancroft]

Lets be honest... Charmin/Cushelle are bog roll. I really don't think most people care whether its a premium product or not, and I suspect all the manufacturer cares about is how much they can shift. How many bog roll brands can you remember from your childhood which are still around? Only Andrex springs to mind and they're not exactly a premium product... and not all brands are destined to last for many lifetimes, some will be sacrificed part of a tactical decision to maximise profits in the short term, which might seem weird with a longer term view.

gbb reminds me that quite some years ago I spent a day (only a day!) working in a salad packing plant. During that day I had several jobs, including acting as a conveyor belt to replace a mechanical one which had broken down, but I digress. The same salad was packed into "premium" branded bags, into "high end" high street bags, into supermarket bags and into budget bags. It was all the same stuff, all picked, mixed and packed by the same people.

 

[Globalti]

Euro-brands. Made in the same massive factory somewhere in central Europe, completely automated and run by two Turkish illegal immigrants on minimum wages sitting in a control room watching an array of screens. Your Joe Bloggs manufacturer in a Victorian shed in some industrial town in Britain can't compete with the economies of scale.