John's Blog

Prior to now, when you thought of the phrase "spectacular failure" you were of course thinking of the Edsel; these days it's likely to bring up thoughts of Dubya. But back in the days of tail-fins, when the adage that "what's good for General Motors is good for the country" was true, The roll-out of the Edsel was a colossal snafu. An example of corporate leadership being out of touch with what the market wanted, rolling out a car riddled with quality issues, as well as having quirky and unpopular styling. It was an example of a conspicuous consumption land yacht, in a more modest era introduced during a recession when small cars were in demand.

An ill fated attempt to move Ford upscale to compete with the multitude of brands produced by General Motors, the car was in many ways before it's time but failed to catch on with consumers, nonetheless. It has become a textbook case of how NOT to market a product.

I'm not sure why I find this piece of history so fascinating (the Wikipedia piece had tons of information that I wasn't aware of.) Is it because this story has parallels to the current problems facing Detroit? Perhaps. Or maybe it's just because I'm a car nut. But could it be that a small part of me takes joy in seeing others fail to boost my own self-esteem? I hope not, but let's not rule that out.