THE HOOVER FREE FLIGHTS FIASCOONE OF THE GREATEST MARKETING DISASTERS OF ALL TIME

THE PROMOTION• Launched in 1992 with the aim of

selling excess stock from Hoover’s warehouses.

• Enticed customers to spend £100 on any Hoover product such as vacuum cleaners or washing machines in order to get two free return flights.

• Promoted via television adverts and in-store marketing materials.

TWO RETURN SEATS: UNBELIEVABLE • Original promotion promised

customers who spent just £100 two free return flights to Europe.

• Before the emergence of budget air travel like easyJet so the promotion amazed customers due to how much the free flights were worth.

• Hoover’s sales shot up and managers deemed the promotion a success.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE• Hoover bosses decided to extend

the promotion to offer free return flights to the US.

• Sales increased even higher with Hoover claiming 50% market share at the height of the promotion.

• The offer seemed too good to be true as the plane tickets were worth hundreds of pounds.

• Many customers discovered it was.

OVERWHELMING RESPONSE• The flights to America cost around £500,

but Hoover thought only a minor percentage of customers would actually redeem their free tickets.

• The new TV advert inadvertently reminded customers to submit their claims for their free flight tickets.

• Consumers were buying Hoover products just to get the free flights as the plane tickets were worth so much more.

• Hoover’s travel agents struggled with the amount of application forms coming in.

NEGATIVE PUBLICITY• Hoover’s travel agents used small

print to make claiming the free flights difficult for consumers.

• The press began picking up on how Hoover’s customers were not receiving the flight tickets they were promised.

• The negative publicity boosted the promotion even further.

• Consumers created an action group to put pressure on the Hoover company.

THE HOOVER VAN KIDNAP

• An outraged Hoover customer blocked in one of the company’s vans when an engineer visited his house.

• The kidnapping of the van lasted 13 days and embarrassed the company even further in national media.

THE RESULT• Multiple court cases against Hoover

went on until 1998. • Hoover were forced to pay tens of

thousands to charter entire planes to fly people to America.

• The marketing campaign ended up costing the company £50million.

• A number of Hoover executives were sacked including the Managing Director of Hoover Europe.

• The British division of the company was sold to Italian manufacturer Candy.

WHY DID IT HAPPEN? • Hoover underestimated the demand

that giving away expensive flights would have.

• Bosses were slow to realise that the promotion was going downhill.

• Even when they did realise the situation, they attempted to stop customers from claiming the free flights and made things worse for themselves.

WHAT SHOULD THEY HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY? • Hoover should have researched key

questions such as how many people would buy into the promotion and is the offer just too good.

• The company should not have based their research and planning on assumptions – they assumed only a small percentage of customers would get round to redeeming the flight tickets.

• The company should have researched how much people wanted to fly.

• Consumers were more intelligent than Hoover assumed.