Better than average...
Kevin Davis does what he does best - and talks about how great the Princess is...
First in an occasional series of Adspace articles, you, the site's readers get a chance to tell us what you think about the cars and their advertising - and why they affected you so much...
Better than average...
HERE was no doubt that, as an overall
package, the Ford Cortina was pretty much unbeatable. It was available in a
bewildering array of body styles, and you could have anything from an asthmatic
1.3-litre to a grunty 2.3-litre V6. This advert from 1979 is obviously having
a dig at the 'boxy' Cortina and, it has to be said, although the 'tina was successful,
it did just about everything averagely.
Austin-Morris played on this with the 'Average' campaign, suggesting that the Princess driver was a little more adventurous and enjoyed such technical marvels as front wheel drive, Hydragas suspension and, of course, aerodynamic styling. Plus it was a superior car to drive and ride in.
The problem for Austin-Morris was getting people into the showrooms to drive it. The Princess' reputation was pretty much in freefall, thanks partly to BBC TV programme 'That’s Life', which regularly poured scorn on the Wedge's woes. Thus, buyers saw the Cortina as a safe and undemanding purchase.
The Princess was only available in one body style but it was far more exciting than Ford's box. But for many the ‘Wedge’ was just too adventurous, and the fact there was no tailgate compromised its practicality. The Princess had a choice of 'only' three OHC engines, none of them particularly exciting - but far more up-to-date than Ford's lumps.
Sadly this campaign, which included a TV adverts showing owners washing their boxes in their driveways as the Princess driver stands out with his Wedge, did nothing to encourage the public to buy, and Princess sales continued to steadily decline into the Eighties. For all its inventive and technical merits, the Princess was less than average in one vital area: reliability.
In the early Eighties the BBC's Top Gear programme ran a feature on the then BL range and scoffed; 'the Princess was advertised as not the car for Mr Average, and it certainly isn’t!'
The Cortina may have been an average box, but it was a reliable average box.
| Have your say... |  |
Please let us know your thoughts - and let us know what you think of the Maestro and Montego's styling. Were they responsible for the failure of BL just when it needed all the help it could get?
I have a nice
Princess brochure in my collection - it's one for the Princess 2 range, and
looks wonderfully produced. The photography is excellent, and the cars themselves
look great within the glossy pages...
So why do I always snigger when I read it? Yep, the tagline, 'Better than average'. Talk about underselling a great product.
With marketeers like that, who needs enemies.
KEITH ADAMS