For {NAME} - MAYTAG NO LONGER LIVES ONE WORD

"From the beginning, F.L. Maytag understood that delivering on the promise, putting his mouth where his money was, was really critical and he did that." - Nancy Koehn, brand historian at Harvard Business School [Image]( MAYTAG NO LONGER LIVES ONE WORD This is for you... {NAME}. The brand that built an icon around being #Dependable had lost its way. After the Maytag family sold the Newton, Iowa appliance business in 1962, the reputation endured for the large part of the century. However, the quality of their products began to slowly decline. It was relatively unnoticed until 1997 when they introduced their energy-saving front-loading washer, The Neptune, appropriately dubbed “The Stinkomatic” by customers. The Neptune was literally and figuratively a stinker. It produced a bad smell in clothes that owners struggled to get rid of. In addition, the electronics on the machine were poorly designed and the appliance made strange noises. Maytag was slow to respond to customer complaints and also changed their marketing strategy to encourage consumers to buy new Maytag machines before their old ones had worn out. It was official - they were no longer living up to their #Dependable reputation. Customer dissatisfaction grew, and it began to spread. Complaints about the Neptune and Maytag’s customer service echoed throughout online forums and rating sites. Maytag didn’t anticipate the power of the Internet and its ability to spread their new negative reputation. Their unhappy customers united online, and eventually the negative buzz led to multiple class-action suits against Maytag that were settled at over $33 million in payouts. In less than ten years, Maytag’s longstanding notoriety for having the most reliable appliances was destroyed. In April of 2006, Maytag was acquired by Whirlpool and a year later the original Maytag plant in Newton, Iowa was shut down. Whirlpool held onto the Maytag brand name and reintroduced the ‘Ol’ Lonely’ symbol as a younger, more attractive repairman. This newer version of ‘The Maytag Man’ is a tongue-in-cheek metaphorical representation of the machine itself, implying that machines are more dependable than man throughout humorous advertising. Time will tell whether Maytag can recapture the #Dependable position with consumers again. They could start by pairing their symbol with an impactful sound that represents their One Word. Learn how in my book, Your One Word: [( #Believe PS. Want to make money from your ideas? --> [Image]( Toronto Dance Salsa, attention: Evan Carmichael 5095 Yonge Street Toronto Ontario M2N 6Z4 CANADA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](