Marketing Mistakes and Successes, 12th Edition

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Conclusions: What We Can Learn

Remember, the thesis of this book is that we can learn from past mistakes (as well as successes). Perhaps this could be restated: “We should learn.” In the words of the great philosopher George Santayana, “Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it.” This is true of the military, world affairs, economic decisions, politics, and certainly business decision-making.

In considering mistakes, three things are worth noting: (1) Even the most successful organizations make mistakes but survive as long as they maintain a good “batting average” of satisfactory decisions; (2) Mistakes should be effective teaching tools for avoiding similar errors in the future; and (3) Firms can bounce back from adversity and turn around.

We can make a number of generalizations from these mistakes and successes. Of course, we recognize that marketing is a discipline that does not lend itself to laws or maxims. Examples of exceptions to every principle or generalization can be found. However, the decision maker does well to heed the following insights. For the most part, they are based on specific corporate and entrepreneurial experiences and should be transferable to other situations and other times.

INSIGHTS REGARDING OVERALL ENTERPRISE PERSPECTIVES

Importance of Public Image

The effect of an organization's public image was a common thread through a number of cases—for example, Nike, Southwest Airlines, Vanguard, Disney, Maytag, Harley-Davidson, Boston ...