Business Nightmares Hoover Free Flights Fiasco Documentary

[@nkt1]

My parents bought a Hoover washer at that time but were in no position to use the tickets, so didn't even bother to apply. Hoover obviously hoped that this would be the norm.

[@fh5kskalf]

I love the silliness of the narrator walking around with a vacuum in the airport.

[@philsalvatore3902]

You will laugh but many years ago that would have been me at the Baltimore Airport rental car facility. I bought a really nice old Hoover Dial-A-Matic off eBay and instead of paying a ton of money to ship it, I arranged to pick it up at the airport on a business trip. So there I was with my luggage dragging an old Hoover upright along. I boxed it up really well with materials from one of those post office box places that sell packaging and brought it home as a checked bag. I even made a nice sturdy set of handles out of that heavy duty threaded tape. $25 vs over $100 had I shipped it via UPS. Momma didn't raise no fools!

[@DaL33T5]

From across the pond, I can't understand how Marketing honestly thought most of their customers - for whom a trip across the pond is often a once-in-a-lifetime thing - would turn down a free trip to America. If an American company began offering free flights to Europe in exchange for something so (comparatively) cheap, there'd be Black Friday-style stampedes for whatever they were selling.

[@Swissair171]

If Hoover had done the European offer and left it at that, they would probably have got away with it. The American offer was what proved to be their undoing.

[@Diamondblade2008]

I think it was a case of greed taking over; hence them launching the US promotion.

[@Lee-wg7en]

a good example of why we should never bet on people putting in anything more than the minimal effort or investment

[@typhoontim125]

Given the way manufacturing has gone in the UK for lots of goods since those days then Hoover probably would have been bought up and made elsewhere sooner or later anyway. Great video.

[@philsalvatore3902]

The fiasco is not the reason Hoover in UK and France were sold. When old man Hoover died his kids didn't want to take over the business. The family sold it all off. The North American business went to Maytag. Their European business went to Candy Group and their Australian business went to a big Australian retailer who's name escapes me. Not long after Maytag acquired Hoover, Whirlpool bought Maytag and immediately sold their Hoover holdings off to TTI of Hong Kong. Whirlpool still had a bad taste in their mouth from lawsuits suffered as the primary vacuum manufacturer for Kenmore from 1958 - 1990. More recently Candy Group was acquired by Haier Group of the PRC but like TTI, Candy had been having Chinese suppliers make their vacuums. Cheap kludge.

[@GrrMeister]

*I bought a Hoover 'wet & dry' cleaner, just over £100 and DID GET 5 Free Flights and Hotel on International Drive, Orlando for 2 weeks. There was a catch though you had to pay for food !*

[@rexwhitton3384]

Not much of a catch. Minimal cost 😎

[@chrislongley]

Just listened to Cautionary Tales podcast, Tim Harford also covered two Pepsi screw-ups, Tesco Club Card and some other similar corporate misadventure, but the Hoover fiasco tops them all. I'd heard about it at the time, but hadn't realised just how bad this was.

[@itsjemmabond]

RIP John Nairin.

[@beko1987]

That tp is at the wrong height for the carpet. Fail...

[@TommyCullen-VacuumConnisour]

Lol I spotted that, also fancy seeing you here

[@philsalvatore3902]

Beko! You are on the other end of a KZbin video for a change.

[@scottleadbetter7167]

This was probably the biggest sales promotion disaster in the world....until Bud Light.....lolol

[@neutral7786]

Hoover's mistake with the promotion was two things. 1 They should have taken into account that customers buy the Products not because they are interested or need them, but because of the free flights. 2 They neglected the number of coupons to put on the products, they thought they would attract 50,000 customers, but due to their neglect of counting the number of coupons they attracted more than 540,000 customers, making flights with this monstrous amount would require filling more than 500 airplanes.

[@anonUK]

They should have made the minimum spend £200 for European flights and £1000 for American flights and limited the duration to six months.

[@Diamondblade2008]

They should also have included a disclaimer saying ''Due to circumstances that may be beyond our control, flights may not be guaranteed.''

[@weealvin8586]

Diamondblade2008 A better disclaimer would be ‘Limited to XXX amount of customers’.

[@Diamondblade2008]

Actually I have an even better idea. Why didn't they make it a 'competition' rather than an 'offer'? For example, they could have advertised (for the sake of argument) ''There are 2000 free flights to be won! Is there a free flight included with your appliance?'' Then that way Hoover could easily control how many flights were awarded without giving themselves problems.

[@scottleadbetter7167]

Most companies I've seen doing this type of offer usually have it in the "buy one get one free" format.

[@matty7758]

A grand in the 90s could buy you a lot more than a washer dryer

[@stephenmcgonigle3238]

So glad you have this video so I could watch it again. A great brand ruined. What I want to know is, they had the Royal Warrant, lost it due to this promotion, but seem to have gained it again? Does Hoover UK still have Royal Warrant?

[@ibaisaic]

As far as I know, Hoover do not have the Royal Warrant and probably won't get it again. Here is some more information I found about the criteria a company must have to get one. realbusiness.co.uk/sales-and-marketing/2014/03/17/obtaining-a-royal-warrant-everything-you-need-to-know/

[@eli55121]

the royal warrant contract was transferred to candy and it kept it going until the contract ended in 2006

[@aaaaeeeeffffeeeekkkkssss]

12:36 That is the most hypocritical thing I've ever heard James Dyson say.

[@ilovemiele1]

i love how most the machines showed arent hoover, or they are candy made hoovers

[@user-vh6ts9uf6c]

James Dyson makes me sick

[@matty7758]

Aye, bellend

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

@@matty7758no he isn’t

[@jantom8039]

He blocked the mechanic's car for 13 days??? That's coercion. Hard to believe that the police tolerated this for 13 days....

[@captainhindsight8604]

Parking is a civil matter. I'd be very worried if they had got involved...

[@philsalvatore3902]

And Lord Diesoon didn't take his own advice. His crap is more gimmick than well engineered. Hoover made a better vacuum than Diesoon has ever made. The number of decades old Hoovers, those made before Candy Group bought them and cheapened them, still serving their owners is testament to their quality.

[@ibaisaic]

I agree. I am currently using a 1973 Hoover cylinder vacuum and a 1977 Hoover upright and they both clean better than any Dyson I have used. Hoover and Candy are now owned by the Chinese company Haier, so anything sold today bearing the Hoover name has no connection with the once great Hoover company.

[@philsalvatore3902]

@@ibaisaic I have an early 1980s ( ? ) Sensotronic. A few of those showed up in the US in 120 volt form as the Hoover Electronic 1000 (not to be confused with the US made Dimension 1000 that would come very soon afterwards). What a superb machine, sturdy, quiet and refined. The hose handle is an ergonomic joy, the nicest hose handle I've ever used. I wish I could find one of the European power brushes that were sometimes sold with them. Over here some were sold with the Quadraflex power nozzle but they are very loud and crude, very unlike the Sensotronic. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to put a 120 volt motor in one and use it here. I have done stranger things with vacuums .....

[@NumaticVacuum]

So trageic. People were stupid to think they were getting tickets to America from buying a 200 quid vacuum cleaner, however it was silly to market it the way they did...The advert made it out that you WILL get these tickets and not COULD. I detested James Dyson's arsey, sarcastic and hypocritical comments.

[@connor9589]

+NumaticVacuum to be fair hoover did tell Mr Dyson himself that his invention would never sell but now he is a multi millionaire making shit vacuum cleaners. I guess he is just getting his own back.

[@passengersplace]

“The advert made it out that you WILL get these tickets and not COULD.” That’s because Hoover actually did promise tickets to everybody who spent over £100 - it was in fact a matter of “will” rather than “could”. They reckoned that most people would forget to redeem their ticket vouchers, allowing them to pay for the flights of the few people who did remember and make a profit. But people aren’t that stupid. Everybody redeemed the vouchers, and the company went bankrupt.

[@NumaticVacuum]

+passengersplace Well, it is indeed an American company...The company went out of business in 1988, it was bought in the US by Maytag who also owned Hoover UK, die to the free flights fiasco Maytag sold Hoover UK to european company, Candy in 1995 and ever since, Hoover UK an Hoover US have been separate companies under the same name...Needless to say, Maytag sold Hoover US to Japanese company TTI. In around 2005.

[@connor9589]

no thats not what i was saying. when dyson introduced the dyson to hoover they basically said that it would never sell and that it was a stupid invention so mr dyson was merely getting back by slating hoover

[@connor9589]

your welcome

[@onetwo6806]

Ay

[@Nickstraw]

remember this hoover were totally stupid