If asked what you know about Maytag's marketing program, the first thing to come to mind would probably be its "lonely repairman" ad campaigns. For 35 years, those ads have helped position Maytag as a reliable brand for major appliances. Gordon Jump, an actor who really was a former Maytag repairman, played the lonely repairman role in ads for 14 years. In 2004, another veteran character actor, Hardy Rawls, took on that job. Although Maytag's basic positioning has been consistent over many years, marketing managers at Maytag are constantly developing new marketing strategies. So let's take a closer look at what they did in one innovative strategy-planning process that resulted in profitable growth for Maytage by offering target customers superior value (www.maytag.com).
In 1907, Maytag introduced its first washing machine. Called the Pastime, the washer was made of water-resistant wood (boy, how times have changed). And by 1919 the company manufactured the first power washer. By 1924, one out of every five American washers purchase by consumers was a Maytag! And by 1967, the Maytag Lonely Repairman campaign was born. Ol' Lonely became both an advertising legend and an American icon in a way. Maytag was the first appliance manufacturer to be accepted as a partner and to factory label their appliances with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR logo.
The job of planning strategies to guide a whole company is called strategic (management) planning the managerial process of developing and maintaining a match between an organization's resources and its market opportunities (Crego, page 116). This is a top-management job. It includes planning not only for marketing, but also for production, finance, human resources, and other areas. On the other hand, company plans should be market-oriented. And the marketing plan often sets the tone and direction for the whole company. So
Cited: Kotler, Philip and Kevin Lane Keller. Marketing Management, 12th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Catalog Marketing Services. 2003. Available WWW: http://www.cmscms.com Exams Tutor – Geographic Market Segmentation