Page 148 - Accelerating out of the Great Recession

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dubbed “floating power,” and the launch of the new Plymouth
PA model was accompanied by an advertising campaign that
focused on its superior technology. Print advertisements were
run with the slogan “Smoothness of an eight, the economy of a
four,” highlighting Chrysler’s selling point that it offered luxury
at a discount price. Plymouth also used racing as an inexpensive
form of publicity, setting in 1931 the nonstop transcontinental
speed record from San Francisco to New York and back. Sales
for Chrysler’s Plymouth line increased by 66 percent between
1930 and 1931.
Much of this marketing paid off in the years after the Great
Depression, with Chrysler winning a reputation as one of the
most innovative companies in the automobile industry. As con-
sumer demand revived, Chrysler’s unusual aerodynamic cars
became increasingly popular. Having the courage not only to
develop but also to promote these cars during the downturn
created the platform for success when the economy turned.
A more recent example is Uniqlo, the Japanese apparel
retailer, which combined new-product development with
aggressive marketing during the late 1990s. At a time when the
market was dominated by designer brands offering good-qual-
ity clothing at high prices, Uniqlo’s primary focus on private-
label casual wear was a differentiator. Most of its clothing was
unisex, reasonably priced, and of good quality. By the mid-
1990s, after 10 years in business, Uniqlo still was a relatively
small player with just a 7 percent market share.
In 1998, the company launched an aggressive marketing
campaign to publicize a new range of fleece jackets attractively
priced at 1,900 yen ($14 at the time) and available in 13 colors.
The 18 billion yen ($137 million) campaign was a rarity in an
industry that, as a whole, typically spent less than half that

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