Marketing Genius’ Plan Backfires

To attract customers, a fast fit outlet can offer value for money, good service and a product range that suits varying motoring requirements – or they can place a wrecked car, complete with an authentic looking deceased driver, outside the premises. Shop managers tempted to opt for this second retailing approach, however, should learn from Frank Holcomb’s experience.

Holcomb, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the manager of a Goodyear tyre outlet in the town. Perhaps unwittingly inspired by the seasonal decorations festooning homes and businesses throughout the community, Holcomb decided that a realistic looking vehicle accident and crash victim was precisely what the outlet needed to drum up business, especially if passers by drew the conclusion that unsafe tyres had driven the unfortunate “motorist” to his eternal destination. Holcomb set to work and, voila, an overturned car with a dummy hanging out the driver’s door window was placed in the outlet’s car park, alongside the heavily used Highway 153.

“It looks like they had a freak accident because I was checking for skid marks and couldn’t find any, so I had to come over and check it out for myself,” said one concerned motorist to local news service WRCB. “We were driving by going to Wal-Mart and we thought there was a dead body in the car. It looked so real” commented another.

But motorists should rest easy, said Holcomb. The vehicle wreck was not a Halloween prank; rather, it was intended as a promotion campaign and Holcomb didn’t intended for anyone to be alarmed. “Well I’d like to be the first guy to offer up an apology if anybody got scared over that or was upset,” he said. “We really didn’t mean it that way. We just meant it to be fun.”

Holcomb told local media that the police asked him to remove the display after drivers started telephoning the emergency services and half a dozen police officers responded to the scene.