How Rover Lost the Plot

Alan Mitchell

The failure of Rover and British Leyland is dissected. Put down to three bad marketing habits, mutually reinforced over several decades: 'badge engineering', failure to integrate marketing with central decision-making, and a 'shift metal' mentality (in which the role of marketing was seen only in terms of getting into the dealers via deals and offers).

How Rover Lost the Plot

Alan Mitchell

'For sale. One car. Future MOT uncertain. Badly damaged by four reckless owners. 10 ono.'

Its not the most enticing of used car ads but its the one the Phoenix Consortium plumped for. Except in this case, of course, it was buying the Rover car company as a whole and not just a single car.

Question: can bad marketing be blamed for British Leyland/Rovers long decline? Or was 'the English Patient,' as the German press began to call it, somehow beyond marketings reach? Seek an answer from those marketers most intimately involved in...

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