[VAL] Airstream Marketing

["Brian Jenkins" <jenkins1924@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All,

I'm a creative director and have been designing marketing campaigns for 
about twenty-five years. How Tim Champ (or any marketing person) could 
blandly alienate such a large group of their company's enthusiasts is beyond 
me (although the attitude goes hand-in-hand with the mislabeled factory 
display, etc.). Ford's new Mustang is a perfect example of using good will 
generated by an earlier icon to build interest and excitement in the 
company's latest offering. Car makers everywhere know that ad campaigns 
built on great products of the past sell new product today. Airstream's 
history is a selling point that no other modern RV has...and it's free. It 
is the height of marketing ignorance to discard all of Wally Byam's legend 
and lore, much less the good will of Airstream vintage enthusiasts worldwide 
  in order to market today's Airstreams with about flair as kitchen 
appliances. This is what happens when people who love the product leave the 
company and are replaced by people who love charts and graphs.

Brian Jenkins