Digressions
This is a quite interesting thread, but please forgive me for some “out of thread” thinking…
1) Products are not made to “work”, they are made to be sold: food is not required to be nutritious, it is required to compel the customer to buy it; which can be achieved with a nice packaging and a good advertising campaign. Taste and nutritional characteristics are irrelevant: synthetic flavours, salt, sugars and fats do miracles. Another example? Think of Ecover: the least-ecological product ever seen, but the company has built an “irrationally ecological” image for their products; and it worked great! Curiously enough, Ecover products are not “Ecolabel” (“Ecolabel” is an European Union label awarding products with a low impact on the environment) aren’t they supposed to be so much ecological? so much natural? so much politically correct? I just wonder…
2) In my opinion, Candy are excellent products, simply because they are sold widely and the Fumagalli company is growing strong; Candy took over Hoover, and this demontrates that there are more “average customers” wanting a Candy than a Hoover; whether they are happy after the purchase is absolutely irrelevant: the only important thing is that they buy and pay (no: customer’s fidelity is not important any more)
3) If our friend nrones is happy with his Candy and likes it, I simply wish him any happyness and no trouble; and I congratulate him for having choosen the right product for him, which is by definition a “good product” for him. No: I would never buy a Candy, simply because I believe that other products fit better my needs, which can be stupid and unreasonable needs, but they are my needs, exactly as nrones’ ones
4) What does it mean “Candy stuff is s#|t”? They do not wash well? How do you define “washing well”? (no, please, be kind: do not mention “Which?” or “Consumer Report”, OK?) On this site we say and repeat that the “average customer” is unable to wash properly: how can ever they judge the washing abilities of washing machines? Candy products do not last long? When I was at the university, I was thought that “It does not make any sense to design a washing machine lasting twenty years: after two years the customer will want to replace it because he likes the colour of the new models”
5) Before introducing the “Margherita” series of washing machines, Ariston (today Horpoint-Ariston, brand of the Indesit Group) commissioned a nation-wide poll in Italy; the question was “What is the most important thing in a washing machine?” Italians answered “It must look nice”; OK, OK: we are Italians… however today’s Hotpoint non-Aqualtis machines are still based on the “Margherita” aesthetics
6) Is it easier to build an expensive Mìele or a cheap Candy? Which of the two offers more for the price? Yes, the iron-cast counterweights of the Miele are so cool, so old-fashioned… “Oh les beaux jours”… “Happy days”… (No, not Richie Cunningham: I mean Samuel Beckett) But is it important for me? is it worth my money? The answer is subjective, but it is not possible to demonstrate that concrete counterweights are intrinsically “worse” that cast-iron ones. And have you ever heard that “The price of the product is not determined by its value, but by the power of purchase of the social group it is destined to”?
7) Sometimes things are quite different than the way we would like them. Someone wrote in another thread “E'lux is pushing AEG as a premium brand there (cause in EU nobody trust them anymore)”. I am sorry to say it, but this is simply wrong and naïve: Electrolux intentionally and scientifically “downgraded” the AEG brand. And made lots of money. Does anybody here remember the bankrupt of the AEG-Telefunken group? Does anybody here knows that in year 1970, in Italy, an Electrolux vacuum cleaner (model Z320) costed a fortune? Today in UK Electrolux vacuum cleaners are cheap and low quality. Curiously enough, the best Electrolux vacuum cleaner is sold under the brand AEG in some countries (including UK) and under the brand Electrolux in other coutntries. But it is sold in both cases.
8) If Candy is the worst washing machine brand because they explode, what about Toyota cars? (Well, Lexus have been affected as well…). Toyota made a huge recall? Maybe because they were forced to? Maybe because their brand advertising strategy is based on reliability? Have Candy washing machines ever been advertised as sturdy and durable? Is the percentage of defective Toyota cars higher or lower than that of defective Candy washing machines?
9) “This brand is the best/worst because I had one and it lasted long/short”. Are we kidding? Do we really want to express a judgement based on a single item out of millions and millions produced? I stop here because this is a public forum but, please, think of being judged on the basis of someone else sharing your birthplace, or the colour of your eyes or…
This is a quite interesting thread, but please forgive me for some “out of thread” thinking…
1) Products are not made to “work”, they are made to be sold: food is not required to be nutritious, it is required to compel the customer to buy it; which can be achieved with a nice packaging and a good advertising campaign. Taste and nutritional characteristics are irrelevant: synthetic flavours, salt, sugars and fats do miracles. Another example? Think of Ecover: the least-ecological product ever seen, but the company has built an “irrationally ecological” image for their products; and it worked great! Curiously enough, Ecover products are not “Ecolabel” (“Ecolabel” is an European Union label awarding products with a low impact on the environment) aren’t they supposed to be so much ecological? so much natural? so much politically correct? I just wonder…
2) In my opinion, Candy are excellent products, simply because they are sold widely and the Fumagalli company is growing strong; Candy took over Hoover, and this demontrates that there are more “average customers” wanting a Candy than a Hoover; whether they are happy after the purchase is absolutely irrelevant: the only important thing is that they buy and pay (no: customer’s fidelity is not important any more)
3) If our friend nrones is happy with his Candy and likes it, I simply wish him any happyness and no trouble; and I congratulate him for having choosen the right product for him, which is by definition a “good product” for him. No: I would never buy a Candy, simply because I believe that other products fit better my needs, which can be stupid and unreasonable needs, but they are my needs, exactly as nrones’ ones
4) What does it mean “Candy stuff is s#|t”? They do not wash well? How do you define “washing well”? (no, please, be kind: do not mention “Which?” or “Consumer Report”, OK?) On this site we say and repeat that the “average customer” is unable to wash properly: how can ever they judge the washing abilities of washing machines? Candy products do not last long? When I was at the university, I was thought that “It does not make any sense to design a washing machine lasting twenty years: after two years the customer will want to replace it because he likes the colour of the new models”
5) Before introducing the “Margherita” series of washing machines, Ariston (today Horpoint-Ariston, brand of the Indesit Group) commissioned a nation-wide poll in Italy; the question was “What is the most important thing in a washing machine?” Italians answered “It must look nice”; OK, OK: we are Italians… however today’s Hotpoint non-Aqualtis machines are still based on the “Margherita” aesthetics
6) Is it easier to build an expensive Mìele or a cheap Candy? Which of the two offers more for the price? Yes, the iron-cast counterweights of the Miele are so cool, so old-fashioned… “Oh les beaux jours”… “Happy days”… (No, not Richie Cunningham: I mean Samuel Beckett) But is it important for me? is it worth my money? The answer is subjective, but it is not possible to demonstrate that concrete counterweights are intrinsically “worse” that cast-iron ones. And have you ever heard that “The price of the product is not determined by its value, but by the power of purchase of the social group it is destined to”?
7) Sometimes things are quite different than the way we would like them. Someone wrote in another thread “E'lux is pushing AEG as a premium brand there (cause in EU nobody trust them anymore)”. I am sorry to say it, but this is simply wrong and naïve: Electrolux intentionally and scientifically “downgraded” the AEG brand. And made lots of money. Does anybody here remember the bankrupt of the AEG-Telefunken group? Does anybody here knows that in year 1970, in Italy, an Electrolux vacuum cleaner (model Z320) costed a fortune? Today in UK Electrolux vacuum cleaners are cheap and low quality. Curiously enough, the best Electrolux vacuum cleaner is sold under the brand AEG in some countries (including UK) and under the brand Electrolux in other coutntries. But it is sold in both cases.
8) If Candy is the worst washing machine brand because they explode, what about Toyota cars? (Well, Lexus have been affected as well…). Toyota made a huge recall? Maybe because they were forced to? Maybe because their brand advertising strategy is based on reliability? Have Candy washing machines ever been advertised as sturdy and durable? Is the percentage of defective Toyota cars higher or lower than that of defective Candy washing machines?
9) “This brand is the best/worst because I had one and it lasted long/short”. Are we kidding? Do we really want to express a judgement based on a single item out of millions and millions produced? I stop here because this is a public forum but, please, think of being judged on the basis of someone else sharing your birthplace, or the colour of your eyes or…
