Questions
Click the box next to each answer that
you think is correct in each case.

Question 1 Where did Ugg go wrong?

a) He failed to advertise.
b) He failed to change with the times
c) He failed to have a coherent marketing strategy.

Correct Answer 1: All three answers are correct. Ugg persisted in making hand-crafted stone wheels long after his competitors had diversified into wooden wheels and customized chariots, such as the Boadicea Special which had knives sticking out of the hubs.

Question 2: Imagine that you are a market executive with Unilever or some other large firm. Given that most people already buy all the toothpaste they need and are not going to buy any more, will your firm flourish if you just try to sell them more toothpaste?

a) Yes.
b) Obviously not, you fool.

Correct answer 2: b).

Question 3: But will your firm flourish if you can persuade people to buy plastic from you as well as toothpaste?

a) Yes, yes, yes!

Correct answer 3: a). This is so obviously correct we felt it would be insulting to offer you any alternative answer.

Question 4: Given that you can't sell anyone more toothpaste, but you can sell them more plastic with their toothpaste, is there any point in trying to sell a square block of plastic with each tube of toothpaste?

a) Yes.
b) Don't be bloody stupid.

Correct answer 4: b).

Question 5: Given questions 3 and 4 above, is there any point in trying to sell plastic with toothpaste if you first shape the plastic into a pump dispenser?

a) Yes

Correct answer 5: a). You have chosen the correct answer to this question. You obviously remembered Ugg's genius in shaping unsellable stone. Well done!

Question 6: How many consumers were aware two years ago that they needed to buy toothpaste in automatic dispensers, and that their lives were incomplete without these things?

a) All of them.
b) Some of them.
c) The thought had not crossed their minds. Never in their worst nightmares had they imagined a world in which toothpaste came in pumps instead of proper tubes. If God had intended us to get our toothpaste out of pumps he would have... etc. etc.

Correct answer 8: c). Consumers are notoriously resistant to change.

Question 7: ls your life incomplete without toothpaste dispensers?

a) Yes
b) No.
c) Mind your own business.

Correct answer 7: a). If you answered b), then you are a total failure as a consumer. If c), how on earth do you manage to live in the twentieth century?

Question 8: But then, how many people thought their lives were incomplete without wheels before Ugg invented them?

a) Nobody at all.
b) Everyone.

Correct answer B: a). Ugg had to create a demand for his product. Since no-one had thought of the idea of wheels before, they obviously could not be missing what they never had.

Question 9: In view of questions 7 and 8 above, was Unilever satisfying a pre-existing consumer demand for toothpaste pumps when they introduced them, or did they have to create such a demand?

a) Yes
b) No.
c) Well, what do you think?

Correct answer 9: take a democratic vote on it.

Question 10: Given that no-one really needs a toothpaste dispenser, are they really going to pay $1.90 for less toothpaste plus a plastic dispenser, when they can buy more toothpaste in an old-fashioned tube for $1.60 if they do without the extra plastic?

a) Of course they're not.
b) Only if they're rich.
c) Only if they're stupid
d) Only if you persuade them to with a bit of advertising.
e) Apparently they will.

Correct answer 10: Choose from c), d) or e). a) is clearly wrong: experience shows that people do buy toothpaste in dispensers. b) is also wrong. Research shows that those in lower income groups (in old-fashioned literature these categories are referred to as the poor') also buy toothpaste in dispensers. Give yourself credit if you have circled answers c), d) or e).

Question 11: Which selling points would you stress if you were a Unilever salesperson in order to sell your plastic pump?

a) 'Easy action pump - no mess, self sealing.'
b) 'Now the country's leading toothpaste is available in an advanced pump dispenser. It is:

c) 'The modern pump dispenser is:

Correct answer 11: c). a) is the slogan used by Macleans; b) is used by Colgate. c) is used by Unilever/Gibbs

Question 12: Which other selling points can be stressed?

a) Arthritis sufferers can use it.
b) There is less waste; (of toothpaste, we mean; of course there is more waste of plastic).
c) It looks tidy set up on the wash-basin.
d) It looks phallic set up on the wash-basin.

Correct answer 12: Probably all these are wrong. a) is certainly so: the size of the arthritic market makes it probably uneconomic to appeal directly to them. b) may have an element of truth, but it does not feature widely in the advertising of any brand of toothpaste dispenser, and we may assume that the advertisers and market research people of Unilever, Proctor and Gamble, Colgate and so on have done their research properly. There are certainly some neurotic people so obsessed with appalling tidiness that they object to the sight of a half-dead tube of toothpaste with the lid missing and the contents gently drying out balanced against the wash-basin cold tap. c) is a valid answer in their case. I do not wish to comment on d).

Question 13: Ugg went on making stone wheels long after everyone else had changed to wood and metal. Is Ugg still in business?

a) No.

Correct answer 13: a). Well done; once again you have circled the correct answer!

Question 14: In view of the fact that rivals were already about to launch a toothpaste dispenser, did Unilever have any choice in the matter?

Correct answer 14: b).