The Timeshare Beat: Jerry Sikes; With Regard to Exaggeration

"Some folks never exaggerate - they just remember big."

- Audrey Snead -

In a recent With Regard I confessed to inventing some new words. One of those words was "Augmentationhawk." The meaning I intended for this word was taken from the word augment which Websters indicate is to make something greater and from the work hawk which Websters indicates is to offer for sale by calling out in the street, thus my new work was meant to indicate the effort to make something bigger just by shouting about it. Often times when augmentationhawk is used it is in conjunction with exaggeration.

This supposed situation (hypothetical) is an example of the use of augmentationhawk exaggeration.

There was this Ford Dealer located in Hicksville Alabama that had sold over 10,000 Hickville citizens various models of the Ford Escort. Ford Headquarters in Detroit had made several modifications to the Escort and was looking for a Dealer to test market the product. Hickville Ford agreed to become one of this test market participants. Now you must understand that the salespeople at Hickville Ford were fairly aggressive and normally maintained about a 20% conversion ratio when dealing with Hickville citizens who had previously owned a Ford Escort.

The Owner of the dealership and his General Sales Manager devised a plan to sell the modified Escort and then evaluate the results. Over time about 2000 Ford Escort owners visited the dealership and were subjected to the sales presentation concerning the newly modified Escort and typically about 20% of them were sold the modification.

Before going further with this supposed situation several assumptions which I have made must be disclosed.

1] Hickville Ford is a reputable dealer in the Ford product.

2] The Ford Escort has a very good performance history.

3] The salespeople at Hickville Ford are typical of the breed.

4] The citizens of Hickville are not easily hoodwinked.

5] The Hickville Ford service staff did a good job servicing the Escorts.

6] Ford headquarters had a vested interest so they paid special attention to all request.

7] Once sold on a product the Citizens of Hickville are rather proud owners of it.

8] The performance of a product during its first year is generally good especially if the product headquarters has a vested interest in its success.

I believe that these were reasonable assumptions and could fit about a real life situation.

In order to perform the evaluation indicated as one of the original objectives, the Ford Headquarters retained a research firm to visit the Hickville Dealership and conduct a survey. About 25% of those Hickville citizens who had purchased the Modified Ford Escort and had actually used it were contacted via phone in order to complete the survey.

Based on the result of the study the following headlines were featured in Ford's national publication.

Modified Ford Escort or Regular Ford Escort

What do Owners Prefer?

When asked to compare the Modified Ford Escort to the Regular Ford Escort almost 9 out of 10 owners at Hickville Ford say they perfer the modified.

Clearly the key fact which the Ford Headquarters was attempting to plant in the readers mind was the "9 out of 10 owners prefer" idea. However let's look at the situation in a different light.

A] Actually 81.8% is much nearer to 80% than it is to 90%.

B] Of the almost 100 who were absolutely convinced that the modified Escort was good for them, more than a dozen changed their mind after using it once or twice in only 9 months.

C] 80% of those who were given the pitch about the Ford Escort Modification turned it down.

D] Less than 1% of the Hickville Ford Customers were involved in the survey, yet the Ford Headquarters started a marketing campaign that owners preferred the modified version.

E] Ford Headquarters has about 2.4 million Customers world wide, however, they used the response of 100 to form the basis of the marketing campaign that owners preferred the modified version.

Based on the result of the study the following additional information was also featured in Ford's national publication.

Owners of the Modified Ford Escort say they used their Escort more than twice as often as the Owners of the Regular Ford Escort.

This was amazing information because one of the major benefits which came with the Modification to the Ford Escort was the capacity to split its use and the owners of an Ford Escort which had not been Modified, did not have this capability.

The overwhelming majority of owners were happy with the Modified Ford Escort options - and by far the most popular of these options is a driving trip. Some 76% of the Modified owners took such a trip.

This was amazing information because by far the most popular option of all Ford Escort owners is the driving trip. The more amazing information was that while 76% of the Modified Escort owners took such a driving trip, 100% of the Regular Escort owners did so.

When asked "In hindsight would you choose the Modified Ford Escort program again?" Nearly nine out of ten (89%) say "yes".

This was amazing information because, after only 9 months of having the modified Escort, of the almost 12% of the 100 who were absolutely convinced that the Modified Escort was good for them, in hindsight would choose to go back to the Regular Escort. The problem is that that for the next 5 years that is not an option.

Final thought

Clearly the interpretation of the hypothetical survey conducted by Ford Headquarters in association with the Hickville Ford Dealer expressed the results in their most favorable Modified Escort light. One wonders if the opposite view is not more revealing.

If only about 20% of those given the opportunity to select the Modified Ford Escort did so and of those about 12% in hindsight wished that they could undo the deal what will be the fallout after the full five years. Using the 12% each 9 months formula, almost 80% may perfer to go back to the Regular Ford Escort.

At this point I'm not so sure that the hypothetical survey results were herein exaggerated that badly, however, Ford Headquarters were guilty of Augmentationhawk.

If you have the urge to see or read a real life situation which approaches this hypothetical one, you might go to page 22 of the July/August issue of RCI Timeshare Business for the article titled Reality Check.