We’ve all seen how brands like Bud Light fucked up their consumer franchise by stupid marketing.
Image what we’d be saying if, say a decade ago, Bud Light had simply stopped making and selling their beer. “Throwing away the market” would have been a common refrain.
So what does one say when confronted by this:
What bullshit is this? For decades, multiple decades, Marlin pretty much owned the rimfire rifle market — at one time, more Marlin Model 60s had been sold all over the world than any other gun model, period. The 795 was also popular — I’ve owned two, myself, and the only reason I don’t still own them is that they ended up being (much-treasured) birthday gifts for the young son and daughter of a good friend. (Now in their mid-twenties — hi, Robin and Jimmy! — they still own them and plink with them all the time.)
Hey, Marlin: fuck you. Fuck you for “stopping production” of your rimfire rifles. Fuck you for trashing your proud heritage, and fuck you for giving us less choice in the market.
And for all those people who will say, “Oh, people stopped buying them; what do you expect?” I say again, with equal vehemence, bullshit. If people stop buying a product, it’s either because it’s shit — flimsy, unreliable, too expensive etc. — or because… [wait for it] …the company stopped marketing the product.
We know that product quality was never a problem for Marlin’s rimfire rifles — any of them, despite the rifles being inexpensive — so it’s not that. But I don’t recall seeing an ad or promotion for the Model 60 in… actually, I don’t remember ever seeing an ad or promotion for the Model 60, and until recently I was a voracious reader of almost all the gun magazines. And when I bought my Model 60 back in the mid-1980s, it was very definitely either the #1 or #2-selling rimfire rifle on the market at the time.
And there’s nothing worse than reading “…is perfect for target practice and small game” and then, having created the setup, to read: “oh but too bad, we don’t make it anymore; sucks to be you.”
Marlin had a good name and a brilliant set of products, and they pissed it all away.
It’s just shameful. There’s no other word for it.
