Rule No. 2.(Column)(Column)

Byline: Steve Thompson

Sandra had never heard of carmaking's Rule No. 2, but her concern about buying a new Jaguar was the finest example of the rule's reason for being I had ever run into by 1992.

That was when Sandra closeted me at a family Christmas party and asked if it were finally okay to buy a Jaguar. She had heard the cars were better in quality control, but she was still worried about finding herself stranded out on the road. As we talked, it became clear she was also worried about seeming clueless to her friends for buying a car that the smart money considered wrong.

I realized her quandary perfectly exemplified the reason for Rule No. 2, which, long ago, was summarized by an ad-biz friend thusly: "Never force a customer to explain why he or she has bought your or your client's car.''

The job of the marketing guys includes making it clear to everyone why choosing that car makes him/her a truly savvy buyer. Some cars make it easier for the marketing guys, some make it harder.

For decades, Jaguar's build-quality problems and component failures had periodically made it harder to sell the automobiles from Coventry to the Sandras of the world. And in the upper division of the Jaguar league, Sandra's bona fides make her exactly who Jaguar should want in its cars: Formidably well-connected socially, she was married to Old Money but was also doing very well with her own company.

Recently, reading the latest issue of Jaguar magazine, I thought a lot about Sandra and Rule No. 2. Jaguar, like most manufacturer-supported owners' magazines, is a classic example of the rule in operation. These magazines fulfill multiple tasks, but Job 1 is to reinforce the savvy of the owners. This is done with everything from what ...