The October '03 issue of Harvard Business Review contains a two-page interview with Airstream CEO, Dicky Riegel. When asked to account for the Airstream mystique, Riegel replied: "Let me ask you a question. Have you ever placed your hands on the skin of an Airstream trailer? There is something about the aerodynamic shape, the silver color, the rivets. People have an emotional response to them."
Later on Riegel acknowledges some of the mistakes AS has made, such as the "Squarestream," but says the company will continue to innovate in order to capture all of the "psychographics" (that's us
): "design enthusiasts, traditionalist customers, who include what we call 'retrofurbishers,' and value customers, whose needs can't be met by typical RVs but still approach their purchase on a budget. .. A 30-year-old design enthusiast from New York and a 65-year-old refurbisher from Michigan can pull up next to each other at a rally and find they have a lot in common."
This article is available from Harvard Business Review as reprint #F0310C. Their URL is:
http://www.harvardbusinessonline.org .
AS CEO interview - Harvard Bus Rev
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