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Article: DB pays dearly for marketing misjudgement. (This Month).
- Article from:
- International Railway Journal
- Article date:
- June 1, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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GOOD marketing can transform a business. But get it wrong, even in only a few aspects, and customers and the media can be very unforgiving as German Rail (DB) has just discovered to its cost. The episode forced DB to make some tough decisions resulting in a major management shake-up.
DB introduced a new fares structure for its long-distance passenger services on December 15. The new fares coincided with the official opening of the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed line and a major reorganisation of the timetable. The new pricing system took about 500 staff three years to plan, involved the training of 24,000 railway staff plus 20,000 travel agency staff, and cost ...