In the early 1980s, Iacocca removed BBDO from Chrysler and brought on Kenyon & Eckhardt instead which had developed the “Ford has a better idea” campaign. K&E had also helped with the Lincoln-Mercury division with the sign of the cat. Iacocca made sure that K&E was brought in on the early details of production of new models so that the $100 million investment on production received extensive thought on marketing. Trying new things with old friends was what Iacocca was all about when he brought K&E in. One gimmick used was to have customers consider a Chrysler with a test drive, and if they then decided to buy a competitors car, they would get $50 bucks for at least testing a Chrysler. The dealers thought this would be gamed but it worked. There was also the money back guarantee ‘buy a Chrysler and if you don’t like it after 30 days, then bring it back for a full refund.’ The paperwork alone would have killed Chrysler but fortunately, most people play fair and only 1 percent of customers would bring their car back.
