How do you sell a marina?
04/14/2013
The Austin/Morris Marina (ADO28) was neither the most successful nor the most popular car of its time, far from it. In fact, nobody had really been waiting for it. It was the result of the merger of the British Leyland Motor Corporation and an attempt to counter declining sales figures.
In technical terms, it was based on the 1948 Morris Minor and other Group products and was therefore already outdated when it was launched.
American advertising made a virtue of necessity and marketed the Marina (under the brand name Austin) as the car that would be built by the people who would also manufacture Jaguar, MG, Triumph and Land Rover components. This placed the not unattractively designed Marina in the direct tradition of these very popular vehicles in the United States, also visually.
This probably didn't help much, but for once it certainly wasn't due to the advertising.
