Hertz, one of the largest car rental companies in the world filed for bankruptcy last week, in what seems to be one of the highest profile corporate fallouts from the pandemic.
It’s interesting for me because I learnt a lot on branding and positioning from the age long competition between Hertz and Avis (another major car rental player). Particularly how Avis smartly positioned itself as number 2 using the tagline “We try harder”: a marketing campaign that led to an upsurge in sales for Avis. You can check out the book “Positioning: The Battle for your mind” by Al Ries and Jack Trout, for more details on this.
Hertz is over 100 years old, and this bankruptcy has led to the company letting go of 16,000 employees. Although the company has been struggling for a while now thanks to competition from ride sharing companies, the pandemic compounded its problems majorly because two-thirds of its offices operates from airports. Despite all of this, the CEO may walk away with up to $9 million in total compensation.
