為猩二十載:猩氏效應

來自專欄世界上最好的車評人——傑裏米克拉克森車評4 人贊了文章

??20 years of Clarkson: The Clarkson effect

為猩二十載:猩氏效應

What effect do Clarksons reviews really have on cars sales?

大猩猩的言論對車輛銷量有何影響？

He is the scourge of the industry, who with one well-aimed comment can send sales through the roof or close factories. Really? We investigate the fortunes of the cars Clarkson trashed.

他是汽車工業的鞭撻，目標明確的言論足以讓銷量衝破天際或者關張大吉。是嗎？我們調查了大猩猩視如糞土的車型命運

IN APRIL 2005, MG Rover called in the administrators. Allegedly, it wasn』t the fault of the directors who had taken ￡40m in pay and pensions. Neither was it down to the limited model range. It wasn』t even because of the poor reputation that British cars had from the days of the Austin Allegro.

2005年4月，MG羅浮召集管理層。據稱，這並非是四千萬英鎊退休金的主管之過。也非產品線狹窄之錯。甚至不是因為Allegro帶來的英系可悲口碑

The culprit was Jeremy Clarkson. If you believed staff at the Longbridge factory. 「Clarkson』s contributed to the situation,」 said Jeff Ali, a manager at the plant. 「He』s been very derogatory about the cars and people hate the guy. He』s not welcome here.」 A banner across the gates read: 「Anti-Clarkson campaign.」

罪魁禍首就是大猩猩。如果你認為長橋工廠員工可信。「大猩猩是罪魁禍首」語出Jeff Ali，一位工廠經理「他對MG大肆挖苦，人們恨死他了，他在這裡不受歡迎」大門上有個標語「反大猩猩活動」

Owners were quick to join the condemnation: 「His tasteless, uninformed anti-Rover prattle dissuaded many potential customers from trying out and buying the cars,」read one of the printable website forum posts.

車主很快開始一起批判「他無知沒品的反羅浮瞎扯可能打消有意向買車的潛在用戶」語出一個貼吧

Anyone who had been in Luton four years earlier would have experienced a sense of déjà vu. At the time, Vauxhall had announced that it would stop producing the Vauxhall Vectra there. The workforce blamed Clarkson.

早前在Luton待過的人可能感覺似曾相識。那時，Vauxhall宣佈停產Vectra。工人吐槽是大猩猩的鍋

He had savaged the model on Top Gear for being so dull that the only thing he could think to talk about was its coat hooks, and took a similar tack in The Sunday Times, devoting his column to the reed warbler instead of the car.

他在TG上大肆吐槽該車無聊透頂的特性，而唯一的依據就是拉皮政策，和專欄上一個套路。花了篇幅寫牧笛而非車輛本身

The coverage reportedly caused a walkout at Vauxhall』s factory and led to the managing director complaining to the BBC. The car was seen as a disappointment because it at first sold fewer models than its older rival, the Ford Mondeo.

封面報道讓Vauxhall工廠集體罷工，工廠主任向BBC訴苦。該車比老款對手Mondeo銷量更低，讓人失望

「A lot of people you speak to will still talk about that — they remember it,」 admits Denis Chick, from Vauxhall, who also says: 「It didn』t stop people buying Vectras.」

Vauxhall的Denis Chick承認「許多和你聊天的人還會談到Vectra的失敗—人們記憶猶新。這並沒有阻擋買家的熱情」

There may not be a definitive link between Clarksons comments and Vectra sales (see graph below) but some note that the Vectra name no longer exists, while Mondeo is still going strong.

雖然Vectra的銷量和猩猩的吐槽沒有直接關係，但有人發現Vectra已經不復存在，而Mondeo仍然勢在必得

The industry calls it the Clarkson effect, which is said to make or break a car』s fortune. A favourable review will have thousands heading into the showrooms. A negative review will have a similar effect — except that the hordes will be buying rival models.

汽車工業美其名曰猩氏效應，也就是讓一臺車前程似錦或頭破血流。一條欽定的車評會引來成千上萬的顧客，而批判的車評類似—只不過會讓顧客對競品趨之若鶩

This pied-piper phenomenon has marketing heads waking up in cold sweats the night before a review is published, and agonizing over whether they should lend him a car to test-drive, running the risk of an acerbic and instantly memorable putdown. Such as in the case of the Porsche Cayenne (「I have seen more attractive gangrenous wounds than this」), the Peugeot 307CC (「It』s like running into an old girlfriend who, since you last saw her, has had three children, cut her hair, eaten all the pies and given up)」 and the Perodua Kelisa, which 「sounds like a disease」.

花衣魔笛手效應讓市場部在車評發布前焦頭爛額，對是否借猩猩一臺車，冒著被噴的狗血噴頭，瞬間青史留名的風險讓公眾看到真實評測。對凱宴（我見過比這車還好看的腐敗傷口）307CC（就像碰見一個已經孕有3胎，改頭換面，一口吃派）對Perodua Kelisa（馬來西亞寶騰）（聽起來像種疾病）

「The Jeremy Clarkson effect is renowned within the car industry,」 says Jamie Matthews, chief executive of Initials Marketing, an agency that develops campaigns for car brands. 「He can make or break car launches.

「大猩猩效應在汽車業界久負盛名」語出頭文字營銷公司—一個意在推廣汽車廠商的公司的CEO「他能讓一個車輛首發上天或者入地」

「He』s entertaining and eccentric, but he』s also the car expert who has an opinion, and that』s what buyers want: they are looking for a strong point of view about a car to guide them.」

他有趣而古怪，但也是自成一派的汽車專家，這正是買家想要的：一份引導性極強的觀點

So how much is a positive verdict in Britain』s bestselling Sunday broadsheet worth? About 7,000 cars, according to one large manufacturer. That』s the number of extra vehicles it expects to sell if one of its cars gets a rare five-star review in The Sunday Times. A spokesman for the company, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the Clarkson effect doesn』t stop there. It helps bring more people into showrooms and paints the rest of their range in a good light. As an added bonus, Clarkson recommends the cars he likes to friends, who then go and buy one. One upmarket car maker witnesses an 800% increase in website visits if a particular model is well reviewed by Clarkson.

那麼，在英國最暢銷的週日版面上有多少欽定效果呢？大約多賣7000臺車，據一個大廠稱，這就是大猩猩的5猩評分帶來的附加值。一個要求匿名的發言人表示猩氏效應不止於此。讓更多人走進展廳，讓他們一天都很美好。附加獎勵是，大猩猩會向好友推薦他喜歡的車，他們就會買下來。一個高檔車商表示大猩猩喜愛的車讓網站點擊率提升了8倍

When Top Gear was revived on October 20, 2002, the first episode featured Clarkson testing — and raving about — the Citro?n Berlingo Multispace family car. Before the show Citro?n had sold 200 cars that month. Eleven days later it had sold 800 and was having to import extra cars to meet demand. 「There was a massive uplift on the back of that,」 says Marc Raven, of Citro?n. 「We couldn』t quite believe it.」

當2002年10月20日，TG S01E01裏大猩猩評測—並偏好了—雪鐵龍Berlingo Multispace家用車。節目播出前月銷量200臺。11天後，賣出800臺，而且要額外進貨來滿足需求。這導致了一個問題，語出雪鐵龍的Marc Raven，我們自己都難以置信

「What he says has a huge impact,」 agrees Alun Parry, from Suzuki. 「Jeremy gave four stars to the Swift in 2010 and the same to the Swift Sport in 2012. Sales of that car were 105% of the target for the year. You can』t say that was all down to Jeremy, but when he likes a car, it certainly gets a lot of people talking about the brand.」

「他的言論打擊性很大」鈴木的Alun Parr表示「大猩猩給了10款的雨燕和12款的運動雨燕4星」兩車年銷量都達到了目標的1.05倍。雖然不能說全靠大猩猩，但當他喜歡一臺車，該車肯定讓許多人對此議論紛紛

The fear for motoring』s marketing people, though, is that he』ll find a car that is worse than the Vectra, which in turn could lead to a consumer boycott, factory closures and thousands on the breadline.

汽車營銷人員恐懼的是，他會找到一臺比Vectra還差的車，最終會讓消費者抵制，工廠倒閉，排隊救濟

Or perhaps not. As with everything about the man, the Clarkson effect is prone to exaggeration, and he』s the first to admit it. 「『I don』t have any influence over what people do, I really don』t. It makes no difference what I say,」 said Clarkson at the Hay festival in 2008.

或者興許不是。和他的一切一樣，猩氏效應有些誇大其詞—我不會影響其他人的行為，真的沒有，我的言論對一切沒有改變。語出大猩猩2008年乾草節

He emphasises the point in a column from July 1999, explaining how the Chrysler Voyager became the second-bestselling people carrier in Britain just after he described it as「the worst car you can buy now」.

他在1999年7月的一篇專欄裏寫道大捷龍如何成為英國最受歡迎的載員車，此前剛剛寫道此車是「當下你能買到的最爛的車」

Then there was the time he awarded just one star to the previous-generation BMW 1-series. It became one of the five bestselling cars in its class.

上代寶馬1系被他評為僅僅1猩級。然而卻成為同級銷量前五

That argument doesn』t wash with road safety campaigners. Co-op insurance, the road safety charity Brake and the Green party are some of the groups who have criticised the presenter. They claim he encourages reckless driving. Richard Brunstrom, once Britain』s most senior traffic officer, blamed him for turning motorists against speed cameras in 2004.

這種爭議在道路安全人士上繼續，保險部門，「制動」道路安全基金好綠黨都批判了大猩猩。聲稱他鼓勵危險駕駛。英國老牌交通官員Richard Brunstrom譴責大猩猩2004年讓車迷違抗測速探頭

Clarkson』s response was to the point: 「When people say [I』m a role model], I ask, 『Would you do something just because I did it?』」 he told The Sunday Times in an interview in 2005. 「And they always say no. And I say, 『Well, if you wouldn』t, then why do you think someone else would?』」

大猩猩回復表示「當人們表示我是模範人物時，我會問，你會不會因為我做了什麼事而去做相同的事」他在週日時報2005年的訪談中表示。「他們總是否定，我回復，你們既然不會，為何認為其他人會呢？」

But Clarkson』s claim that no one takes any notice of what he says may be an exaggeration in itself, as there is apparently strong evidence that he can move markets internationally, close factories and influence the development of new products. Just not necessarily in the world of cars.

但大猩猩表示沒人以他的言論為本可能是誇張，因為顯然他能左右全球化市場，關閉工廠，影響新產品研發。只不過不僅限於車而已

In 1998 he was blamed in a clothing industry report for causing a 14% drop in jeans sales. Children and teenagers saw him on screen and decided that 「they do not want to look like their dads」, the report by the market research company AC Nielsen stated. Soon afterwards Levi』s laid off 6,000 staff.

98年他因為導致牛仔褲銷量下跌14%而被責備。年輕人和孩子看了看電視裏的他，表示他們不想打扮的和老爹一樣。市場調研報告表示Levis解僱了6000員工

Clarkson said that he would stop wearing his favourite trousers — if the clothing firms paid him ￡40m.

大猩猩表示他會不再穿他最愛的褲子—前提是服裝廠付他4000萬英鎊

But whether he』s the force behind thousands of car sales a year, or completely ignored by the hundreds of millions of people who watch his shows and read his columns, one fact remains constant: it simply doesn』t matter because he just tells the truth.

但無論他是讓車年銷上漲還是被他節目和專欄的百萬觀眾讀者忽略，有一點可以確認：不僅僅是擺事實講道理

「I』m not employed to think one thing and say something else,」 he wrote in one column. 「Am I supposed to recommend all cars that are made here, irrespective of their price, performance or quality? Because if I am, all of you must go out tomorrow and buy a London cab.

他在專欄中寫道「我不是僱來腦口不同步的」「我難道要因為國產，就忽略價格 性能和品質來推薦車款嗎？倘若如此，你們明天都開倫敦黑出租去」

「Let』s just say that I had been nicer to the Vectra, and let』s just imagine for a moment that people pay the slightest bit of attention to what I write,」 he wrote in a separate article. 「Then yes, more people might have bought one. But now they』d be the ones writing to me. Wondering why I hadn』t warned them of its numerous shortfalls. And calling me a git.

他在另一篇文章中寫道「我們就說我對Vectra言辭稍佳，然後人們對我的文章騷之以鼻」「對，更多人會買Vectra。但現在他們就會寫信抱怨我為何沒有警告他們該車數不勝數的短處，然後叫我飯桶」

翻譯：GearKnobs字幕組—進化世代（ALMF3512）

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