We are Always Learning Marketing the Great Western Railway, 1921–39

• Published in: Journal of transport history Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 186 - 211
• Main Author: Medcalf, Alexander
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2012; Sage Publications Ltd. (UK); Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: History; Marketing; Marketing research; Passenger rail services; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0022-5266; 1759-3999
• DOI: 10.7227/TJTH.33.2.3

This paper examines the Great Western Railway's (GWR) interwar marketing strategy. Using the company's promotional photographs, a collection of sources overlooked by historians, it argues for the GWR's developed attitude to customers. The company's photography was never merely illustrative or secondary to more commonly analysed pictorial posters; the taking and publication of photographs was closely supervised by individuals with a developing approach to marketing. It argues, however, that this qualitative analysis can be supplemented and corroborated with information on the production context - rare written glimpses of corporate strategy. It therefore forwards an enhanced methodology for exploring the railways' abundant visual marketing. The resultant "picturing process", which made full use of passenger scrutiny, highlights that the GWR developed its own approach to what is now termed "marketing". (Author abstract)