A question that most marketers will face at some point…how to resurrect a product that was launched so badly…is highlighted by Neil Shoebridge in today’s AFR referring to DMG’s Vega stations.

Shoebridge reports that DMG executives are asking themselves that question as they struggle to find a way to revive the stations which have turned into an embarrassing, expensive failure for the company that successfully built the Nova network.

He comments that, judging by the recent changes at Vega, the DMG executives still have no idea how to turn around the station’s dismal performance. As each day passes, the $165 million DMG has pumped into Vega is looking like one of the worst investments ever seen in the Australian media industry.

DMG has to do something to convince people over 40, which is Vega’s target market, to try the stations. But at this stage it is simply shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Shoebridge points out that DMG overestimated the willingness of people over 40 to switch radio stations. It also failed to realize that not all the over-40’s want to be seen listening to a station aimed at over 40’s.

DMG’s rivals agree that Vega is a dud. They cannot agree about what DMG should do next. Some say it has no choice but to pour good money after bad and try to buy an audience with expensive marketing campaigns. Others argue the Vega brand should be ditched and DMG should start again.

Abandoning Vega and launching a new station would be embarrassing. But it might represent the only way for DMG to start recouping some of it’s investment.