Tag Archives: marketing

the ultimate consumer

why pay once when you can pay twice?

Does Corvette know their customers or what? Say you’ve got a hankering for a nifty new ZR1 or Z06. The dealership’s walked you through all the paperwork, but in order to really feel fulfilled, you’d like to lend a hand on the engine assembly line.

For a nominal $5,800 fee, all things are possible, and helping build your own blown and injected engine that you’ve already paid for once is one of those life experiences that, if you have to explain, no one would understand. Visit your local Chevy dealer for details.

via adland.tv – all the ad news not fit to print

fresh twist in online ads

Got caught up reading a link from Poynter Institute’s Daily Beast RSS feed and noticed this tasty fresh approach to presenting online advertising – note the word wrap to the ad’s outline.

For all I know this technique’s been around awhile but it’s the first time I’ve noticed. End result: eyecatching integration and another step closer to replicating print sex appeal in an increasingly flexible online framework.

the ad harley should have made

jeep would settle for just a little respect

As The Motor Company continues to lurch from marketing pillar to advertising post, this new message for Jeep Chrysler nicely summons the Zeitgeist Harley historically fails to communicate. The 60-second ad from Wieden+Kennedy (Nike) introduces Jeep’s new slogan, “The Things We Make, Make Us.” Wow. Perfect. And perfectly positioned. Continue reading →

buell brand warrior bites back

ouch! this buell brand warrior skewers the motor company

This bullseye parody by halfthrottle over on YouTube has garnered nearly 150,00 views since it was posted on May 24th, and though Harley’s flailing marketing isn’t specifically called out, it’s a broad – and accurate – indictment of a brand that can’t decide what it should be.

It isn’t until the final frame that the impetus links back to Harley throwing Buell under the bus in 2009. But regardless of the inspiration, there’s no way to argue with the summary judgement of a powerful brand that’s been drifting on the wind for the past three decades. And that’s now paying what may be the ultimate penalty for a status quo strategy.

wal-mart’s brand marketing blunder

wal-mart rethinks choice, risks loyalty

Larry Silvey’s the editorial director at Advanstar’s Aftermarket Business, and a favorite target is retailing giant Wal-Mart. In a recent column he called them out on two fronts: their new, and puzzling, supplier relationship strategy in which they took over delivery duties of goods from supplier to store, and a marketing decision pitting store against name brand that apparantly backfired. Our interest lies mainly in the marketing side so we’ll leave logistics aside and look at what happened after Wal-Mart marketing decided less is more when it came to consumer choices in the shopping aisles. Continue reading →

marketing + pr: twin sons, different moms

Shun Or Hug? What Is Marketing’s Role In A Public Relations Practice?

Looks like there’s an opening for using marketing techniques in the message driven landscape of public relations. I’ve always felt comfortable with both and think integration is 1) a good thing and 2) entirely appropriate – assuming proficiency – for maximum audience reach.

Personal experience? PR skills tend to be a developable talent, while marketing instincts depend on process and can, to a much greater extent, be absorbed.

Can PR and Marketing Live Under the Same Roof?

If so, it would be like having two… two… two… mints in one. Given the light speed evolution of mass communications from primarily print delivered by primarily the U.S.P.S., it’s inevitable that public relations dialogue mashes up with marketers advertising message, creating a hybrid format that better fits the digital medium’s need for visuals.

To me, that’s what it looks like is happening, as print only media has blown up and broadcast only media is drying up. Put another way, for PR to rely solely on past best practices renders the message old before its time in a 24/7, app-driven, always on e-reader world.

Check this out at PRBreakfastClub for a first hand account of crossing over.

hd’s hail, mary? looks like

Harley Davidson’s Rebrand Strategy: Kitchen Sink

HD’s still looking for new directions out of the forest of consumer walk-on-by it’s lost in. Media Post’s industry pub Marketing Daily delivers details of TMC’s latest Maxim-ized efforts aimed at winning back share, on the back (figuratively speaking) of spokesperson/model/rider Marissa Miller.

Sigh… I get it. Dangle eye candy in front of viewers, Pavlovian response goes off, reader imagines she’s showering with him, wife’s ok with that, then he’s lickity split off to the dealer where he rite’s dat check before the steam evaporates.

But – but – it’s the chik riding the bike! By herself! And fem biker-ettes need men like fish need bicycles. Meanwhile, the campaign theme “Start Something” indicates an exhaustive naming session that apparantly sailed right past “Hey, What’s Up?” as an inspired call to action.

The image problem remains the bike line, not the actors. The communications problem remains. Period.

taking a break from dealer expo

dealer expo: the early yearsIt’s been 15 years since I took a time out from the annual powersports trade show pilgrammage. Fifteen years of slogging north (why?) into the snow, sleet and slush, usually followed by a bike week encore, first in the mid ’60s but later abandoned as full on lifestyle turned 100-percent commercial. This year, I’m giving it a rest and using the time to concentrate instead on overdue hardware and software upgrades while dedicating a serious investment in time to integrate the latest high tech applications into a leaner, more efficient production and marketing workflow.

What’s changed? Plenty. Before the web, annual trade shows were the only opportunity for new product, catalogs, trends and personalities to converge. Schedules were built around catalog production deadlines. Business publications targeted show issues to preview a limited number of the latest products selected months in advance, and dealers learned about what they’d be selling during the coming year only after they got to the show. Life was orderly and well behaved. Marketplace control was top down and ironfisted in a traditional analog way. That was then. Continue reading →

toyota’s new brand – too soon to discuss?

time to start thinking about a replacementThere’s talk over in LinkedIn’s public relations groups about Toyota’s handling – or mishandling – of their disasterous recall performance. I posted the following comment earlier in the week on the subject, surprised that nearly two weeks after first announcing a recall there’d been so little actual hard reporting on the massive problem.

As of today, I don’t think it’s too soon to begin speculating on their eventual rebranding. That’s if they survive the other shoes waiting to drop. But first, time to rethink the rush to dismiss the importance of brand in the oceanic swell of social media first. If you’re a marketeer, it will always be about brand.

After the surprising – from a Western perspective – initial non-response, followed by the tepid release announcing Sunday’s ad that was itself the sound of one hand clapping, I’m wondering if… Continue reading →