T Nation

A Cool New Marketing Approach...

Off Topic
#1

Hey Gang,

I thought this might interest some of you. A few of my clients come from Boathouse Group, a marketing firm here in Boston. They represent quite a few big companies, including New Balance and Merrill Lynch. Boathouse has a reputation for being non-traditional, but EXTREMELY effective in this neck of the woods.

I just got this email from one of my guys over there, and I thought you’d appreciate the humor - and be as curious as I am about how the new strategy will pay off. Cool stuff!

[quote]We?ve just finished some of the initial elements for a very brave and unique client in the retail automotive category, here at Boathouse. The Clay Family of auto dealerships has had it with all of the BS that is the retail car business these days, and we?ve produced an integrated campaign on their behalf.

Have a look at this link:

http://www.dontgettaken.com

In the top right of the page, you can click on the ?see videos? button and view the work that is playing on You Tube, AOL and a handful of other media outlets.

No one has ever had the spine to take this stance in the automotive industry. Now if we could just get our politicians to take a similar position, things might really get interesting.[/quote]

Thoughts? I was cracking up in the office today as I watched this - and then I got to reflecting on how brilliant it was!

www.EricCressey.com

#2

Methinks they should show their web designer the correct spelling of Kelley Blue Book while they’re at it.

#3

Are they making more profit because of this? Do they have an accurate way to measure?

If not, any sort of critique of how “cool” the marketing is, is meaningless.

#4

Most dealerships do what this Clay dealer is doing in regard to invoices and Kelley Blue Book, but they don’t advertise it. Plus the message has a “no bullshit” feel, a la Carmax. Clay will definitely generate more business and not have to give the customer any more than what they already are. Very clever.

#5

I bought a car from this dealership a few months ago and it was no different than any other car purchase I have ever made at any other dealership. I got a great deal, but it required a couple of hours of excruciatinly painful negotiating to get it.

I don’t think most car buyers would be willing or able to negotiate that long and hard (by the way I was an auto mechanic many decades ago before I went to college and also worked as a IT manager for a major dealership in a former life, so I know a little about cars and the auto business).

I doubt that this advertising campaign has chjanged their actual way of doing business. The one thing that always amazes me is how incompetent and ingnorant most car salesman are and how rude they are to customers, and they still manage to sell cars and make money. They esentially have a monopoly because they are all equally bad and you have ot buy a car somewhere.

This kind of reminds me of the “No Haggle” campaings that some dealers run and Saturn originally espoused for all their dealerships. It was just a thinly veiled method to get everybody to pay list price or something near it and up their profit margins!

#6

Ahhh marketing, the downfall of western civilization.

If a product is so great why does it need to be marketed? If it is a product that we should want (or need) do we need clever marketing ideas crammed down our throats to sell us on an idea–which also raises the cost of the product? I think anyone who uses people’s gullibility to increase their profit is evil.

“We’ll show you everything.” Yeah, I’m sure.

#7

He didn’t show us EVERYTHING. I clearly saw socks and underpants. I dare anyone to prove me wrong.

#8

[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Ahhh marketing, the downfall of western civilization.

If a product is so great why does it need to be marketed? [/quote]

If I make a product (let’s say a pill that can double a human’s lifespan)…and then have boxes of bottles sitting in my apartment and NOT tell anyone about them…no one’s going to know about it and no one will get the benefits! What kind of a moron thinks people will buy a product if they don’t know it exists? …a communist maybe?

[quote]
If it is a product that we should want (or need) do we need clever marketing ideas crammed down our throats to sell us on an idea–which also raises the cost of the product?[/quote]

Like health and fitness? It takes incredibly clever marketing campaigns to get people off their asses and into a gym. Very few people eat fruits and vegetables because they’re not advertised well. But I guess health and fitness isn’t an idea we need…

[quote]
I think anyone who uses people’s gullibility to increase their profit is evil.

“We’ll show you everything.” Yeah, I’m sure. [/quote]

#9

I don’t know if they truly are changing how shit gets done, but that dude is f*cking funny.

#10

[quote]Natural Nate wrote:
If I make a product (let’s say a pill that can double a human’s lifespan)…and then have boxes of bottles sitting in my apartment and NOT tell anyone about them…no one’s going to know about it and no one will get the benefits! What kind of a moron thinks people will buy a product if they don’t know it exists? …a communist maybe?

[/quote]
Equating a dislike for the over abundance of media advertising (which is my argument with advertising) with communism is not logical. Don’t you feel its gotten carried away?

Informing the public doesn’t mean tricking them. This ploy by Nissan is an advertising trick. We know cars exist. We know where to go to buy them. My life isn’t changed in some profound way by this. This is merely an attempt to make contact with the customer in a human way by relating to them. We all remember the first time we got “stiffed”.

But really if I want to be informed I use the internet…I don’t need to be told what to buy when such an abundance of free information exists :wink:

Plus the way the “News” media likes to plug products on their shows I really don’t need to enter the world wide web to find out.

Good news travels quick; so if it’s really good I’ll eventually hear about it. Advertising be damned.

#11

[quote]Icarus wrote:
I don’t know if they truly are changing how shit gets done, but that dude is f*cking funny. [/quote]

My point exactly. You should see the billboard next to the Mass Pike. It reminds me of George Costanza from that Seinfeld episode with the film store…