Jim gives his observations from the NY Auto Show. Is the industry advancing, or is it all just marketing bling?
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Episode #150! Thanks to everyone that has read the blog and listened to the podcast over the years.
It seems things have come full circle… In Episode #1 of the Hopkinson Report podcast, I compared the iPhone to a Porsche, and asked, “Has the iPhone reached ‘no substitute’ status?”
Well, the iPhone is still going strong, with Apple on track to make $100 billion dollars in 2011. It sold 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, an eye-popping 113 percent increase over last year, destroying Wall Street’s consensus estimate of 16.6 million units.
As for Porsche, I get to them a little later.
When I talk about marketing cars, I think the interesting thing is that companies have to market them all the time. A user might buy a car only once every 3, 5, or even 10 years, so car companies have to be building this brand and trust constantly.
Passing thoughts were that a lot of commercials must have paid big money royalties to songwriters, including Kenny G, Elton John, David Bowie, Jay Z, Eminem, and the theme from Star Wars. I guess on the big stage, you want a music that people know.
I thought Bridgestone and Audi and Teleflora hit their mark, Best Buy tried a little too hard, the beer commercials were about par for the course, and the ad exec that suggested the “Pepsi Max can to the groin” should be fired. You know his defense was. “C’mon… can to the groin always works.” Sadly, he’s kinda right.
And by far the one that stopped me in my tracks was Chrysler’s Eminem spot. Beautifully shot, held your attention, and made you think. Am I going to go buy a Chrysler? Let’s say the chances of that rose from never, not a chance…. to less than 3%.
The ideal customer is not only one that keeps coming back, but that buys more expensive items over time.
Is Apple the best in history?
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We are winding down the end of the year, just a few podcasts left to go. As we hit the holidays,
I bet there are a lot of Apple products on people’s lists:
- I’ve been predicting all year that the iPad is going to be the #1 tech gift of the season (along with the Kindle)
- iPod music players are always in demand
- The laptop elite will be lusting for the Macbook Air
- Digital entertainment geeks might long for the $99 Apple TV
Ah, Super Bowl Sunday. The day every football player aspires to. How do players get their start? The NFL Draft. The last player picked, after more than 200-250 people have been selected, has been given the name “Mr. Irrelevant.” Don’t laugh — Marty Moore was picked by the Patriots dead last in 1994, and went on to play in the 1996 Super Bowl.
Ah, Super Bowl Sunday commercials. The day every marketing person aspires to. To have their ads seen by millions. And there should only be one goal. To make your ad relevant.
But when it came to relevance, how did so many spots miss the point?
Here are 10 Super Bowl commercials that were completely irrelevant (and 6 that weren’t).
For the FULL RANT, download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
1. Hyundai
You’re comparing the paint quality vs. a Mercedes??? When thinking about buying a car, people think about comfort, safety, horsepower, styling, resale value, cost, fuel economy… should I keep going? Where on the list is paint quality? I think this selling point is pretty irrelevant.
2. Doritos
Some funny commercials in there, but where does the URL at the end of the spot send people? www.SnackStrongProductions.com
What do a new car purchase, choosing a career, and marketing have in common?
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When I was 22, I was fresh out of college and the country was mired in the worst recession since… well, since the one we’re in right now. Jobs were so scarce that I took an hourly retail job at Staples. While I was there, I worked with a guy that made 2 lasting impressions on me about cars and careers.
When the work schedule came out and I realized that I was stuck working another Friday night until closing, but he had the night off, I asked him how that always happened. He said it’s easy, “I just told them when I was hired that I played in a band, and that we practice on Friday nights, so I couldn’t work them.”
It was so simple a concept that I could only shake my head and laugh at how right he was. I didn’t even play an instrument at the time, but years later I picked up the drums and found myself in a bona fide group. While I don’t think I used it quite so blatantly to avoid work, for three years I never worked past 5:30 on a Monday night (practice), and a few times a month I took off early — and rolled in late the next day — because of gigs.
Hey, it’s the 1 year anniversary of The Hopkinson Report! So what’s my secret? Either delve into a topic that you’re really really into, or meet and interview people doing very cool things. As a car geek, I spent 4 hours at the New York Auto Show. So in a testament to my very first episode, the Porsche vs. the iPhone, I’m going to talk about cars, and marketing.
First let’s set the scene… The New York Auto Show is a massive production, a popular trade show that takes place at the Javits Center in Manhattan for up to 12 hours a day over the course of 10 days. Saturday April 11 brought pouring rain to New York City, making it the perfect day to be inside but do something fun. After sufficient food and caffeination, I descended into the belly of the beast.
The crowd was extremely diverse. There were plenty of 30-something white guys like me ogling the latest Porsches, families of 5 climbing in and out of minivans, and gangly teenagers with newly-minted driver’s licenses in the Fast and Furious demo talking tiptronic transmissions.
I also spotted a few secretly giddy Dads that probably implied to their wives that it would be a big chore to lug the boy to the show. Later on, he would ruin his 8-year-old son for the next 50 years by sitting him in the driver’s seat of a $100,000 Mercedes convertible, not realizing he had planted a seed in the kids brain and that he wouldn’t actually get to OWN that car until he was nearing retirement.
But with a fun, free-for-all atmosphere where everyone there patiently followed the car show etiquette of taking turns getting to sit in most any car they wanted, and without the normal stress of a used car salesman in a bad suit hovering over you, it was bliss for a car geek.
At the SXSW Interactive festival in mid-March, I interviewed several fantastic, interesting individuals and small companies that are on the leading edge of using social media and marketing on the web.
This podcast interviews entrepreneurJoshua Baer from Other Inbox, and he has the key for curing email overload, and for a Tesla Roadster.
Download the podcast on iTunes, or play it below:
Play Episode as a Podcast:
Here are some of the topics we covered:
What is Other Inbox and what does it do?
Take a look at your inbox. How many items in there? 10? 40? 100? Over 500?
Face it, everyone has a problem with too much email, so it’s going to be up to innovators in the space to help us manage it. Josh talks about his company and the widespread problem of e-mail overload.
Other Inbox not only makes it faster to isolate and focus on the important items in your inbox, but it can help you clear through the less important mails quicker as well.
How he got involved
Josh reveals that his background was actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. As an young entrepreneur running a “dorm room dot-com,” he founded a company that helps corporations SEND billions of e-mails per month.
But like a CEO at Krispy Kreme taking a job at Weight Watchers, he appreciated both sides of the email coin, from the consumer and the marketing perspective. And that’s how Other Inbox came to life.
Are the new breed of netbooks the real deal or marketing hype?
In last week’s podcast and blog post, I laid out a dilemma for the gadget-obsessed. The Amazon Kindle 2 and a slew of mini notebook computers – or netbooks – have entered the market in the last year or so at a price point of $350.
Is either, or both of them, worth the tech investment?
Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):
The price point of $350 is very interesting, especially in these times. For a lot of people, if there’s a gadget you need for $40 or less, such as a thumb drive, a new set of earbuds, or a case for your iPhone, most likely you’ll grab it as an impulse buy because it will make you happy or more efficient.
If there’s something over $400, like a new TV, a new Macbook, or a video console system and a few games, then it becomes more discretionary and something you put off until you have the budget for it. Or at least that’s how it you SHOULD look at it.
Do I? In looking back at my major geek purchases over the last 18 months, it turns out I’ve been remarkably consistent in my upgrade pattern. Let’s take a look:
Frankly, this analysis is rather stunning. I’m almost ashamed. Three to four years???
You thought I was kidding when I said I would do an entire podcast about toilets, but you were wrong. Here’s what Japanese toilets taught me about the auto industry.
Play Episode (recommended for maximum loud, funny, ranting):
But another thing that really struck me was the Japanese bathrooms. Don’t worry, I’m going to keep the language, um, out of the gutter, but when I started thinking about how to broach this topic, somehow the US auto industry came to mind, which of course, is going down the toilet.
But along the way, think about how the topics I discuss apply to ANY business.
From cars to cameras, who are the people that make you buy what you buy? They are hyper-influencers, word-of-mouth marketing mavens using social media to influence sales.
Play Episode (recommended):
Or read as a blog post:
Picture the scene. It was the fall of 1992 and with a year of post-graduation “real work” under my belt, it was time to get my first real car. I was a nervous 23-year-old sitting behind the wheel of a 1990 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo. Sitting equally as nervous next to me was the car’s owner, as we went on a test drive. I was pulling out into heavy traffic, and the vortex of wind from tractor trailers speeding by the tiny two door sports car made it rock. As a clearing appeared, the owner said the following seven words to me.
“You know you’re in third gear, right?”
I said “Um, oh yeah.” And nervously put it into first.
His next question was, “You DO know how to drive a stick, right?”
I replied, “Yeah, I kinda learned a bit over the summer on my boss’ truck.”
His final fearful question was, “So … what are you driving right now?”
I responded without hesitation, “A 1975 baby blue Dodge Dart.”
So how did I get here? How did I end up in this situation, with this car, jumping an entire decade, going from a rusted sedan that my Dad bought for $1500 and somehow got me through college, to a 5-speed, 195-hp mini rocket?
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