Back on January 23, I made a few remarks about a Mitsubishi commercial I saw on television. To elucidate, here's what I said: "Funny how these commercials are remarkably similar to beer commercials which only serve to prove that beer does, in fact, make you behave quite stupidly. Meaning, it's a negative implication against the product, and yet it's so cute it somehow serves to advertise the product..."
Interestingly enough, I wasn't too far off the mark. In reading the recent issue of Business 2.0, which is all about the 100 dumbest moves by businesses in 2003, Mitsubishi's advertising tactics got a mention. Here's what they had to say:
"#26 Next time, try lifestyle-oriented and emotional and cool and creditworthy and ... oh, hell, we give up.
After marketing its sporty Eclipse coupe to 20-something slacker types through a mix of ultrahip ads and zero-percent financing, Mitsubishi Motors announces a $469 million loss from loan defaults. New CEO Rolf Eckrodt says the company's mistake was 'aiming at customers interested in products which are lifestyle-oriented and emotional and cool.' The fix? Aiming at customers with money. The move looks good on paper—just not the paper on which the company's books are kept. After tightening up credit requirements, Eclipse sales fall by 48 percent, forcing Mitsubishi to spend another $432 million to clear out unsold inventory."
Pretty sad, isn't it? So their commercials are getting a little better with the Galant ad that I was referring to, but not by much. I wonder if they've even bothered to get a new ad agency. Although, I think in that field especially, the product should be good enough to sell itself, at least to some degree. :-P
One other car quandry: has anybody else noticed how BMWs seem to be prominently featured in Sports Center commercials? The first time I noticed this was last year when they had that ad with one of the hosts driving a Z4 into the studio parking lot, with the Stanley Cup in the passenger seat. He gets out, opens the trunk, and his cohost gets out of the back, thanking him for the ride. But the other night, while catching up on college basketball and Winter X, I saw a new commercial with the X3 in it. There's got to be some kind of deal behind that - it's a BMW advert, but isn't really. Clever cross-marketing; BMW seems to be quite good at that. Sports Center seems like a natural market for BMWs, since the average age range of a BMW owner is something like 39 to 50. And, of course, one avid 19 year old: me! :)
