BrandNg

Toyota's 20 year claim

With Toyota getting so much bad press, I thought it would be an appropriate time to analyze its cleverly-phrased claim:

"80% of all Toyotas sold in the last 20 years are still on the road today." 

If we read this closely, the claim isn't that 80% of all Toyotas sold in 1989 are still on the road today.  Rather, it's that 80% of all Toyotas sold between 1989-2009 are still on the road.

Except for the last two years, Toyota has been steadily growing; they simply sold fewer cars in 1990 than they did in 2009.  And since newer cars are undoubtedly more likely to be on the road (ok, there's some doubt), the claim sounds better than the reality.

The genius of the spin is in how it is combined with the creative above. Toyota implies that there's an 80% chance that the car could be handed down to the child in about 20 years' time, when really the chances are going to be significantly lower.  I've included some data and a hypothetical situation below. 

Either way, it will be interesting to see if Toyota continues to push this message into the marketplace, given its current challenges and its severed relationship with Saatchi LA. 

Toyota - Total US Sales

1990: 1.0M
1991: 1.02M *
1992: 1.04M *
1993: 1.06M *
1994: 1.08M *
1995: 1.10M *
1996: 1.13M
1997: 1.20M
1998: 1.34M *
1999: 1.48M *
2000: 1.62M
2001: 1.74M
2002: 1.76M
2003: 1.87M
2004: 2.06M
2005: 2.25M
2006: 2.54M
2007: 2.62M
2008: 2.22M
2009: 1.77M
TOTAL: 31.9M

* Some of this data has been difficult to source; for these estimated years, I just assumed linear annual growth between two known numbers.

I don't have access to the figures that Toyota/R.L. Polk uses, but in a purely hypothetical situation:

if 95% of 2004-2009 Toyotas are still on the road
and 90% of 1999-2003 Toyotas are still on the road
then only 45% of 1990-1998 Toyotas would still be on the road.

To put it in another way, in a completely different hypothetical scenario, Toyota's claim could theoretically still hold true, even if 100% of the Toyotas sold between 1990-1995 were in the scrap heap.

Starbucks, you ungrateful wretch!

Seriously. Starbucks, if you really appreciated me, it would be a Venti.

No, seriously.

 

Does this policy also apply to thank yous?

So easy, even a vampire could do it.

Bizarre GEICO billboard with very loose content ties to the normally ad-free show, TrueBlood.  The URL truebloodvampireinsurance.com redirects to TrueBlood and not to GEICO, which probably means this is funded mostly (or completely) by HBO.

If the point is to make it seem like vampires are among us, I wonder if HBO wouldn't do better by promoting vampire speed dating. After all, they might even get a few bites...errr I mean a few takers.

Does Eugene Kaspersky do his own stunts?

New commercial for Kaspersky antivirus software features Jackie Chan on a segway.  Pretty horrible creative, but I bet it is effective in Asia, (provided hackers haven't already cracked the registration codes for this piece of security software).

Good morning. You might be Canadian.

Is this how Canadians really think of themselves? This funny little youtube video was issued by the Government of Canada, claiming that you might have woken up as a Canadian citizen today. The WSJ points out that it's interesting that they are using YouTube to reach this diffuse and hard to track audience.

For those of you who already know that you're Canadian: the video is missing baggy pants (dragged down by the enormous weight of loonies and toonies in your pocket), a heaping serving of poutine, homo milk, Labatt's, Celine Dion, Alex Trebek and a Tim Horton's cup which has a rim that one can rrroll up. Glad they got the touque and the photo of the queen though.

AOL sold to Intuit!?

Brand guardians around the world are shaking their heads at AOL's homepage today, which either marks the beginning of the end of all things, or is a positive innovation, depending on your point of view.

For taxday, the "O" in the AOL logo morphs into a TurboTax checkmark, and when clicked, leads you to WalletPop, AOL's finance site. Wallet Pop is completely sponsored by TurboTax, at least for the day.

I'm not too worried. After all, Google has been peddling itself to the powerful Halloween lobby for years. And some of Google's pitched ideas are even better than the ones they've used.

Slightly Surreal Public Attack on Blockbuster.com GM @ AdAge Conference

At the Ad Age Digital Conf. today: Bob Barr, the newly hired GM of Blockbuster.com, participated in an "Open Idea" forum. As it was the last session, many attendees started filtering out and maybe that was for the best. 

The "Open Idea" forum was intended to allow attendees to "help" Barr with his marketing challenges.  He would essentially tell the crowd about his problem and then ask the crowd for suggestions.  Barr opened by asking Netflix subscribers to raise their hands (about 60% of the crowd?) and then asked Blockbuster Online subs to do the same (2 hands out of a few hundred).  Anyways, Barr basically lambasts his own company, proving (convincingly, I might add) that Netflix has outpositioned Blockbuster, that Blockbuster Online products have better value but are misunderstood by the marketplace, and that there's lots of mentions of Blockbuster in the media/blogosphere, but most of it is centered around new releases and/or discussion of the fate of the parent company.  He said he was going to "bare his soul" and he wasn't kidding.

So Barr starts fielding suggestions from the crowd, but the Q&A-style format is all wrong.  People start suggesting things like:

• Make it easy for Netflix subs to switch by grabbing information out of their queues and
• Create a new sub-brand because you just proved to us that BB's brand basically sucks.  

Barr is left to defend what he's already doing and every suggestion comes across like an attack.

A lady who introduces herself as a Corporate PR person laments, "you're letting your own story spin out of control.  You need to do some real PR.  You need to KISS: keep it simple, stupid." 

Jonah Bloom, Editor of Ad Age, is trying to moderate.  He tries to lighten things up by playfully suggesting that Blockbuster should create an online brand without the 'e' (i.e. "BLOCKBUSTR") to match flickr and tumblr.  It gets a nice laugh, but Bloom's efforts are largely futile.  Barr was too good at pointing out the faults of his own company and is unable to get a real dialogue going with the crowd--he was like a wounded animal that needed to defend every comment.

Finally and mercifully, someone from the crowd says, "You're a hero for doing this," followed by hearty applause from the crowd, me included.  Another person shouts out: "Blockbuster can make a comeback.  I mean if Brittney can do it, so can you!"

Strange Svedka Election Ad

Seen on a bus shelter in New York: Not sure why Svedka proclaims itself "Voted #1 Vodka of 2033."

Either way, this Svedka ad was voted #1 stupidest, most incomprehensible election tie-in ad of 2008-2009. 

Attention K-Mart shoppers: You are ruining the moral fabric of American society.

Embedded in this public Thanksgiving love letter written by "P.C. Richard" (and his son) to their 2,700 employees is a nasty little note to retailers open on Thanksgiving Day:

"It is our opinion that retailers who choose to open on Thanksgiving Day show no respect to their employees and families, and are in total disrespect of family values in the United States of America."

(You can see a close up of the full page ad by clicking on it).

As early as 1991, K-mart opened its doors on Thanksgiving--the first major retailer to do so.  But the struggling retailer became more aggressive with its Turkey Day advertising about 5 years ago, clearly unable to wrestle the hearts and wallets of Black Friday shoppers from the likes of Best Buy, Toys R Us, Walmart, Macy's or basically anyone.  K-mart wanted to claim Thanksgiving Day for itself.

Eight and a half trillion dollars of bailout money later, more and more companies are opening their doors and preventing their employees from eating vast amounts of candied yams and gravy.

In an always-on, ever-available world, the last few pillars of respite from commerce are crumbling.  I'm all for keeping Thanksgiving and Christmas Day closed for brick and mortar retailers.  I mean, can't you live without a dazzling crystal keychain, etched with a photo of your favorite person or pet for just a single day? 

But PC Richard needs to stop whining.  This "guiding light" for retail ethics of the United States of America wants other retailers to stop disrespecting their employees and families.  Yet what's problematic about its stance is how it celebrates American veterans: with MASSIVE BLOWOUT SALES, STOREWIDE SAVINGS, and ZERO PERCENT INTEREST ON ALL BBQS AND AIRCONDITIONERS.

So PC Richard, while you're pondering whether or not it's a good idea to publish a full-page ad chiding the practices of your fellow discount retailers, how about closing shop on the upcoming Martin Luther King Day, to show respect for a true American hero?  Though I guess, in retailing, nothing says respect like offering 12 months no interest on HDTVs.

In the meantime, I think I'll head over to B&H Photo, with Chick-Fil-a sandwich in hand, companies that actually live by their code, not just rant about it.  Unfortunately, their hours of operation will probably prevent me from doing so.