Monday, September 28th, 2009...
New Buick Campaign Makes Brand Sound Like An Asshole
Maybe this is a good idea if you’re deliberately trying to speak to that coveted douchebag demographic, but otherwise, this just comes off sounding like the advertising equivalent of thinking that knocking the popular kid will somehow earn you friends at school. You just end up sounding like a jerk.
Who Okay-ed this? If you don’t look closely you’d think this was an ad FOR Lexus. Comparing yourself to the competition (including reiterating their own messaging in your advertising) is NOT a branding strategy. Get your own identity, Buick.
Makes you want to sit at Lexus’s table at lunch just out of annoyance.
.
Subscribe By Email
6 comments
September 28th, 2009 at
agreed…i found myself liking the lexus better in the video ad….and it really didnt sell me on the buick at all…i mean buick’s have a pretty lame reputation..they’re not sexy..they’re just sort of sturdy and safe…where as i have a perception of lexus as really sexy and classy..these ads did NOTHING to change that and merely cemented my idea of lexus as sexy and classy…FAIL.
September 28th, 2009 at
comparative advertising is pretty common in the auto industry. IMHO it could work, especially during the recession, because you supposedly get lexus performance at a fraction of the price…
http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?article_id=131143
http://spoonfeedin.blogspot.com/2008/12/mktg-comparative-advertising.html
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2009/db20090910_449746.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
September 28th, 2009 at
sure, yes, comparative advertising can work, but NOT if that’s your BRANDING strategy. buick seems to be trying to create a new brand image by at once comparing itself to, and knocking this competitor. if you’re going to do a comparison, look at the mac vs. pc approach: you have to have your OWN brand fully formed in order to be able to try pulling it off.
September 28th, 2009 at
Not to necessarily support Buick’s strategy, but to add a bit of context, the Lacrosse has been built almost from the ground up as a Lexus ES350 killer. As in, not just the brand, but the actual vehicle.
It is worth noting that they appear to have actually been successful in accomplishing this feat of best-the-leader engineering. And when your brand is as stale as the old Buick moniker, you may not have much else worthwhile to say.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-neil7-2009aug07,0,6908678.column
September 28th, 2009 at
@y2 – that’s an interesting point about the overall context here. i’m not sure if now being aware of the inside baseball info behind the rivalry makes the whole obsessive fixation with lexus seems any less neurotic, petty, and insecure. just because the company may be feeling that way about their foreign competition is not necessarily a valid reason to transfer the sentiment to their product.
October 13th, 2009 at
This Lexus/Buick dispute has me quite disappointed… for years lexus has been a car that “everyone” wanted because only the “higher class” could afford such a lugshery. Now we know that to be different(not very different) but different. I just think that Buick in there years of falling short to Lexus’s grate AD’s has run out of good marketing ideas and has resorted to this petty, disappointing, insulting excuse for advertisement!!!!!!! I do agree with Jenks that “comparative advertising can work, but NOT if that’s your BRANDING strategy.” A product or marketing strategy needs to be original to bring in a crowd(well at least and intellectual one)… not this.
be social... leave a reply