Polemicist

The thread discussing the recent BBC programme about German car makers prompted me to look at the statements employed to position car brands, here's a few...

VW
Das Auto

Audi
Vorsprung durch Technik

Peugeot
Motion & Emotion

Seat
Enjoyneering

Škoda
Simply Clever

Ford
Go further

MINI
Not normal

Mazda
Zoom-zoom

BMW
The ultimate driving machine

Renault
Drive the change

Honda
The power of dreams

Toyota
Always a better way

Land Rover
Above and beyond

smart
open your mind

Dacia
you do the maths

MG
It's time to fall in love again

Nissan
Innovation that excites

Saab
Move your mind

Citroen
Créative Technologie

KIA
The power to surprise

Hyundai
New thinking
New possibilities

Infiniti
Inspired performance

Subaru
Confidence in motion

I can imagine these were all created/developed with key marketing personnel all sat around a table in earnest and lengthy conversation with their agency creatives, agonising over every word, inflexion and pronunciation.

All utter bollocks of course but de rigueur for throwing into the small-talk at middle-class, Sunday afternoon champagne and cup-cake parties.

Interestingly the Italian car brands (as well as the premium Italian luxury brands) appear to have avoided the use of such tosh.


If only all automotive manufacturers had the promotional integrity of the Canyonero brand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4QgWRycd7I

Bundle of Mayhem

Didn't realise SEAT had dropped the Auto Emocion tag line. Think the Honda and Audi are the best ones.

Having sat in these sorts of meetings for a major food company I can confirm, you do discuss utter tosh. I'll never understand why they didn't progress with my snack box range sponsored by a famous person - Linford's Lunchbox!

PhilipGB

Audi's is genius, in fact I'd go so far as to say they are the best marketed cars there is. In no objectifiable way are they best in class (R8 and A2 aside, possibly even some of the S and RS models) but their image is incredible.

Nottm_S2

You see I think Audi make cars with nice interiors and anodyne driving experiences so never even look at them really. which is lazy of me.
Honda make mostly dull shit now . Toyota mostly make dull shit. Ford make chavvy shit.
never tried a Lexus..

these little taglines mean nothing to me really but I suppose they give insight to the thinking. in which case it feels like Honda shouldn't have one

chilled

VW, Audi and Apple are all alike. Simple uncluttered designs that are utterly inoffensive. And completely lacking in soul. But witness the R8 ad, and that just shows that their main genius lies in marketing.

Polemicist

S'funny but I consider the R8 advert' to be an admission by Audi the car looks uninteresting; to make it 'interesting' they have to pull a few panels off and expose the innards, rev' it up until the exhaust system glows.

Whilst the R8 is an undoubted technical tour de force, its contrived Audi styling DNA (especially at the front) ruins the overall package. And who would want their £100K supercar to look at all like a common or garden A3/A4/A5/A6?A7/A8 rep-mobile?

Montag

Agreed.

Bollocks to the lot of them.

Bring back Nicole, that's what I say.

chilled

That's exactly my point. If I had the money for an R8, I'd buy a 911 or Ferrari or Aston or McLaren or anything else. But for thirty seconds, hearing that lovely noise and watching the flames and glowing, it seems that the car has a soul. Then you're back in the real world and buy something else. Unless you're a footballer or other person completely lacking in imagination.

PhilipGB

To be fair if you know cars, you recognise the R8. If you don't know cars but you're a typical image conscious consumer whore you recognise the R8. If you don't know cars and aren't an image conscious consumer whore, who cares you drive a Kia.

But it has the illusion of being reserved and discretely elegant for your James Bond wannabe.

Polemicist

Ha Ha

There's nothing new in the world of Automotive BS...

Lada
Tough Cars Tame Prices

Who the hell thought of this?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJSYeqXHm38