The Homa Files

Excerpted from Marketing Daily, “U.S. Now 3rd-Best Market For Smart ForTwo Car” by Karl Greenberg, December 1, 2008

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The ultra-diminutive Smart car still draws stares, but it isn’t as rare a bird as it used to be.

The Smart ForTwo car has been on sale in the U.S. for 10 months now…the U.S. is now the third-highest sales market for the 10-year-old ForTwo, behind Germany and Italy…since it began selling them in February, it has sold over 20,000 ForTwos through October.

Smart has eschewed advertising, relying instead on grassroots efforts, word-of-mouth and PR events…And the company still funnels prospects for the $11,990-$16,990 cars to a Web site launched last year, where consumers can reserve a car for $99…the company now has 73 “Smart Center” retail outlets in 35 states…about two-thirds are partnered with Mercedes-Benz dealers…

“We have always said our demographics are based on attitude and lifestyle, not income…the company is aiming to appeal to four demographic targets: baby boomers wanting a second or third car; empty nesters; people in large urban areas, “whose age could range from 18 to 80,” and first-time buyers.

“We are seeing a pretty even split across these groups in terms of who is buying the vehicles”…Smart will adhere to a no-advertising policy, focusing instead on online reservations, social networking, and discovery marketing…Next year, Smart will engage dealers to run promotions, and will begin to do owner events…

The car is selling strongly in New York, Los Angeles, the Pacific Northwest, South Florida and even Texas, as well as in large Midwestern cities.

Edit by SAC

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The Smart car has come to the US at the right time as more Americans seek smaller, fuel efficient vehicles. It isn’t surprising that Smart appeals to a range of targets and with the very low hurdle rate of a $99 reservation fee nearly anyone can go online to customize and reserve their very own Smart car.  Especially when the fee is refundable at anytime. 

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Full Article:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=95741

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This entry was posted on December 3, 2008 at 6:49 am and is filed under Autos - Travel, Environment - Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.