Excerpted from New York Times, “With the Car Industry in Trouble, Nissan Rolls Out the Mobile Device”, by Stuart Elliott, April 5, 2009
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Nissan Motors is betting an estimated $20 million that a spirited campaign can get drivers to purchase the Nissan Cube–a cute, smallish car scheduled to go on sale on May 5.
And scratch the word “car,” for the campaign to introduce the Cube in the United States refers to the vehicle as a “mobile device.”
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The phrase, borrowed from the digital domain, signals that the intended market for the Cube is younger drivers. It also signals the focus of the campaign: presenting the Cube as a part of a fun, busy life that can be customized and personalized as easily as a cellphone ring tone or a Facebook page.
To underscore all that, the campaign borrows terms from technology like “search engine,” “browse,” “storage capacity,” “add friends” and “set preferences” to describe features of the Cube. And the media mix skews decidedly toward nontraditional elements like iPhone games, wallpapers, text messaging, the Internet and MP3 downloads.
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The Cube is entering a crowded category of the depressed auto market composed of niche models meant as emotional purchases rather than rational. Such cars are intended to attract attention for unusual design rather than horsepower, bling or fuel economy.
Nissan comments, “This is a tough time to bring anything out, whether a car or a new TV. So we decided we wouldn’t think about it as a car,” he added, but rather “position it as designed to bring young people together — like every mobile device they have.”
Edit by DAF
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Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/business/media/06adco.html?ref=media&pagewanted=print
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