Sorry Lincoln, I'm checking out the Subaru.

I live in Manhattan and haven't owned a car since I was a teen, so I usually don't notice car commercials.  But blogging about the new Lincoln campaign with Matthew McConaughey has caused me to tune in. 

While seeing that ad in situ hasn't made me any fonder of the campaign, I did see a local car ad for the Ford Fusion that mentioned some features that interested me.  And, it made me think that if I was in the market, I would probably follow-up, since I tend to be practical about these things.

Therefore it was a total surprise to me when I responded to an ad that was virtually fact free.  It's a new ad from Subaru featuring a flowerchild grandmom bonding with her granddaughter.   If you haven't seen it, you can check it out here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpKW1tUUiM

 

Since I do take great delight in corrupting all my nieces and nephews -- much to their parents dismay -- it's easy to see why it touched me.  But the fact that it would actually move me to follow-up blows my mind. 

I've been reading for years that research shows that all purchase decisions are emotional.  And, I've been preaching to my students that marketing is all about finding those emotional hot buttons and pressing them.   So why am I surprised to find that I am not the exception to the rule?

Will replacing female bimbos with female entrepreneurs be a successful strategy for GoDaddy?

GoDaddy built their name recognition by running sophomoric ads that left audiences guessing about what they actually did.  And it seemed pretty obvious that only men would bother to go to their website to find out.  (None of the women in my class had a clue.)

Perhaps they finally looked at the data showing that for the past 20 years women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men, and it occurred to them that they might actually want to reach out to women.  (MacNeil, 2012)

Last February,  after running their usual stuff on the Super Bowl they came out with an ad featuring a woman quitting her job.  Interesting.  Here it is in case you missed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf0vzLgF-OI

 I suspect it must have been successful since they just began a new campaign and the first commercial also features a woman.  (Baar, 2014) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwPovgpj7DI

I don't like it quite as much as the first one.  But I think that both are likely to generate more business than the suggestive/uninformative commercials they have been running.  Do you agree?
 
MacNeil, N. Entrepreneurship is The New Women's Movement.  forbes.com.  Retrieved September 18, 2014, from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/06/08/entrepreneurship-is-the-new-womens-movement/

Baar, A. (2014, September 16)  GoDaddy Tells Small Business Truths.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved September 18, 2014, from

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/234176/godaddy-tells-small-business-truths.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=76133
 

If you want to reach rich men, traditional media is still the best choice.

According to a new study from the Shullman Research Center, men with a household income of $500,000+ are more likely to see marketers' ads on tv, and in newspapers and magazines then on social media or YouTube.

Specially, 65% report seeing tv ads, 58% newspaper ads, and 50% magazine ads.  For new media, websites do best at 47%, followed by social media at 43% (tied with radio).  YouTube registers a disappointing 20%.  (Hoffmann, 2014)

 
Undoubtedly, there is a correlation with age as the percentage of young men with a HHI of $500K+ is probably fairly small.  But the message is the clear.  If you want to reach rich people, television is still the best place to do it, even though tv as a whole continues to skew older and more downscale. 

And the best show on tv to use may just be House Hunters International since HGTV delivers the most $100K+ households, and that particular show has a very low ad skip rate (16%) -- something that's very important given this group's high DVR penetration. (Perlberg, 2014)

So bring on the ads for luxury vacations -- 50% want to take one, including me.

 

Here's the blog I wrote last December about HGTV's delivery of $100K+ households.

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=50

 

Hoffmann, M. (2014, September 10)  How Having Higher Income Affects How Men Spend and Consume Media.  adweek.com.  Retrieved September 11, 2014, from

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-having-higher-income-affects-how-men-spend-and-consume-media-159963

 

Perlberg, S.  (2014, August 4)  Ad-Skipping Skews Upscale.  Wall Street Journal.  pB4

Is Matthew McConaughey hot enough to convince ladies to buy Lincolns?

With the number of women drivers in the U.S. surpassing the number of men as of 2010, car manufacturers have finally woken up to the fact that women can no longer be ignored.  Not only did they account for 39% of car purchases in 2013, but their behind the scenes influence is even greater.  Estimates are that they make the final decision on more than 60% of purchases, and have impact on anywhere from 85% - 95% of purchases.  But 91% of car salesmen are men, and 74% of women say they are being misunderstood. (Baime, 2014)

 

So what's a car maker to do?  Lincoln thinks the answer can be found in their decision to hire Matthew McConaughey to be their spokesperson.  The hope is that he will appeal to both the younger end of the target and yes, the females.  (Greenberg, 2014)

 

The campaign was launched this weekend with commercials on football, and this fall's new shows.  And if you think that college football is an odd place for Lincoln to try to reach women, you should know that 40% of college football fans are now female.  (2013)  And, Lincoln will also be running commercials on the Grammy's and print ads in Woman's Health and Vanity Fair too. 

Clearly they are sincere in their desire to reach women.  Now we'll have to see if they are successful.  Because this sure doesn't feel like a female targeted ad to me.
 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoGGDKV88Fg

 

Baime, A.J. (2014, August 21)  Car Sellers Refine Pitch to Women.  Wall Street Journal.  pD1 & D3

 

Greenberg, K. (2014, September 4)  McConaughey Behind the Wheel of Lincoln in 5 new ads.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved September 5, 2014, from

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/233426/mcconaughey-behind-the-wheel-of-lincoln-in-5-new-a.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=75815

 

(2013, March 19.)  Passion for College Football Remains Robust.  footballfoundation.org.  Retrieved September 5, 2014, from

http://www.footballfoundation.org/tabid/567/Article/53380/Passion-for-College-Football-Remains-Robust.aspx