The Kmiec Ramblings

This is a good reminder to us all that online video impressions are great, but if that’s all there is, we have a problem.

Is the most effective…

Lexus owners have always made me laugh…well just a little bit. If you break down the luxury market you get the following:

1. BMW
2. Audi
3. Lexus
4. Infiniti
5. Acura
6. Mercedes Benz
7. Jaguar
8. Cadillac
9. Saab
10. Volvo

When I say luxury I don’t mean Bentley That’s a whole different market. So let’s split the above into two categories:

1. Independant (not part of a car franchise or owned by a holding company)
2. Non-Independant (owned by a holding company)

If we do that you get this:

1. Independany: BMW, Mercedes Benz
2. Non-Independant: Audi (Volkswagen), Lexus (Toyota), Infiniti (Nissan), Acura (Honda), Jaguar (Ford), Cadillac (General Motors), Saab (General Motors), Volvo (Ford)

In the non-independant segment many of the luxury cars borrow from and/or built on similar platforms as their non-luxury brethren. In other words, many times the same guts of a car can be found in a cheaper make and model.

What I don’t understand is why anyone would pay more for the same car just to get the logo. So let’s pick on Lexus owners because they are really easy targets.

Specifically let’s look at the Lexus ES 350 and the Toyota Camry XLE. The following is a compariosn form CarsDirect.com that compares the 2008 model years.

On the high end of the pricing, you get to pay just over $11,000 for a Gold “L” and 4 extra horse-power. Yeah that makes a lot sense Yet, you ask a Lexus owner why they didn’t just get the Toyota version and you’ll hear a variety responses none of which make any sense. Look, if you want to drop a extra 11K because you have that money sitting around, cool! Good for you. But, don’t try and convince me or anyone else that you aren’t essentially driving a Toyota.

Well I guess we know the value of that gold “L” now…$11,000. And let me say, that’s $11,000 well spent.

Sometimes I find that there is more ego and bullshit at the agency than there was on the client side. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have…

You’re conditioned to be simple about everything you do on the client side because you don’t have the resources in place to go 17 feet deep on everything. Bridge Worldwide had a great philosophy in place when we were working together. They believed that there were 2 types of projects:

1. Just Do It: They recognize that sometimes you just need to get “it” done. The project doesn’t require 3 weeks of serious concepting or some amazing strategic approach. A lot of the time the project isn’t even someting the client wants to do; but they HAVE to do. For an agency,we should grab these projects quickly and get them off our plate quickly. If we focus too much on a just do it project we won’t be able to fairly invest time against projects that actually matter.

2. The Right Way: These are the ones that need to have the full monty. You get the strategy, the insights, the significant time on concepting, etc. These are the money makers.

I can get why it’s hard for “creatives” to essentially not give their all on a project. Hell it’s hard for all of us not to give our best effort. But, the payoff for doing that is much greater, because we can give more attention to the things that will pay out in the long run.

When they start copying you, you know the work is good.

Great ad: smart, fun, and a little naughty.