What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where the CAR companies are hipper than the record companies?<\/p>\n
In yesterday’s "Wall Street Journal" it was reported that "Scion is discontinuing the six-CD-changer option in its models and moving to iPod connectivity instead."<\/p>\n
You know the Scion, right?\u00c2\u00a0 That box that drives down the boulevard next to you with the volume pumping out?\u00c2\u00a0 As Jill Sobule told me, the one that looks like a TOASTER?\u00c2\u00a0 One of the hippest automobiles on the road, and that’s not the only model in the line.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not only youngsters buying them, even though Toyota, worried that their main brand was aging and kids no longer thought it was hip, established Scion to appeal to the younger demo.\u00c2\u00a0 Oldsters LOVE the toaster, and buy it too.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you think these oldsters buy CDs, never mind the YOUNGSTERS??<\/p>\n
In an era when even CHEVROLET installs AUX inputs in their autos, allowing you to plug in your iPod, HOW FUCKING LONG DO YOU THINK THE CD HAS LEFT??<\/p>\n
You remember the car companies.\u00c2\u00a0 Still selling 8-tracks when the world had gone cassette.\u00c2\u00a0 Still plying cassette decks when CDs ruled.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, even LEXUS was outfitting its cars with cassette decks in the early days of this century.\u00c2\u00a0 But car companies can no longer sleep on their feet, they have to deliver what the public wants, or risk going out of business\/bankruptcy, like Ford and GM.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Tower Records.\u00c2\u00a0 Or the record labels.<\/p>\n
What the fuck happens when the CD expires, sooner rather than later, with all the indicators staring the industry in the face.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think business will be replaced by sales at the iTunes Store?\u00c2\u00a0 If so, you didn’t read the latest statistics, that despite iPods flying out the door, song downloads have FLATTENED!<\/p>\n
And then there’s the strange case of the Mini.\u00c2\u00a0 How BMW has managed to take a completely impractical automobile and have a raging success.\u00c2\u00a0 What do they attribute this to?\u00c2\u00a0 BRAND MANAGEMENT!<\/p>\n
From today’s "New York Times":<\/p>\n
\n"There was no national television advertising and the car was promoted primarily on the Internet, in ads painted on city buildings and on cards handed out at auto shows."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In other words, BMW\/Mini made sure the car was COOL!\u00c2\u00a0 Not seen as a mass market item, but a machine for hipsters.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of doing the saturation marketing of the record labels, imbuing the product with a stink that lasts forever, BMW\/Mini entered public consciousness from the ground up, via alternative methods.\u00c2\u00a0 And is there anybody who isn’t familiar with the brand?\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, the campaign WORKED!<\/p>\n
But it gets better.\u00c2\u00a0 BMW\/Mini limited sales to 25,000 a year.\u00c2\u00a0 Toyota sold double this number of Camrys in September!\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas Volkswagen sold 83,000 Beetles in 1999, and then sales tanked.\u00c2\u00a0 A Beetle cool?\u00c2\u00a0 COME ON!<\/p>\n
Just because you can sell a ton now that doesn’t mean you SHOULD!\u00c2\u00a0 Because the more you saturate the market, the shorter the shelf life of your product.\u00c2\u00a0 You alienate early adopters.\u00c2\u00a0 You end up with the lowest common denominator, the least hip people who follow a dead trend, causing the others to RUN!\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, once your prepubescent little sister loves the act you’re DONE WITH IT!<\/p>\n
\nCar Audio Faces the Music<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n