Advertising & the new D3

**noddy** · 15th March 2005, 11:23 AM

I have been sitting back biting my lip, but I recently put a tooth through the bottom one, so....what the heck!

WHEN ARE LRA GOING TO START ADVERTISING THE NEW D3? :x

I have been thinking since the Overlander and 4x4 Australia awards that there is some great multi-media campaign about to start.....nah OK, some innovative ambush marketing?....nah, some efficient low cost advertising building momentum to the launch? Nah....I have given up making excuses to myself. LRA is ****e at marketing. Sorry guys.

Yeah, OK I saw my first advertisement for the new D3 (back cover of a 4x4 mag) last week. Yeah they have had the obligatory watering and feeding of the faithful in Sydney and Melbourne, dust off the old mailing list and send out some brochures. But please, in this day and age this does not constitute a state of the art marketing campaign aimed at winning back market share!

While the D3 has received more motoring awards than any other 4x4 in recent memory, the mass public would not have a clue about its existence.

Like good sheep heading to the shed, the target market are CURRENTLY queueing up at Nissan and Toyota and parting with their cash, happy to wait 3-4 months for their individually specced vehicle. Silence does not normally play a big roll in rounding up sheep.

Most people purchasing these types of vehicles do their homework, they shop around and are not in a huge hurry. People who are currently in the market would have little knowledge of the existence and availability of the D3. What knowledge they do have would not have come from a LRA marketing.

If Toyota, Nissan or Mitsubishi had been in a similar position you would be bombarded each night with television commercials, wake to the 'Golden Tonsils (J Laws) telling me how great the vehicle was and finally read full pages ads in the paper on the way to work. LRA?....nuttin.

Yeah, the fact that there is a lengthy waiting list for the vehicle is not ideal, but some innovative marketing could have turned that into part of a broader campaign. Anyone remember the launch of X-box? Anyone recently tried to buy a 20GB iPOD? (there has been no stock in the country since before Xmas!) Does it stop them from building the hype and interest in the product? Not on ya Nellie! Some of the most successful product launches in recent times have been based around long campaigns (months). 5-10 second snippets are used to attract attention and generate interest. Guess what? because of their length, they are really cheap.

I know no other car manufacturer has the marketing budget of Toyo, but good creative campaigns do not always have to cost the earth.

Toyota must be rolling on the floor with laughter....I cannot recall a LR mainstream televisions commercial since the Mikey Robbins/Bush Tucker Man campaign to run out the D2, probably close on 9-12 months ago.

If LRA do not have a sufficient marketing budget to launch probably the most important vehicle in the companies history, then the future does not look bright in terms of trying to wrestle back market share. The history of the automobile industry (and notably the Britishg industry) is littered with magnificent pieces of engineering and design that failed commercially because of not having the complete product marketing package.

My lip has stopped bleeding!!!! :wink:

**barney** · 15th March 2005, 04:49 PM

settle down and don't be so impatient.
at the launch the other night they said that the advertising was going to be fairly big and all done locally, should be hitting the media in early april, i think they said.
i should've listened harder

**noddy** · 15th March 2005, 05:13 PM

Impatient?? You cannot be serious.

If Toyota and Nissan had won what the D3 had you would have been hearing about it the next morning. By the time the ads commence it will be close on 3 mths since it won the Overlander award.

I only want to see LR regain some of the lost market share with the D3.

**one_iota** · 15th March 2005, 06:45 PM

The big opportunities have passed.

What has LR marketing done to get an idea of the potential market for the D3 in Oz? I would suggest zilch. If they want to capture the swinging 4wd driver then this time last year the hype should have begun and by now Solihul would be pumped up and extruding D3's at a rate of units that avoided a 5 month wait.

***** teasers [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

**KEV0044** · 15th March 2005, 06:47 PM

...

**Pedro_The_Swift** · 15th March 2005, 07:58 PM

Sorry Kev

The only way the buying public will know the D3 is better is if they READ/SEE/HEAR about it it.

just owning an LR should NOT be a prerequisite to BUYING another one,, :?

**Ace** · 15th March 2005, 08:33 PM

Originally posted by KEV0044
Land Rover Australia have a much smaller advertising budget .
Toyota and Nissan sell 'many more' vehicles by volume - and so - have a much larger budget for their sales team .
If a vehicle is really good - better than the rest - it shouldn't need much promotion to sell vehicles .
LRA - have never been strong in promotional areas -
Look at the Defender D90 - as a good example !
If it was promoted in a 'better light' - maybe there would be 'cause' to keep them on the showroom floors .
Now - you can't purchase a new D90 in OZ - - But I am sure there are many out there that would find this vehicle - - their 'perfect' solution .
More advertising and promotion from LRA ???
I very much doubt it .
Kev .

Not so Kev, the whole defender range is still available but they wont be keeping any in stock. The only way you can get one is to love them enough to order one without a test drive. Land Rover Dealers have to purchase all the stock they put on the showroom floor, they dont get them on consignment like other dealers. If you want one, you tell your dealer what you want, what goodies you want on it, and then wait. If you wonder where this came from, it came directly from a LR employees mouth. Matt

**discomaniac** · 15th March 2005, 09:00 PM

I must admit that I do most of my research on the net when ever I am buying anything substantial. I have been collecting bits and pieces of information on the D3 for about 18 months now. (early spy shots onwards). Also, I am an existing Discovery owner wanting to upgrade (3 years are up on the last one).

Landrover can't keep up with the demand now and it's not even available yet. There has been huge amout of space on write ups in Daily Newspapers and 4x4 magazines over the last 12 Months, all of little cost to LRA.

If LRA wanted wide exposure for little or no cost on release date, they should leak some waiting times and comments from a few frustrated buyers waiting for 5 Months for Delivery. Then put a positive spin on it, get it on front page of papers and on the 6 o'clock TV News. Priceless.

Doesn't help me though, I'm one of the silly buggers waiting 5 Months for a TDV6 that I haven't even been able to test drive yet. (if it goes half as good as the V8, I'll be one happy little Disco 3 Driver)

That's my bit!! :x

**Ace** · 15th March 2005, 09:02 PM

What is the waiting list on the petrol v6 and the V8? Mattt

**PCH** · 15th March 2005, 09:55 PM

The Disco3 waiting list is probably around 4-5 months from time of ordering. This seems to be the norm according to the forums in the US & UK. HSE's in these markets are certianly hard to get unless you preorder or are really lucky someone cancels and the spec of the cancelled vehicle is what you want.

I agree with Discomaniac the Disco 3 is selling faster than they can be delivered so why would you spend money on advertising. Newspapers, car and 4WD magazines are doing free publicity for LRA so why spend more money than you need to frustrate buyers with long waiting lists.

Spending between $60K-$100K on a vehicle requires a lot of research on the net to find out everything you can and LR advertising isn't going to help here. The net has been a powerful tool in convincing me that the Disco 3 is the 4WD for me and at least I'm aware (maybe not prepared) of problems with vehicles in the UK and US - I reckon fancy LR adverts won't tell me any of the problems that you can find in LR forums.

Chris

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