Archive for February, 2011|Monthly archive page
New Selling Line for Kindle Communication
Filed under: e-reader, Strategy | Tags: Amazon, e-readers, kindle
Comments (1) The new Kindle ad features a new tagline – “The book lives on”:
Two interesting strategic elements come out of this spot.
First, Kindle keeps taking on iPad and tablets. It’s not only the glare, but the weight, the battery life, the coolness as portrayed by the look and feel of the spot. Kindle fully dominates the market for dedicated e-readers and electronic books. But it is threatened on the long term by multimedia content and multi-purpose tablets. It’s a classic case where a dominant player needs to establish/extend/defend the category, rather than being concerned with in-category competitors.
Only partly linked with this is the tag-line, which I think shows how Amazon thinks about books. Their bet is on electronic books, not on paper. That is again fully logical, since with Kindle they fully lock their customers, while the same is not happening with paper books. I also fully believe in the death of the physical book on the longer term (with some survivors like albums etc.), but that is not necessarily the main point here. This is about controlling the platform consumers will consume media on in the future and thus getting a commission out of every sale – eventually e-readers and tablets will converge. If I’d be Amazon, I’d lower Kindle prices even more. They would more than make up for that in the future.
Geographical Positioning (in car brand communication)
Some interesting strategic choices in the Superbowl last week:
- a BMW “designed in America, built in America”:
A bit ironic, taking into account how hard the Americans are trying to be German:
An older dedicated post about Buick’s positioning here.
- totally different approach by Chrysler:
With “Imported from Detroit” as a selling line and Eminem as spokesperson. They seem to be taking the national airline approach (as in promoting the country of origin), transforming the dealership into embassies for Detroit.
This begs a few comments. From a purely rational point of view it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Detroit is hardly a reason-to-believe for luxury. The fact that the deep voice over states that itself in the ad doesn’t make it either. Nor are hard working people suggesting luxury. Nor do Eminem or the footage taken from the city – although it’s a very romanticized Detroit.
On the other hand, it does establish a clear positioning (first to claim in communication and with a proud tone of voice), seems to be making good usage of Eminem (which is definitely a stronger brand than Chrysler at this moment), does a good job of using tradition as a way to convey quality, makes maximum use of production. And maybe it’s not really luxury that they want to communicate, but more luxury for ‘hard working people’ (read lower income, affordable luxury etc.). It also caters to the national sentiment, in a nicer and more sentimental way I’d say than the above BMW’s “Built in America”.
We need some time to tell if this is a good initiative. Are they going to stick with it in the longer term? A brand to follow.
Acura is joining the team with a more earthly approach. Not very interesting, but fits the subject:
A Revolution in Shopping? Adidas Virtual Wall
I salute Adidas for this initiative:
“Can I help you? – Just looking…” is probably the most clicheed exchange in stores. And when you truly want information, sales people in stores are not necessarily the most knowledgeable. Nor can brands control what they say about the their products. And yes, we do need people to help us decide, but this might just allow them to focus on closing the sale.
Digital kiosks are not new, but until now they were not really appealing to shoppers. The video above seems to signal a change.
