Infiniti Marketing – The Mistakes They Are Making
This week is Monterey car week and this video is a classic car round table.
The first thing the host says is that the talk is “Powered by Infiniti”. This type of marketing lingo is typical of Infiniti at the moment and it shows the marketing guys have no clue about cars.
I think Honda were the first company to really use this term, the difference with Honda’s use is that “Powered by Honda” was on the engine cover of a Mclaren F1 car that was powering Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna to world championships.
The term “Powered by Honda” actually meant something, it had significance, at the time and in history.
Infiniti on the other hand devalue the term by using it to get their name on video for a discussion.
It is things like this which shows the guys and girls in the Infiniti marketing department have no idea of the significance of the term they are using, where it was used and this shows they are marketing types and not drivers.
Not only is this unfortunate for people who have the engine cover of Prost’s and Senna’s Mclaren’s burnt into their mind but again, it shows the Infiniti marketing department has no substance.
To give another example of something that shows Infiniti’s complete lack of understanding of motorsport and it’s significance as a marketing tool is their sponsorship of Red Bull.
Infiniti is sponsoring a car that uses no Infiniti parts. The Infiniti marketing department is completely missing the point and more than that, they are turning off true petrol heads.
But who cares about petrol heads?
Look at your halo models, your RS4’s, your BMW M5’s, your Focus RS.
These cars are not there to make money, they are there to get petrol heads talking about your brand because petrol heads are the ones writing car magazines, the ones making car videos, the ones putting on shows and the ones setting the agenda in the car industry. In short, Joe Public will go out and buy a 530D because a petrol head has said the M5 is an amazing machine.
No self respecting journalist is going to be bigging up Infiniti because it’s adverstising grates so much to petrol heads.
Without wanting to labour the point.
Infinti using the term “Powered by” to descirbe a round table discussion grates.
and Infiniti sposnsoring an F1 team without suppying the engine or chassis grates.
Any journialist that pumps up Infiniti would be putting their credibility on the line because of all of this shallow and fluffy marketing that goes behind their products.
Infinti are going to have to come up with a pretty spectacular car to overcome all of the scepticism created by the questionable marketing techniques.
Do not get me wrong, I like Infiniti, I like their products but I consider myself a serious driver which makes it impossible for me to consider driving an Infiniti.
Honestly, I would be more likely to consider an Infiniti without all the marketing, I would consider a Toyota for example because they are not trying to be something they are not.
For Infiniti to turn their marketing around they need to start supplying engines to Red Bull and stop supplying the stickers.
They need to stop using historically significant terms like “Powered by” until they at least do some powering.
