Postmarketing: Why Lexus ads make me queezy

This post relates to the Postmarketing presentation.  Check it out.

With all due respect to the quality of Lexus automobiles, Lexus ads now make me queezy.  Do you remember those Holiday ads with the red bow around the Lexus?  Honestly, how many of you have bestowed a $50,000 Christmas present on a loved one (without any twinge of buyer's remorse)?

But since we're all being open with one another here, I didn't begin to feel this way until sometime last summer - when the economy started tanking.  Why?  Because I was used to luxury, and I was used to luxury being marketed to me.  I haven't owned a car without leather seats in years (my Accord even has seat-warmers!).  I expected Ritz Carlton-level service everywhere I went, and whined when I didn't get it.  I looked at a house with 3 garages last year, and justified what I might do with the 3rd bay (didn't buy it - whew!).  This is not because I had some great windfall of cash - rather, it was because we had all come to expect that we can afford (and even deserve) luxury, and we had a seemingly endless windfall of credit to pay for it.  Luxury had been commoditized.

That was last year.  Now, luxury is being returned to its rightful place among people who can afford it (with cash) and, even there, luxury is having a rough go of it.  Luxury is not only expensive again, but it's out of style... said another way, Less is the new More.

The implications for marketers are profound.  How do you market less?  Green marketers have certainly led the way on this, although even green marketing to-date has been "more - and green too!".  I believe the path forward is simple: market genuine value (thanks to Chris Grams and David Burney for blazing this trail at Red Hat).

In order to avoid being irrelevant (or, worse, nauseating), marketers must focus on truthful, straightforward messaging about the actual value of their products & services.  Slathering on generous amounts of luxury positioning was an easy cheat during the boom - but it wreaks of excess & consumption in the postmarketing world.

It would be a luxury for me if you commented on this post - please indulge!

Comments

[Chris Grams]

Thanks for the shout out, Todd! You are right-- all this luxury marketing is already disappearing. Was watching TV last night and saw one of the ads for the new Apple laptops, where they were positioning them as the "greenest" laptops. Seems like marketing to people's desire for luxury is being replaced by marketing to their need for "self-actualization." Driven by stuff like: I want to be more environmentally-responsible, I want to be happier, I want to simplify my life, etc... Luxury will be back though, it always is...