Design blog Cool Hunting got a chance to check out the Lexus/Fairmont Hybrid Living Suites, and were quite impressed by what they saw:

It’s rare, but sometimes brand as curator actually works. [Lexus’] lifestyle marketing efforts succeeds where others don’t by leading the way in the burgeoning field of eco-luxury with style and attention to detail. In a word, it’s good.

Best of all, they took some photos of the coffee table covered in the leather of castoff Lexus’:

There’s plenty of details in Cool Hunting’s write-up, the suite designer Kelly LaPlante went to great lengths to create something special, and from the photos, I’d say she succeeded.

Autoweek has a story about Lexus’ latest grassroots marketing campaign, and it’s much more than teaming up with the Fairmont Hotel chain to create the “hybrid-living suites”:

For a more routine hotel stay, Lexus owners at 13 other boutique hotels receive $100 vouchers for dining and spa services. Those hotels also will offer no-charge access to Lexus vehicles to test drive.

“We don’t want to deviate too far from cars, but in the middle of the ownership cycle, we can’t just abandon our customers and make the dealer do all the work,” Bolain said.

Lexus also is launching a concierge service that informs owners of local food, wine and golf events sponsored by Lexus.

Then there are the little things that seem big. For instance, Lexus has made a deal with National CineMedia to offer private screenings of upcoming blockbuster movies. This summer, Lexus owners in select cities can see an advance showing of Indiana Jones–complete with dinner and popcorn–at no charge.

“It’s just our way of saying thanks for being a customer,” Bolain said.

Put this alongside the initiative to create a more involving dealership experience, Lexus is certainly looking to grow their brand beyond just “a company that sells cars” to an active part of their customer’s lifestyle. There’s a real appeal to the direction, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go with it.

I’ll admit, when it was first announced that Lexus would be dropping the Taste of Lexus event, it had me scratching my head, I wasn’t entirely sure of the logic. But between this and the new Lexus Performance Driving Academy, Taste of Lexus was on the verge of becoming redundant anyway.

Rather than a national TV campaign, Lexus has decided to bring the IS-F to the big screen, using movie cinemas to advertise the new super-sedan:

Brian Bolain, national interactive automotive events manager, says the F campaign will not use national TV ads at all. He says the cinema focus was appropriate because in no other medium could Lexus be guaranteed delivery of a full, directional audio. “The dynamics of the vehicle have to come across. [With in-cinema ads] you can play with surround-sound [to show] that the car is gigantic.”

“It was very important that this creative look and feel nothing like traditional Lexus advertising,” he says. “Typically, everything we do is light, and very refreshing; this needed to be more aggressive and menacing,” he says.

Bolain says that although there will be no national broadcast ads for F, “dealers liked the cinema ads so much that they asked that we create a broadcast spot. We took three fifteens and glued them together to make thirty,” eliminating repetitive text and footage.

Each ad will be 15 seconds long, and will play between the other, longer advertisements shown before a movie.

[Source: Marketing Daily]

The new Lexus Power of H commercial debuted yesterday, and today has surfaced on Youtube:

After reading the synopsis released a couple days ago, I wasn’t sure how the commercial was going to pan out, but the idea is fairly strong and well executed. Most important is that Lexus has moved away from touting the “green” features of hybrids, there isn’t an environmental tone at all. At first, this confused me, I wasn’t sure what the commercial was actually saying, but I was looking at it the wrong way. The general public already knows about hybrid technology and its benefits, but they might not realize how many hybrids Lexus has available. This is really about brand awareness, not technology awareness.

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Also, just a note about Youtube videos — I’ve gotten some emails from people digging through my archives only to find that Lexus commercials and video clips are no longer available due to copyright infringement. There isn’t much I can do about this, save hosting the videos myself, and all that would do is bring Lexus’ lawyers to my doorstep. My advice is watch early, you never know when the clip is going to disappear.

Focusing on the importance of the letter H, the new Lexus hybrid marketing campaign starts today. Here’s the synopsis, from Lexus’ press release:

The multi-platform campaign, which debuts today, communicates Lexus’ hybrid leadership and highlights the significance of h on a Lexus vehicle—which distinguishes hybrid from non-hybrid vehicles and symbolizes Lexus’ commitment to alternative power train solutions. It is part of a core belief that technology can make anything happen and is a catalyst for change.

The TV commercial presents a glimpse into a world without h. The h is missing from key landmarks, computer keyboards and the alphabet in schools. The viewer begins to wonder where the h has gone. Then they see, it has moved to a better place, a world with the Lexus hybrid—a place that looks forward and believes in change. There is no better place for an h to be than on the rear badging of a Lexus hybrid vehicle.

All the advertising points to a new Lexus mini-site, which isn’t just a vehicle showcase, but also a guide to environmental living and a gateway to an official Lexus hybrid forum hosted by Yahoo!. What’s interesting is that the forum has existed since 2006, though it’s unclear if it’s been official all this time, or simply appropriated.

I also spotted a couple teaser adverts online:

I’ll follow up once we see the commercial online.

Here’s the full press release

Mentioned in the Lexus’ LX 570 marketing presentation, the Driver Empowered LX mini-site is now live.

The site’s jam-packed with video footage extolling the SUV’s capabilities. Of particular note is the 360° tour, which manages to inject an infusion of character and presence that has been lacking in images seen so far.

An interesting sidebar, some of these videos have been posted on Youtube by Lexus, using its brand-new, three-day-old account. I’ve included them here, but would recommend watching the much larger versions on the site itself.

Active Height Control/Adaptive Variable Suspension Demo

Watch the rest of the videos

The Auto Network has served up another Lexus presentation, this time a full blown dissertation about the IS-F. This presentation, along with the previously noted LX 570 breakdown, took place in Point Clear, Alabama, and provided the automotive press with an opportunity to learn about the vehicles to an extraordinary level of detail.

The first IS-F video is an introduction, most notable due to its alternative viewpoint as to where the “F” designation started (the other version states the “F” comes from the Fuji Speedway) and its assertion that the IS-F shifts faster than a Ferrari F430:

The second part, presented by Charles Hubbard of Lexus College, is easily the most detailed technical breakdown of the IS-F that I’ve seen or read:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal has an article up about the increasingly lavish Lexus dealerships that are popping up all over the United States. It’s an in-depth and enjoyable article, detailing not only the amenities but explaining the logistics behind such large investments:

The Lexus of Palm Beach dealership moved from a much smaller, older facility a few miles away to a building that cost $35 million to construct, about four times what dealers typically spent on upscale showrooms 10 to 15 years ago…In November, the first full month of operation, the store sold 335 new vehicles, making it the fifth-largest Lexus dealer in the U.S. A year ago, it sold 199 and ranked 25th.

For the past few years, Lexus has offered deals under which it will allocate more cars to dealers that upgrade their facilities. For the $35 million investment in its new showroom, AutoNation’s Palm Beach can order 2,000 cars on top of its normal allocation over the next 18 months or so. That leaves room for a lot of growth. Last year, the store sold 2,710 new cars.

Well, it takes money to make money.

A great article, to be sure.

(The photo above is Lexus of Santa Monica, California.)

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

Nancy Fein, Lexus’ Vice-President of Customer Services, recently gave a talk at the Source Media Customer Engagement Symposium, where she discussed how Lexus reacts when things go wrong. Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company and business author, was at the event and recapped the presentation:

…what happens when big dreams get mugged by reality? That’s what Nancy Fein addressed in her talk. As soon as the first Lexus 400 sedans hit the market, she said, the company learned that there were three minor technical problems with the car.

So more than 300 Lexus officials organized into small groups and traveled to all parts of the country. They visited the affected customers at home, brought them a gift, apologized for the glitches in person, and, of course, brought along a technician who fixed the problems. On the spot. In their driveways.

A familiar story, but I was very interested to read about a more current event:

Last year, another small problem developed with a Lexus model—this time, the new ES 350 sedan. Something about the transmission skipping second gear and slipping from first to third. (Don’t ask for more details, I’m not a car guy.) The problem affected about 700 cars before the Lexus factories fixed it. This time, rather than visit customers at their homes, Lexus did ask them to visit their dealer. But instead of just fixing the problem, Lexus gave all the affected customers a brand new car. No questions asked.

Being as how a faulty transmission is a fairly significant repair, having dealers swap the cars with new ones has to be the most effective response that I can think of. With no time lost by the owner, there’s no bad feelings, no backlash. Even better, Lexus can repair the affected vehicles and then resell them at a slight discount.

Very smart.

[Source: Havard Business Online]

Rather than the mass-media marketing campaign expected with the release of a new vehicle, the Lexus IS-F will be promoted in a different fashion — letting potential customers test drive the car on race tracks across the United States:

Lexus will try and lure in buyers at the track, said Brian Bolain, Lexus’ national manager of interactive marketing and automotive events.

“The typical Lexus buyer is not going to be persuaded into an IS-F,” Bolain said. “It’s for someone who wants power and control. We are going to focus heavily on driving opportunities.”

Bolain said that Lexus’ performance credentials have fallen short of its European rivals and that many luxury car buyers see Lexus cars as quality vehicles but don’t rate it as a high-performance enthusiast car.

“We have a lot of ground to make up,” Bolain said.

This is a smart move, every IS-F review written so far has heaped accolades onto its track performance, and letting performance enthusiasts experience that themselves is bound to create some real interest.

These test driving events will happen at five race tracks, including the oft-mentioned Laguna Seca Raceway, with some additional street driving events thrown in for good measure.

[Via: EGMCarTech]