Volvo’s Revolution

It’s incredible. About a week or two ago I read a small blurb in “Media” about Volvo’s new car. It’s supposedly nothing like any other car on the road today and is a big change for Volvo car style. But that’s not what’s kept my mind awing for the past two weeks. It’s their campaign!

Instead of revealing small teasers of the car for the next months to entice consumers, they came up with a revolutionary concept. What Volvo did was bring in an artist to paint the car. Not impressed? How about this, the artist, Esref Armagan,  has been blind since birth! Mr Armagan was invited to Sweden to get a feel for the car, literally.

Using a technique he created, Armagan feels every aspect of the car and sketches it out on paper. He then uses clay to pay lines along the sketch to know when to alternate colors. He paints with his fingers, having no way of knowing if paint were ion the brush he was using and follows the clay guides he creates for himself. The result? A work of art, literally!

Check out the teaser…

tank top

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmKsWpkRGE

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Knowledge is Power

 

The “New” Face of Starbucks

I’d like to preface this by going on the record as being a Starbucks drinker.

Starbucks has announced their campaign re-design in an effort to, as they explain, “finally tell the world their story.” I think it’s convenient (and actually quite smart) for this “story” to be launched now. Now, when America (and most of the Starbucks drinking world) is at a point of squeezing what they can from their their pockets while the economy re-establishes itself. The new ad design is centered around of theme of “quality not quantity,” implying its okay to pay a little more for good coffee.

I guess I’m a bit conflicted about this campaign. On one hand, the timing and approach of this campaign is extremely smart. In times of economic crisis, triggering the emotional side of a consumer is a sure-fire approach–appealing to the desire for quality. Emphasizing your company’s involvement with third world countries, the effort you put into each and every cup of coffee to make it the very best, etc. You want to make people feel good about drinking a $5 cup of coffee; make it worth it; make them “better people.”

On the other hand, manipulation is probably the ideal word here. Is it right to justify their coffee prices by explaining their story? Wouldn’t the “right” approach be to lower their prices? Perhaps cut their ad budget from nearly $800 million dollars?

Is Starbucks walking the fine line of advertising and ethics is an affort to raise profit margin? Or are they so strong that this can only increase their already dominating market share?