The new lifestyle brand? Seems like Lexus is more than a car name these days. It looks like there's a lot of positioning going on to make the L-word stand for a whole set of lifestyle values.
Example 1: There's a hotel suite at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco that's called the Fairmont Lexus Hybrid Suite - as you can imagine, an elegant and tasteful AND GREEN place for people to stay. They used an Organic Interior Designer who even fashioned the coffee table/ottoman out of the leather from Lexus's that were on their way to engine design school as something for the students to study. Of course, they were going to be studying the engines, not the seats, so the leather got recycled into a coffee table. Because it's all about caring about your environment and the earth. One car seat at a time. Although I can't help thinking that you put Lexus, Fairmont and decor all in the same sentence and you don't immediately think of cutting costs. You can even watch a short video of the redesigning of the suite at the next example of the burgeoning world of Lexus.
Example 2: How about your own web hub with bits of promo (the Lexus Hybrid Suite at the Fairmont, the 'animal' inside the Lexus engine, etc, etc) and original programming. Celebrities and their dogs in little episodes of a web series by Amy B. Harris of Sex & the City fame. A special series with Lisa Kudrow as a shrink, with celebrity clients. Interviews, original series, mini documentaries..
See for yourself at http://lstudio.lexus.com
Example 3: The Lexus magazine which is also online at lexus.com with original fiction, reviews, articles etc. Big yawn. Not all that cutting edge. It's what everyone's doing... except NOW (well 2 days ago actually) they've got together with TIME and American Express Publishing to offer readers a way to put together their own 36 page magazine (with four full page ads from Lexus) drawn from the two partners' extensive magazine titles such as Time, Sports Illustrated, Food and Wine, Instyle, etc.
You have to answer seemingly random questions (Do you prefer pizza or sushi?) which is probably some very-sophisticated-but-doesn't-look-like-it pyschological test. And then pick your magazines to compile into your own. You could go to www.timecmg.com/mine/ but it you're not a US citizen you don't get the free magazine.
It's being hailed as a shake-up of the way magazines are read and a truly interactive move for an industry that appears to be in a bit of a decline.
However...
If you want to check out a really cool commercial, look at the "CARDS" spot for the Es at lexus.com - it uses over 100,000 playing cards (honest) and a card-stacker guy with a really cool behind the scenes...
dammit, they're sucking me into that whole lifestyle brand thing. And worst of all, I already drive a Lexus!
beats the old bmw coin on engine ad
Posted by: daniel hurley | March 31, 2009 at 03:55 PM