Burnsmarketing.comAccording to AdFreak, we're not the only ones who twitch whenever that abominable Saved by Zero commercial comes on. (You know which one we're talking about. The one we dissed a few weeks ago.)
Now we can look forward to seeing it for at least another weekend, as Toyota extended the campaign through Sunday. Nothing like giving people more of what they DON'T want, right?
Toyota dealers insist the ad is effective, which means your area Toyota lot could run it forever on local cable. But we suspect it's the 0% pricing promotion that's driving traffic – not the ad. We also suspect a lot more people might consider a new Honda once the economy turns around.
As marketers, why can't we strive to please both groups equally? When we involve customers in our brands, they're more likely to buy our stuff. And whey they buy our stuff, our sales numbers go up, making franchisees happy. It ought to be that easy, right?
Like I mentioned in the post, I believe turning customers off could have lasting consequences for the Toyota brand. And I would guess that the ubiquity of this über-annoying ad is a knee-jerk reaction to appease the dealers in this down economy – not a strategic approach to building Toyota's equity among car buyers.
(We are reaching the point where I am two weeks away from stopping by my local Toyota dealership, buying a brand-new Toyota Tundra with zero APR financing, driving the car off the lot, doing a U-turn, then plowing it through the front window of the dealership at 60 mph while screaming, "SAVED BY ZERO," like the guys from "Red Dawn" screamed, "WOLVERINES!" Cut down on the ads, Toyota. We're not kidding. You know why you haven't see John Mellencamp in two years? He's trapped in the basement of some frustrated baseball fan who dressed him like the Gimp and keeps him in a trunk after hearing "Our Country" for the 700,000th time. Look, we're all ecstatic that the guys from the Fixx are getting royalties again. Just tone it down. We get it. Zero APR financing. Heard you loud and clear.)