Hi Guys,

Went to NY Auto Show 2015 today and MINI was NOT there !! I couldn't find them and finally I asked this woman at the BMW desk and she was like "Oh, MINI is not at the auto show as their focus is on blah blha blah .." and basically she had some weird reason and that I couldn't pay attention to because I was so disappointed.

Was MINI at any of the other auto shows this year? What is the reason for NOT attending? This is a huge disappointment to me as I got my first MINI in late November and I always loved going to the MINI section at the NY auto show.

 

http://www.motoringfile.com/2015/03/...nyc-auto-show/

 

It's a shame that BMW/MINI usually only bring new models. I visited the Richmond Auto Show two weeks ago and they only had one MINI, the new 4-door cooper.

 

There were maybe 4 or 6 MINIs at the indianapolis show back in December, but they were just cars parked on a section of carpet. No display...just cars....no reps. This has been the trend at the Indy car show over the last several years though. The only maker that had any sort of major display was Ford (to show the f150 and mustang).

My guess is that there is an industry shift. Folks shop for cars differently nowadays and automakes save their money and displays for only the really big shows that get lots of press....like Detroit.

 

Auto shows are a dying breed....
$$$$ and of limited use IMO...
The money is better spent on other uses....remember, mini has smaller budgets due to smaller number of cars sold....
So displaying a car at a show is a bigger $$ on a per car basis....
$$ can simply be spent in more effective ways....

 

I agree with ZippyNH. Car shows were a huge deal and the way to introduce cars in the 1950's when American manufacturers changed the styling of cars every year and there were few options of media to promote your product. Today, things are much different and small manufacturers have to spend their marketing budget in ways to achieve the biggest benefit. Cars show may not meet that criteria today.

Somewhere, on the internet, I read a story stating why MINI made the decision to pull out of the New York Auto Show. Hopefully, someone out there is better at research than I and can post a link.

The story was that MINI had paid the fee for having a space at the show. They later learned that the show organizers were going to allocate space at the show based on the number of cars sold, placing MINI in a back area, behind manufacturers such as Kia and Hyundai. The organizers have excepted some low volume manufacturers such as Ferrari. Given this situation, MINI decided to not expend the additional funds to attend the show.

I would rather MINI spend their marketing budget on supporting the MINI race team and owner events such as MTTS, rather than the huge investment that an auto show requires. How many auto shows are there anyway?

 

I used to go to the New Car Showing in Phoenix every year. He was one of the "Big Wigs" for Chevrolet. From what I can tell the inter net has caused a lot of the decline in attendance. Now that you can take a 360 degree tour of the cars, change colors, rims, tires, interior, etc... I think a large number of people save their money for other things. The true die hard auto enthusiast still wants the hands on experience. I know I have not been to an Auto Show in over 15 years.

 

Agreed. The old saying; "Race on Sunday sell on Monday" is still somewhat true. And in comparison to other manufacturers, MINI seems to have odd places where they send $ for advertising....take this idiotic web site for example....

http://www.minispace.com/en_us/artic...ationally/987/

What the heck is this all about ? Any bets the traffic it generates is somewhere between crickets and hell freezing over ?

Then look at the MINI Motoring Gear garments sold. 99% of the clothes are what's called European Fit, so have to bump up one or two sizes and in many cases the themes for these garments are based upon an event which took place months earlier in the UK or some other place there which makes absolutely no sense to anyone here in the USA unless you happen to be there at the time....

And think about how many commercials we see on TV for other product lines and then how many you see for MINI which were actually paid for by MINIUSA and not a dealer advertisement, not to mention the last time you saw a bill board for MINI.

What promotional advertising do we ever see when a new MINI model is introduced.....anyone ? Bueller ? For example: The Roadster, The Coupe', and how about when the Countryman was introduced and now especially the Paceman ? Did BMW spend any $ for advertising to promote those new product lines ? Nodda, zip, goose egg.

Last month there was the "MINI Second Date" event for new MINI owners which seems to have been a bit of a flop since most dealers negated taking part as the burden of all the expenses for this event was on the individual dealerships including paying to put a full tank of gas into their cars.....it's like telling your best friend its your birthday next week and BTW your gonna pay for all the party expenses....really ?

And all the while we see thousands spent on promoting a new MINI "halo car" with a huge fugly shark fin across the middle of the trunk like this is the 1950's again...if parked near a beach your libel to have folks trying to "push it back into the water...."

And how about 90% of the MINI key chains MINI sells for 1st and 2nd Gen MINI's ? Cool as many of them are, they DONT FIT the radio remote key fobs correctly ! Who designs this stuff which is supposed to support exposure to the brand anyways ? Do they even bother to test fit them before putting to production ? Probably same person who sends all those shirts over here to be sold with nonsensical stereo SOUND designs on them....

That said, would seem to me they need as much "correct" exposure as possible and not participating the NYC Auto Show was probably a huge mistake.

 

Think MINI Space was started back when myspace was big. They just kept it, its mostly international and UK people on that site.

Hope they can make it next year and not be put out of the main location. Looks like that was the issue.

 

Pulling out of NYC is an interesting move. They will lose exposure to the casual car-buyer who goes to a show to see what strikes them. The risk is that unconventional marketing (like MTTS) is most effective with enthusiasts, who tend to know about MINI and its offerings anyway.

 

Part of what made the "early years" of the new mini special IMO was the fact the buyer had to SEARCH for info...
Folks saw a mini, and did not know where the dealers were....did not know the models, and had never seen an add....
But folks still looked...they still found MINI...
It was like discovering a secret....
And the extra effort made folks Rabid mini lovers.....
There were very few casual mini folks before 2006....
The price of admission was you had to invest time and effort to seek out a mini dealer and get a car....
Perhaps mini is trying to become more special by not being as available?
Kinda like a gal plying harder to get to make her more desrible?

 

. Well that playing-hard-to-get girl better be pretty, or she'll just be ignored. Something MINI should consider...

 

And that was also part of what kept MINI sales down at a slower rate than they wanted. MINI appears to have gone for a mass-market approach, rather than a niche market, so they need to appeal to more than just the rabid enthusiast.

 

Which makes pulling out of the NY Auto show a little confounding...

 

Not really, its a perception thing.

MINI would probably rather be seen with BMW and the other premium brands, than with prestigious brands.

 

...because Mini has become a Midi...Mini has to go back to its roots.

 

It wasn't just MINI USA.
There were a bunch of other brands missing or under-represented at this year's NYAS (Fiat, Lotus, Ferrari - MIA). Many had rudimentary displays with nothing new, and display areas way smaller than in 2014 (Porsche, Audi). BMW was not showing anything new worth talking about (another fat *** Alpina and some MX car).

NYIAS alternates with the larger Annual Chinese show, both held in April. Many manufacturers, including BMW, are preparing large scope premieres for that event. Mercedes will be previewing a concept to challenge the BMW X4 with other German manufacturers unveiling new directions in concepts or indeed production models.


Sorry, what the above describes is inept low-budget marketing, not a product strategy.

If any mainstream consumer brand seriously attempted the above approach, they would torpedo their own sales targets, and get that CMO fired.

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It's a little surprising that FIAT and Ferrari didn't go. Lotus is in it's bi-annual circle-the-drain dance and doesn't have money to spend on shows.


I wouldn't describe their marketing plan as 'make the customer search for the product'. They did decide against TV ads, which may be what was referred to...

 

Yup...
IMO pretty shrewd choice early on....
lets face it....with DVR's and FF buttons....there are simply put better options...
MINI did lots of "Gorilla" advertising early on...lots of embedded stuff...brought the PROFILE of the brand higher in folks minds...but little "in you face buy our stuff" adds....and folks gravitated towards it...
A MINI might appear in a TV show in the background, maybe a local marketing event, LOTS of different stuff...much of it was LOCAL in nature since dealers were few and far between....

AS MINI has become more "conventional" in terms of theirs cars, they have also done the same with their marketing..
gone are the "cheeky" things mini did that made folks laugh...
and in with many adds, in print, tv and radio....
Gone of the days of the "WOW!!!! I just saw a MINI add" to market saturation (in my area I have 3 dealers within 50 miles, and each advertises ...gets kinda annoying actually)....to now we say..yeah..that add sucks...or folks ask "why did a car add just show a bulldog?" Many of them just don't hit with the VIBE that MINI made and created....
Heck...if you follow who MINI has hired and fired in NJ (the mother ship of MINI USA) you would see that BMW is REVAMPING MINI culture at the corporate level, to make it match BMW....
Gone, the tie-die shirts, flip-flops and in with the suits and German humor....