Mini's Clubman Model Begins Pre-Promotions

December 21, 2007

By Steve Miller

The first U.S. promotions for the upcoming Mini Clubman subcompact hatchback portend a pitch for a younger crowd with products from an avant-garde publishing group and a sporty shoe company.

The Clubman, Mini’s five-door, five seat hatchback, will begin to hit dealerships in Q1, and its full-swing campaign via BSSP, Sausalito, Calif., is expected to break in February.

But the gifts the company is offering are a precursor to its arrival in the U.S., and show a decidedly artsy inclination in terms of co-branding.

The “Visionaire Sound” package is the result of Mini’s collaboration with New York company Visionaire, a publisher of themed, multimedia magazines. The Sounds issue, which sells on the Web and in stores for $250, includes five picture-disc 12-inch records with a portable record player that has a small Clubman replica for a cartridge, trademarked the “Mini Clubman Vinyl Killer,” that drives around the vinyl as it tracks.

The limited edition collectible box sets (around 4,000 made and wrapped in a black plastic orb), include unreleased music and spoken word from a roster of alt-friendly artists including Courtney Love, Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon, Andrew WK and Danger Mouse.

Cecilia Dean, cofounder of Visionaire, noted that using vinyl records is an ode to the history of Mini, a robust tribute to lasting appeal. Yet vinyl still has widespread appeal in certain communities, particularly those with defined artistic tastes. “And this is what Mini, and Visionaire, has been about, this idea of building community,” Dean said.

The issue is available at book and music stores.

The Mini Clubman Onitsuka Tiger shoe is available in some colors matching the Clubman, including black/silver and cream/British green. The Mini logo is placed on the heel of the shoe.

Onitsuka, which sells its wares in outlets such as Urban Outfitters, is a brand that caters to a younger, sporty set.

There is a place for Mini to work on selling to more hipster-oriented consumers, and it lies somewhere between Scion and Mini.

“On the edges, there is a gulf between the Scion and the potential Clubman buyers,” said Joe Phillippi, president of AutoTrends Consulting, Short Hills, N.J. “But this is similar to what Scion is doing, in terms of coming to consumers, younger ones, with something that appeals to them, like targeted music. And I’d suspect that everyone is looking at this group as the market continues to break into smaller niches.”