Drivers who are not going to go away: professional truck drivers, limo drivers, traveling salesmen: these professionally oriented scenarios will be spending a LOT more time in their vehicles than anyone else.
Notes on satellite radio- Sirius was described as doing better, in part because of howard stern, but xfm is doing better financially.
What’s the draw of satellite radio? Quality of sound, reliability (no messing with dials and changing stations as you travel), predictability (you can choose the channel you know you’ll like, not have to guess and hope), no static, and most importantly, no commercials.
What’s the draw of dvd players?
Is it just the kids? Limo companies also, and kids souping up their cars, and a bunch of single 30somethings that hang out with their friends (watch movies and discuss/mock them) and lots of gamers. (waiting in the car playing a game, or gaming in the back while driving)
What’s the draw of satellite tv?
Similar to the radio stuff. Don’t have the limit of what you bring with, can change mind, have lots of choices, no commercials, uninterrupted as you travel.
Mini esp. good mix of customization- they actually showed the optional extras online, instead of saying ask your dealer. Allows you to change the interior and SEE it (install gps system, etc). can change colors and paneling on inside. Took advantage of cars history in a way most people haven’t. sell racing kits (allow you to soup up your mini to look like famous minis of the past).
This contrasts with other companies that only allow changes of simple things like exterior/interior color, install better sound system, and had crappy graphics for the changes.
Clear branding- they are distinct from other brands made by the same company. This looks distinct no just in advertising, but also in the websites- the page maintains the identity of the mark that they have (ford.com) you go through the major site, but you still feel a degree of separation
Site has humor, which is great! Can ask for your own brochure, with your own mini as you chose the options. And it tells you ‘pixel pushing pixies are preparing your pdf’.
This is an excellent effort to retain brand individuality while allowing each car to completely reflect the owner: most ‘customization forces you to stay with in the brand perception of itself (matching interior to exterior, not encouraging custom paint or deviation from packages, etc).
The Shelby mustang- there are almost no options, but the whole point is that you take it home and screw with it to make it your own. This is a really different issue. People work on their dads mustang, but the good ones were the historic ones, 1956.
‘Smarts’? a non-american car, arguably low cost, cute, customizeable, 12 markets with some but not too much crossover. Feel like the mini, and a little like the scion- trying to be like the mini without the history.
p.t. cruiser was a good effort at this, but it went faddish- it is dull now. Perhaps if they had brought out the convertible faster after the initial introduction.
Heads-up. only on Pontiac G6, project with a ~35 fot focal distance so you don’t even have to refocus your eyes, but you can still see the numbers you need. Apparently really restful for the eyes, not having to refocus.
Pruis screen- produces an emotional relationship, you see your contribution to the future of humanity happening as you travel. I think this also has something to do with the fact that it’s one ofhte least expensive cars to have this kind of screen standard.
Gears on the wheel, so you can downshift while turning without letting go with one hand (paddles).
BMWs, now have a thing where they can CHANGE from automatic control to full manual control, so you can only worry about shifting when you want to. Multiple gear systems clutch one gear and do-clutch another at the same time to you never lose power.
Issue of controlling driver experience. When do you want to be in control and when not? What does the fact that you always have the option to take control change about the experience of being a driver?
Customization, control and performance (and the feeling of performance and of control) are the themes we’ve had today.
Themes central to his vision of what’s coming:
Digressions/discussions
What are the key issues? What do we want to talk to people about? Is it performance? Is it customization? Is it control? To do: think about these questions, think about what the discussion raised. Work on identifying user typology for specific media.
Develop set of features around which we can build a typology. ‘features that matter’
aftermarket for civics- soup the things up, but this all happens after=market, in contrast with the minis. While both sell cars, only the mini puts that custom money in the hands of the manufacturer.
Scenarios- involve a lot of things, dependant on what we find. If we decide personal content management is going to be crucial, and will be most prevalent in a certain group, we’ll need to feed all of that info into the scenario. What happens to that demand for personal content IF XY or Z happens (gasoline crisis, environmental concerns, etc)? what is crucial to the technological development of this kind of content management, and what has to happen technologically for it to work.
TASK: flesh out list of ToDo items Will soon have a joint brainstorming session with RTNA people.