Honda just revealed its updated minivan, the 2011 Odyssey.
The reviewer in the article at first objects to the Odyssey ads for using Judas Priest, and thinks "If you think you're going to make me think your stupid soccer mom taxi is cool, well, You've Got Another Thing Coming!"
I've run into this concept before - Making the Minivan Cool. It was well done with the popular and viral (8 M on YouTube) "Swagger Wagon" spots for the Toyota Sienna
And while the Sienna campaign is firmly tongue-in-cheek and could be arguably a send up of cool, or at least a smiling acknowledgement that the minivan is NOT cool, I think the marketing for minivans could go farther.
Because they keep trying to fit minivans into cool, instead of the other way around.
Cool is multidimensional. James Dean, Jay-Z, The Rat Pack, The Black Eyed Peas (halftime show notwithstanding), Banksy - all very cool. Then again so is Ghandi, Cornell West, The Egyptian People, Jonas Salk, and Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.
The minivan will never be cool in a sense that a convertible mustang or Jay-Z is cool. Just won't happen. But that doesn't mean that it isn't cool in the authentic, down-to-earth, change-the-world, kind of way, and we need to see more of that in the marketing.
Because parents, and parenting, falls into that latter category. The decision to become a parent is by definition a decision to believe in the future, to work to make the world a better place, to care more about someone else than about yourself, and to bust your tail every, single, day.
Parents usually invest in their communities. They're at the PTA meeting, or the zoning hearing, or the local river clean up. They form groups to improve parks, or to put in more sidewalks. They drive around at night on neighborhood watch.
Parents give a damn. They work to change the world. They're real. Pretty cool right?
Imagine if a minivan spot captured some of this. Imagine if instead of talking about whether the van was cool, it asked us to consider our definition of cool and demonstrated how parents fit into that definition.
The spot would be an anthem for parents, and likely ring like a church bell with that key audience, in addition to working for anyone who has/had parents (um...everyone).
Which brings us back to brand. Sometimes a brand has to make its own category, establish its own voice, by ignoring preconceptions.
Trader Joe's Grocery Store chain is a good example of a brand that has done this. The chain ignores much of the standard wisdom and convention for retail grocery. Its aisles are tight, its produce virtually non-existent, and its logo changes from package to package.
Additionally its crew is friendly and funny, its store environment completely unique to each location, and its food cheap and eclectic and yummy - each time you walk into a Trader Joe's it redefines "grocery store".
And it works. The company enjoys incredible customer loyalty, word of mouth and robust profits and growth.
The lesson here between food marts and minivans is that building a brand that works sometimes means turning everything on its head and running with it.
So Honda, don't ask whether minvans are cool but ask what cool really is. There's your next campaign for free ok? And when you speak of us, speak well.
Jeff Caporizzo is Vice President/Creative Director at ZilYen. Follow us on twitter @zilyentweets.
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