Hello World

Hello and welcome to my new blog The 411 on Marketing 411. My name is Paul Erlic and I am senior at the University of Tampa; I plan on graduating with a degree in marketing which will hopefully lead to some gainful employment. The purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts on real world marketing situations and more importantly to receive feedback on my thoughts. Marketing has always captured my attention and from a very young age I was trying to sell anyone anything. The only problem I had was that I couldn't figure out the best way to do it. As I got older I learned more about advertising and its relationship to selling, as I dove deeper I learned more about advertisers and eventually marketers. The more I learned the more I was intrigued the topics were endless and full of content and real world examples, consumer behavior, branding strategy, market research, the list goes on. So I decided I wanted to go into marketing and changed my major from undecided to marketing. Given the fact that this blog is about marketing and not me I give you my marketing topic.

The Lexus hoverboard, for those of you that are too lazy to watch it, i'll give a brief synopsis of the video. The video is shot a skatepark and you guessed the main character is the hoverboard. The board is self extremely good looking, the metal and carbon fiber construction of the base is paired perfectly with a bamboo deck. The cinematography is top notch and the video is set to upbeat modern music that helps to convey a futuristic mood and attitude. My favorite part of the video is where they get a Back to the Future style shot of the board and its rider gliding seamlessly over a pool of water. Towards the end of the video the camera pans out and shows the board and the rider going down a ramp with a gap in the center. Out of that gap comes a brand new blue lexus and just as the car is going through the gap the the board and the rider jump right over the car and land on the adjacent ramp. The video ends and cuts to the Lexus logo and its tagline for the campaign "Amazing in Motion." My words don't do the video justice to get the full effect you really need to view it for yourself.

Obviously Lexus isn't going to commercially produce hoverboards although it would be pretty cool of them. Lexus is using the hoverboard as a promotional vehicle for their cars, and they are doing a superb job at it. In addition to the initial video Lexus released other videos that explain the story behind the board. These videos allow potential customers to get an inside view of Lexus and serve to build trust with consumers. These videos also show case Lexus's talent and dedication to design and aesthetics which is something that the company prides itself on. Lastly the videos add a sense of personality to Lexus customers can connect with the people that worked on the board; and the next time they see a Lexus add they can match a face to the company.