Opening Week Picks, News & Notes

[Zipgrad01]

You have to be kidding me. Honda, Toyota and Nissan built their reputation for having vehicles that last. They do not do marketing ploys on this. This is proven in yearly quality reports, auto magazines and word of mouth from the public. All you hear on tv is Mercury, Ford and whomever trying to say that "their cars beat Honda and Toyota in a closed coarse driving competition." Show me one time IN HISTORY where a Honda or Toyota dealer is marking 8k off on the sticker with 0% financing. It doesn't happen because they don't have to. But it is has become the norm for the Big 3. It has killed the Big 3 in a lot of ways because it ruins the value of their vehicles. Nobody will buy a Chevy, Ford, etc.. until the dealer advertises HUGE rebates and 0% financing. They found this was the only way to get customers in the door and now customers are smart enough to not buy their vehicles until they run those rebate and financing options. It has killed their new car market because they can now not get normal sticker prices for their vehicles. Not only that, people don't want their products to begin with because of quality differences, resale differences, etc..Oh yeah,and the "better, made, longer lasting" thing is Chevy's slogan for their truck. You know..."Most dependable, longest last trucks on the road." Plus, lets not forget "built Ford tough."Really? You think the PS3 is the best system? I guarantee you get 100 people in on this and they are all split about 33% each way.Our MAC east title team wasn't very good. The community isn't going to rally around a team that backs into a title with a 7-6 record. Then we turn around the next year and tank. We need teams that go 10-2 or 9-3 every year. As for Chris Wells and the LeBron thing...all the paper did was to write what sells. 10x the number of people care about Lebron and OSU than they do about Akron Zips football. It is just the reality of the thing. They run stories to interest the people enough to buy papers. More people care if Chris Wells goes to OSU than they do about the Zips.

[ZachTheZip]

As for Chris Wells and the LeBron thing...all the paper did was to write what sells. 10x the number of people care about Lebron and OSU than they do about Akron Zips football. It is just the reality of the thing. They run stories to interest the people enough to buy papers. More people care if Chris Wells goes to OSU than they do about the Zips.

The problem with that is that people are stupid; They only care about what the news tells them to care about. Hence the general apathy towards genocides in Africa, the recent allying of Russia and China that could be posturing for a WWIII, and other stuff that's really really scary but the news won't cover.I would rather have everybody in the area that doesn't care or know about the Zips hate them than be apathetic. I'm sure that the BJ can find a few writers that would work for free just to get the chance to bash the Zips every day. At least then they would know that the Zips do, in fact, play footall games on saturday.

[g-mann17]

You have to be kidding me.

First. As you can see Toyota had to stupe 0% as well. All car companies do it, the fact is they sell because marketing dictates to the masses what is important. That means press releases on safety ratings to the media, commercials starring Mr. Opportunity. Or Akron VS. Can't taking billing over OSU vs Northwestern. See how that works. People like what they are told to like, not what is better. Second the PS3 is leaps and bounds above both systems in terms of processing power, graphics, controller design etc. But lack of a sound marketing program (including price point and incentives) and believing that people will pay anything for a product has caused it to lag in sales. Or that Akron is more accessible then OSU and cheaper to view.As for the Media coverage. Ask a Beacon subsriber why he subscribes to the Beacon. The answer you will receive is not "So i can see how OSU did" it will be "So I can see what is happening in MY COMMUNITY" Does OSU in BCS GAME sell a paper on Saturday when it is on the front page? Yes. Does how OSU did against Washington on the front page of sports sell a paper? No. As uakronkid said. People only care about what they know.

[Zipgrad01]

Toyota did it on one model and that is just because most Americans won't buy a Japanese brand truck. Did you notice all the other models were big 3? Those financing deals also go along with huge rebate incentives. For example.....NEW YORK - General Motors Corp.’s “Employee Discount for Everyone” program sent the automaker’s sales soaring last month to the highest monthly total in two decades and allowed it to unload huge amounts of inventory.Now, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group are launching pricing schemes of their own.These are busy times for U.S. automakers, and GM’s recent success is the first bit of good news to emerge from the world’s largest automaker in a long while. Whether that can be sustained may hinge on how all the automakers play the promotional game going forward. Big discounts can often be a blessing for bolstering sales, but they can also become a curse for profits.Story continues below ↓advertisementAutomakers might want to look at the retail industry to see how discounting can help as well as hurt business. Merchants, especially department stores, have become increasingly reliant on promotions to lure consumers into their stores.But shoppers have become somewhat numb to the constant discounting. They often wait until they know it is the absolute lowest price before they buy (just think of the success of the post-Christmas sales). While that might clear out inventory, it doesn’t do much for profits.The auto industry isn’t in such a predicament yet, but it has come to rely on promotions to drive customer traffic. That push largely started after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when automakers launched zero-percent financing deals to revive sales, and they have rolled out other promotions since.But the current scheme extends beyond what has been done before — which is exactly what has some industry-watchers worried.On June 1, GM began offering its vehicles to the public for the same price that GM’s employees pay. That allowed customers to buy vehicles for an average of $400 to $500 less than they spent in May, before major cash rebates. GM spent an average of $4,458 per vehicle on incentives in June, up $449 from May.Those discounts, which took the haggling out of car buying, hit a positive note with car buyers. GM tallied a 41 percent jump in its sales in June compared with a year ago, the highest monthly total in nearly 19 years and a big gain from the single-digit growth it has seen so far this year.In addition, GM inventory declined 26 percent to 980,000 units, an important reduction before 2006 models arrive later this year.Given the robust response, GM is extending the program through Aug. 1. But now it will face competition, with Ford and Chrysler both announcing that they would offer similar deals starting this month.Automakers say that these deals are only for the short term, but whether that holds true is unclear. For one, should sales slow dramatically after the employee-discount programs end, they might be forced to consider cutting prices again.There also are particular concerns over what happens when the 2007 models are launched later this year. Consumers may balk if they perceive the prices are significantly higher than what’s in the showrooms now. Analysts say that could mean that the automakers are left with no choice but to implement another round of promotions.“Now we are at employee-level discounts. Is there a level below that, like $500 more off that price, that they will have to go to next because that is what consumers expect?” asked B. Craig Hutson, a senior bond analyst at Gimme Credit, a research company specializing in corporate bonds.Should Detroit’s Big Three automakers continue the promotions, some analysts worry that will cause the sales effect to fizzle over time. Morgan Stanley auto analyst Stephen Girsky said in a note to clients this week that “the longer these programs last, the less successful they will be” and suggests that is exactly what happened with GM’s “Keep America Rolling” zero-rate financing campaign in 2001, which was an initial success.There is also the issue of what the heavy discounting does to a brand over time. It’s possible that a brand’s value diminishes if consumers associate an automaker with its promotional programs.Even with all those concerns, GM should get credit where credit is due. It set off major car buying with this promotion, even for its SUVs that it had been struggling to move out in recent months. In addition, GM managed to win over customers who have not bought its cars before. Its market share climbed above 30 percent last month, well above the 25.7 percent realized year-to-date, Hutson said.It’s rare to see a such a successful discount program, which is why all U.S. automakers need to plan their next move carefully.Hate top say it, but how OSU does always sells papers no matter who they are playing.

[Zipgrad01]

Here is another example...Big 3's reliance on incentives brings low-budget response.COPYRIGHT 2005 Chicago TribuneByline: Robert Manor and Rick PopelyDomestic carmakers still have an image problem.Even as the gap in quality between foreign and domestic cars has narrowed significantly over the past several years, many consumers are still buying based on a perception that Japanese cars are made better.The culprit? Detroit's continued reliance on incentives and zero percent financing has only contributed to the widening gulf between Detroit and Japan, according to analysts.An addiction to impulse-buying incentives has cut into profits.Even worse, some executives in the auto industry say, the deals, which get people into the showroom doors, imply that U.S. cars are inferior to imports."When you put cash on the hood, it makes your brand weak," said Elena Ford, Ford Motor Co.'s director of product marketing."Incentives demoralize the brand," she said.As the Big Three continue to overhaul their operations to try to compete better with their Japanese counterparts, marketing remains a key trouble spot.Though the auto industry had one of its best years on record last year, the Big Three's share of the U.S. market fell to an all-time low of 58.7 percent.Akron football is no different. These marketing ploys are like fads. That is why you get a big crowd at the ACME-Zips game and nobody shows up for the rest of the games. Fads get people there once or twice, but the product better be good enough to sustain the growth or you are just S.O.L

[Zipgrad01]

And I will add ONE more just to be safe. Pretty much covers everything I have said. I know it is cars, but it applies to Akron football as well.My Webpage