Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Marketing a Morgan Car

The debate on how Morgan Motor Company should market, raise the profile and, ultimately, sell their cars often gets touched upon in discussions on this forum (and every other Morgan discussion group). So, rather than let other threads digress away from their intended topic, I thought I'd open up a fresh thread and start with two quotes from the Morgan Aeromax for Sale thread: -







Given that most of us agree that MMC have limited resources to spend on marketing their product and attracted new customers, how do we believe Morgan can best achieve a positive return for minimum investment?

I've thought about this topic for over 12-months and have some ideas but I'd rather someone else gets the ball rolling before I jump in (posing the question and than answering it is a little one-sided unless people disagree with my grass-roots marketing tactics )

Wow, 19-views and not ONE comment!?

Is it that dull a topic?

Simon, I think we have covered most of the marketing ideas on the other thread, product placement in a movie is too expensive and so too is TV advertisement, appropriate Motoring mags advertisement seems reasonable and obviously motor shows.

I'd also suggest anyone who bought a Morgan should filled in questionares/survey, such as hobbies, social activities, why do you choose Morgan, how did you find out about Morgan cars etc etc...and may be then some expert could extrapolate the datas given and target certain sector of population and market it accordingly ...MMC could also send surveys out to existing customers...

So what are your ideas then? May be we could offer some of our professional opinions

Personal recommendation is always the best way to buy stuff. Perhaps what Morgan need to do is to be able to somehow use us fans to sell them on. We alweasy reckon we sell Mogs at the Classic Motor Show for instance.

Get the Aero Club / MSCC together with some prospective buyers

The dealers could also get together to advertise a page in EVO mag and MMC could subsidise a percentage of the cost

Nothing radical Kin, nor am I claiming to have had an epiphany: just ideas that I believe could be carried out with minimal cost to MMC but raise public profile (which should help to sell cars).

As a start and as I stated before, I'm not sure whether there are holes in my logic due to hidden costs I am unaware of... but here goes: -

Produce one Roadster V6 and one Aero 8 - both in good colour combinations (say black with tan for the Roadster and Silverlake with blue (or Navy with tan) for the Aero 8); basically, make them in colours that photograph well and avoid contentious or fashion colours (the current Aero 8 America demo is anaemic and the interior, in Granddad-grey is dire).

Now that you have a nice representative of the Trad line and the Aero 8 line, do the following: call anyone and everyone who would want free use of a beautiful car and lend them either one. In what context you ask, well here is a start: -

Lend then for fashion shoots - up and coming designers. For London fashion week, etc.

Lend them to high profile people for public events (opening, weddings, etc).

Give them to people making low-budget Brit films - things that have a chance of being great (it happens!). These people would bite your hand off for a car and not ask for some kind of money to have it featured.

Let the guys who develop video games have access to them - Gran Turismo, PGR, Forsa, etc. (This did wonders for TVR in the USA).

Any way you can think of gaining exposure for the car, put the Roadster and Aero 8 in front of these people and let them use it for free. Sure some people will want you to pay but for every James Bond, there is a low budget movie that does well. For every Prada who would want you to pay to associate, there would be an up-and-coming who would love to have their models draped over a classic beauty like the Morgan.

Free use of a car for free exposure surely must be a worthwhile option?

I'd also engage in viral marketing - this could be done cheap and if you get it right, the net will be your oyster. For instance, a free blog - something like Talk Morgan blog .

There is much more to say but I'm running late and need to get in the car!

Will write more later.

Good suggestions all. I am disappointed to see how low public knowledge of Morgan has dropped. I am to the point where it would be easier to have some cards printed to hand to people when they ask "what is it?" and the follow up, "Morgan still make cars?"

Perchance I have stumbled upon my suggestion: give new owners a packet of flyers to hand out to inquisitive potential patrons.

Brilliant idea, Simon although not too sure about the TVR bit, think it was made famous by the movie Fast and Furious

However, i have an even better idea, highly modified Aero, racing /stunt driver cop baiting on M1, hit 190mph, footage will be shown on police, camera Stop! Headline news on every national papers, radio and TV news broadcast...wow I could imagine MMC would be inundated with orders the next morning

Taking this one step further why not paint an aero up for the boys in blue, the press always cover these things when done by the italian

Then offer it to the City of London police over the summer and see if any of the city bonuses end up in Malvern.

Anyone any good with photoshop?

John

I believe one of the police forces recently purchased a lotus exige, so why not Morgan, then again MMC would have to sell its car at cost....but there is no harm in picking up the phone and ask every police force in the country, you never know...