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Will marketing finally make a turn? Ex Hyundai executive hired by Napoli

Northpointe said:
Notably both of these individuals are founder CEO’s with a tight grip on the vision and leadership of their companies. The visionary behind Lucid is long gone. And I suspect, based on a career of leadership roles in Fortune 100 organizations, that the Board and company leadership haven’t been aligned in some time. Cycling through CEO’s creates a leadership vacuum. And when that happens the consequences permeate the organization. Hopefully Silvio Napoli succeeds where others have failed. Because having a class leading product is meaningless when an organization is rudderless
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There is only one arrow left in the quiver! Napoli, aim and fire!
 
Wow, what a lot of gloom on this thread! Does Lucid have multiple problems that it needs to solve. Yes! Does leadership of every company need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time? Also yes! Hiring a person good at marketing is a key ingredient for Lucid seeing the success we'd all hope. This is good news!
 
Between this thread and the Air UX3 thread, it seems we have a lot of people just waiting for Lucid to fail to meet their expectations. Counting down the days even.

In my experience, this usually means it's time to separate your life from this person or organization and move on. Or if you choose to stay with them, do some serious thinking about your attitude.
 
(Gravity focused...)

I've been thinking about how Lucid is doing marketing after receiving that nice story last week about a mountain biker and how he loves biking and loves his family...and something to do with a car? LOL

I get that marketing campaigns are more about "feel" and "branding." But I really think Lucid needs to a bit more direct, hit-you-over-the-head campaign that shows the differences between Gravity and others. I bet you anything that every one of you who owns a Gravity, does a little spiel when cornered by someone interested in the car. THOSE differentiators are what need to be pushed to MUCH wider audiences.

My short list that I usually mention and am usually asked about:

-Range: 450 miles on my 5 seater epa, almost always the first question
-Charging: So fast, especially 10-80. I tell everyone "charges faster at a Tesla Charger than a Tesla"
-Power/Speed: Most people now know EV means torque. But I always mention the power this thing has..."it's a race car in SUV body"
-Rear Doors 90 Degrees: Such a small thing but every person I've shown that to is wowed by the back doors. Any other cars have this? Nobody has mentioned when I show them.
-Space/Folddown Back Seats: Giving so much room and headroom.
-Cockpit/Front: Of course most are awed by the 2 monitors, massaging seats and windows that go both down...and up, most of the time. (ok, joking there. still reading?)

So I've done a cross country trip doing a ton of campsites/RV parks. As you can imagine, Lucid should have paid me to be an Ambassador as I got tons of people asking me about the Gravity. I'd say that the above 6 things were 95% of questions, interests and conversations.

IMO, Lucid should do marketing or advertising that really pushes these things that set it apart from others. Maybe do that alongside a softer, lifestyle campaign of a guy mountain biking...but beauty is not enough to cut through the media clutter these days. Thoughts?
 
raleighone said:
Range: 450 miles on my 5 seater epa, almost always the first question
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I agree with all your points except this one. The Lucid EPA ratings are so inaccurate as to be laughable and if everyone keeps touting a range that almost nobody ever gets close to in the real world (esp the West 2/3 of the country where highway speed limits START at 70mph and are usually 75-80mph), then that's going to quickly give most people the impression that Lucid lies about that, why should I believe anything else they claim?
 
doubletwist said:
I agree with all your points except this one. The Lucid EPA ratings are so inaccurate as to be laughable and if everyone keeps touting a range that almost nobody ever gets close to in the real world (esp the West 2/3 of the country where highway speed limits START at 70mph and are usually 75-80mph), then that's going to quickly give most people the impression that Lucid lies about that, why should I believe anything else they claim?
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The EPA does not drive 75-80 mph in their range test. Your confusing range with highway driving distance.
 
doubletwist said:
I agree with all your points except this one. The Lucid EPA ratings are so inaccurate as to be laughable and if everyone keeps touting a range that almost nobody ever gets close to in the real world (esp the West 2/3 of the country where highway speed limits START at 70mph and are usually 75-80mph), then that's going to quickly give most people the impression that Lucid lies about that, why should I believe anything else they claim?
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While true that 450 is not realistic (even for city driving), that's often true for most other EVs too. As such, I'd have no problem with them advertising it when others get to advertise their usually inflated EPA range too. Plus there's always the "up to" qualifier that's commonly used in advertising to get around any legal issues.

If I were to pick the top 2 selling points for the Gravity to highlight in an ad, it would probably be the range and the interior spaciousness for people and cargo (including the frunk). It's hard to capture interior size in videos, but the frunk makes for a fantastic visual because you can easily gauge the size from the front of the car and that massive clamshell hood. Opening that hood and having 2 people sit there (even though actually sitting there isn't the real value) is the most iconic shot associated with the Gravity.

But I'd also lower the 3rd row seats and show a shot of the cargo space in the rear, with a couple of bikes or something in there.

And of course the 2nd row legroom, with the tray tables down.
 
Ah yes! The tray tables! Another great example of a differentiator they should capitalize on. This and the frunk have been overlooked on my tours mostly because I’m in camp mode.
 
TahoeMichael said:
Wow, what a lot of gloom on this thread! Does Lucid have multiple problems that it needs to solve. Yes! Does leadership of every company need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time? Also yes! Hiring a person good at marketing is a key ingredient for Lucid seeing the success we'd all hope. This is good news!
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How people here can take “it’s sunny today” and turn it into “the heat death is coming for us all” never ceases to amaze me.
 
DeaneG said:
Between this thread and the Air UX3 thread, it seems we have a lot of people just waiting for Lucid to fail to meet their expectations. Counting down the days even.

In my experience, this usually means it's time to separate your life from this person or organization and move on. Or if you choose to stay with them, do some serious thinking about your attitude.
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It takes so much energy to hate things. I really don’t get it.

Enjoy the things you have. If you don’t, get rid of them so you can enjoy the things you have.

And if there’s nothing you enjoy, I’d suggest some serious introspection and/or therapy.

That doesn’t mean don’t be critical or skeptical. But people love to jump on bandwagons (on both sides) instead of coming to their own conclusions.
 
doubletwist said:
I agree with all your points except this one. The Lucid EPA ratings are so inaccurate as to be laughable and if everyone keeps touting a range that almost nobody ever gets close to in the real world (esp the West 2/3 of the country where highway speed limits START at 70mph and are usually 75-80mph), then that's going to quickly give most people the impression that Lucid lies about that, why should I believe anything else they claim?
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All EPA range estimates are inaccurate, by definition. That is because they are estimates.
 
dbsb3233 said:
That's good and fine but you have to have something to mass market first. The Air and Gravity aren't exactly mass market vehicles at these luxury price points. And their production capacity, sales capacity, and especially service capacity are still pretty small.

And the more affordable Cosmos probably won't exist in mass market numbers until at least 2028.
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I'm afraid I don't see anything bad about hiring an accomplished expert in a area that has had no support in the past.

Glass half full for me. YMMV
 
Pragmatic said:
They are accurate. They are just not measuring what you think they are measuring.
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They are precise. I do not think they are accurate.

But also, it doesn’t really matter, as we both know what we mean. :)
 
My armchair two cents on Gravity's marketing on lucidmotors.com: it's very low on description, explanation, and specs. Mostly photos of Gravity going somewhere. I'm turning page after page of ads in a lifestyle magazine: https://lucidmotors.com/gravity

Contrast this with Volvo's EX60 marketing materials, both online and in my email inbox seemingly every week: Many vignettes and photo detail shots which tell the story of how useful the car will be to me: https://www.volvocars.com/us/cars/ex60-electric/

Rivian similarly does a better job explaining to me why I want an R2: https://rivian.com/r2
 
tmichael said:
I'm afraid I don't see anything bad about hiring an accomplished expert in a area that has had no support in the past.

Glass half full for me. YMMV
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I guess it's only bad if you were banking on Lucid to buck the trend and become the most successful car brand to never have a marketing plan.

It makes all the sense in the world for Lucid to do this particularly as they look to launch a volume vehicle that's tied to the survival of the company. It would be criminal not to make this move. And yes you want to hire your marketing person well before a vehicle launches.

I would hope that the new hire focuses on establishing a clear brand identity. Objectively speaking that's something that Tesla and Rivian have excelled at. From the entry level Pure, through the class leading Gravity, and halo Sapphire, there's a lot to work with. It just hasn't been packaged in a cohesive compelling manner. Most successful car companies have a defined brand ethos and they lead with that vs. any specific model. We all know that BMW is the "ultimate driving machine" but you don't see a lot of ads touting the 7 series over other models. With effective marketing Lucid should be able to distinguish itself from other EV companies and legacy auto makers. The biggest hesitancy that most buyers have with EV's centers around range. Lucid wins that argument hands down and largely makes the concern a non-issue. And it does it with outstanding performance, ride, and space attributes. That's a really good starting point to build off of.
 
DeaneG said:
My armchair two cents on Gravity's marketing on lucidmotors.com: it's very low on description, explanation, and specs. Mostly photos of Gravity going somewhere. I'm turning page after page of ads in a lifestyle magazine: https://lucidmotors.com/gravity

Contrast this with Volvo's EX60 marketing materials, both online and in my email inbox seemingly every week: Many vignettes and photo detail shots which tell the story of how useful the car will be to me: https://www.volvocars.com/us/cars/ex60-electric/
Rivian similarly does a better job explaining to me why I want an R2: https://rivian.com/r2
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For premium products like Air and Gravity, marketing a lifestyle is the correct approach. They both realistically have marginally better utility than cars that are far cheaper. The same can be said for any offering from ultra premium car brands.

Marketing utility on mass market vehicles like the EX60 and R2 makes a lot more sense, because that is how many of those consumers rationalize purchases.
 
The_Don said:
For premium products like Air and Gravity, marketing a lifestyle is the correct approach. They both realistically have marginally better utility than cars that are far cheaper. The same can be said for any offering from ultra premium car brands.

Marketing utility on mass market vehicles like the EX60 and R2 makes a lot more sense, because that is how many of those consumers rationalize purchases.
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I can only imagine - I must not be the typical buyer for lifestyle products.
I'm hoping that Cosmos etc marketing themes are very different from those of Air and Gravity, as the midsized products will be competing squarely against the EX60, iX3, R2.
 
DeaneG said:
I can only imagine - I must not be the typical buyer for lifestyle products.
I'm hoping that Cosmos etc marketing themes are very different from those of Air and Gravity, as the midsized products will be competing squarely against the EX60, iX3, R2.
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Given Angela Zepeda's success with Hyundai and how Lucid's midsize platform is covering an extensive range of customers, I think hiring a person with her kind of caliber and skill is a smart move by Lucid. She's got a lot of work ahead of her and I look forward to see what she'll do
 
Northpointe said:
The EPA does not drive 75-80 mph in their range test. Your confusing range with highway driving distance.
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No I'm not.

The EPA test that Lucid uses, while perfectly legal, is wildly inaccurate for how actual Americans actually drive.

Lucid 100% has the legal right to advertise the EPA range they advertise. I'm not arguing that at all.

But the reality is, that the majority of people look at the efficiency and range advertised, and expect to at least get close to it in the real world, and with the version of the test Lucid uses to tout their incredible efficiency, almost nobody will actually see those numbers.

Other manufacturers have started using the version that gives more realistic numbers.

So if Lucid keeps using these unrealistic numbers in their advertising, we're going to reach a point (if we haven't already) at which every time someone researches Lucid vehicles to compare against others, they are going to see a bunch of reviews that say that the other makes get close to their advertised efficiency in real world driving (eg. Highway) or even exceed it, while Lucid consistently falls far (20%+) short. Most people with charge at home/with daily won't care what the overall range is. The people who drive long distances on highways for road trips (or think they constantly will) and long commute.

I'm merely arguing that Lucid needs to seriously consider whether or not they want to keep using (legal but) inaccurate numbers in their advertising to pretend that they are so much more efficient than anybody else, which I honestly don't think they really are any longer. If they do, I think it will hurt them more in the court of public opinion than they gain by claiming to be.
 
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