Torture test for smart phones: the Casio G’zOne Commando being strapped to a surfboard
Does the new Casio smart phone
ad campaign sound familiar?
The Unique Selling Proposition of a new Android-powered smart phone is its toughness. Using a classic product-demonstration style, TV and Internet spots show the Casio G’zOne Commando being strapped to a surfboard, the underside of a sports car and more, and surviving.
The approach may sound familiar to anyone who remembers the old Timex watch commercials. Watches shown to emerge intact from various forms of abuse were promoted with the still-famous tagline, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
(There is nothing new about new campaigns that smell like older ones. My generation easily recognized the Axe commercials from a few years ago as Hai Karate spots, back from the dead.)
For people who, like me, seem unable to pass up the least opportunity to drop their phones on hard surfaces, Casio’s appeal may work. On the other hand, smart phones are as much (or more) a fashion item as a bona fide need. In the marketplace, coolness often outranks practicality. If you don’t believe me, check out the heels on women’s shoes. Given that toughness-as-USP takes the practical approach, and that practical is not necessarily cool, I shall be eager to see if the campaign succeeds, and with whom.
—Steve Cuno
ad campaign sound familiar?
The Unique Selling Proposition of a new Android-powered smart phone is its toughness. Using a classic product-demonstration style, TV and Internet spots show the Casio G’zOne Commando being strapped to a surfboard, the underside of a sports car and more, and surviving.
The approach may sound familiar to anyone who remembers the old Timex watch commercials. Watches shown to emerge intact from various forms of abuse were promoted with the still-famous tagline, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
(There is nothing new about new campaigns that smell like older ones. My generation easily recognized the Axe commercials from a few years ago as Hai Karate spots, back from the dead.)
For people who, like me, seem unable to pass up the least opportunity to drop their phones on hard surfaces, Casio’s appeal may work. On the other hand, smart phones are as much (or more) a fashion item as a bona fide need. In the marketplace, coolness often outranks practicality. If you don’t believe me, check out the heels on women’s shoes. Given that toughness-as-USP takes the practical approach, and that practical is not necessarily cool, I shall be eager to see if the campaign succeeds, and with whom.
—Steve Cuno
RSS Feed
