SLATE x Crayola partnership - Wrap Colors, Slatelets, Decals

[sodamo]

Not taking too seriously. I’d never do it, but can see the fun for others.

 

[AZFox]

It's going to be interesting seeing all of the "workhorse" and "means of personal expression" (and everything in between) Slates running around town a year or two from now.

 

[CorvusCorvax]

It's going to be interesting seeing all of the "workhorse" and "means of personal expression" (and everything in between) Slates running around town a year or two from now.

My boring-ass blank Slate is going to be invisible.

 

[Luxrage]

Kinda the point of the Slate is that nothing is 'permanent'. You could order the Slate today, sell it in 2 years, and THAT person could then order the Crayola package and apply it, making it a 'collab model'. Or maybe they go with Barbie, or MadMax, or Resident Evil, or Pokemon, or McDonalds, or, or, or.....

Thats the point; ZERO lock in. Ever. It's always 'yours' exactly the way you want it no matter how far down the list of previous owners you are.

I get that 100%, I just like it when cars show some of their 'history' to them. The Slatelets accomplish that, in a way. "oh this used to be a Crayola one" if the previous owner keeps the little crayon Slatelet. I just like the little touches those special editions get.

 

[im_a_dirty_dirty_slate]

Other than Pantone, who else has recognizable name and catalog of colors?

Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore. Not as playful but A LOT more professional.
Behr - alongside a home depot professional connection, this makes more sense. Bundle versions with ladder racks. Wraps and racks. Rent them out at home depots, in addition to big, heavy gassers they currently rent.
Neither are cute, but few people are willing to pay for cute for their car, as cars are associated with identity. Call a grown woman "cute" and see how she responds. Hint: not well.

The Crayola marketing here is totally bush league.

 

[im_a_dirty_dirty_slate]

Hey, this one is even worse: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a73275280/lamborghini-urus-se-master-chief-117-halo/

Master Douche and Lambo Squad. smh. What's next? Monster? And the color scheme is worse than anything Crayola.

 

[Johnologue]

Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore. Not as playful but A LOT more professional.
Behr - alongside a home depot professional connection, this makes more sense. Bundle versions with ladder racks. Wraps and racks. Rent them out at home depots, in addition to big, heavy gassers they currently rent.
Neither are cute, but few people are willing to pay for cute for their car, as cars are associated with identity. Call a grown woman "cute" and see how she responds. Hint: not well.

The Crayola marketing here is totally bush league.

Nostalgia marketing is common and successful. A collab with Sherwin-Williams or something would just make the Slate more of a "work truck", and people who actually want/need a work truck have the actual truck specs and the Blank Slate to get excited over.

Not everyone has such a strong aversion to joy and whimsy that they'd refuse to buy a car that otherwise has enough gray composite and mounting rails to pass as an Armalite collab just because it can be ordered with colorful wraps.

I'm reasonably certain a lot of grown women would like being called "cute". Methinks this is what the youths would call a "skill issue".

Master Douche and Lambo Squad. smh. What's next? Monster? And the color scheme is worse than anything Crayola.

What? I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of Monster Energy themed Lamborghinis. That's ENTIRELY on-brand. Is this your way of hinting that everything you've said thus far has been entirely sarcastic? You should just say things like that directly instead of trying to maintain kayfabe, because it's confusing.

 

[im_a_dirty_dirty_slate]

Nostalgia marketing is common and successful. A collab with Sherwin-Williams or something would just make the Slate more of a "work truck", and people who actually want/need a work truck have the actual truck specs and the Blank Slate to get excited over.

Not everyone has such a strong aversion to joy and whimsy that they'd refuse to buy a car that otherwise has enough gray composite and mounting rails to pass as an Armalite collab just because it can be ordered with colorful wraps.

I'm reasonably certain a lot of grown women would like being called "cute". Methinks this is what the youths would call a "skill issue".

What? I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of Monster Energy themed Lamborghinis. That's ENTIRELY on-brand. Is this your way of hinting that everything you've said thus far has been entirely sarcastic? You should just say things like that directly instead of trying to maintain kayfabe, because it's confusing.

If this is the game you want to play... not everybody has your abject lack of reading comprehension or ignorant take take on marketing, but I'll try to educate you nonetheless.

The primary driver of car purchasing is image, end stop. People talk about reliability, efficiency, and a lot of other jazz, but mainly they see a car and get a feeling of what that car says about them. This is why brand is the very first thing they look at, be it Crayola or Slate or BMW. Am I the type of person who buys Crayola for my kids, or Cra-Z-art? Ugh, I don't want my kids to pull out the Cra-Z-art and have the other kids think they're poor. It is not an entirely conscious process.

You get people who only buys Ford trucks but never put anything in the bed, or only buy Subarus but never throw a bike in the back and drives to the mountains. Still, they identify with these frankly masculine images. Minivans were heavily marketed as cars for families, and specifically for women. Hence, the makers sell a lot more trucks, despite the face that minivans are superior in almost every scenario to trucks.

The number of people buying a Lamborghini and also pounding Monsters is small. The number of people who buy Lamborghini and want their purchase associated with an energy drink label is even smaller. Think Tate brothers. Lambo, the Tate brand. I think Lambo wants to avoid that but good marketers are hard to find. Case and point, you think it's a good brand association. That is a failure of Lambo marketing. The more track-oriented driver will head to McLaren. The one who wants to appear sophisticated will go for Ferrari. The one who wants subtly and doesn't want to appear snobby will get a Porsche. The fact that a Corvette is just as fast or faster and has 90% of the feel for less money will not get them into the Chevy dealer, because a Chevy? Really? What would that say about me? I'm not a balding, middle-aged man who wants to recapture his youth! OK, I am a balding, middle-aged man who wants to recapture his youth, but dammit, I don't want to see myself as one, so I'll spend 2-10 times more on another brand. Plus, I don't want to look right wing.

Are you getting it yet? Do you know what the true track rat usually gets? A Miata, or maybe a BRZ if they have kids and only want one car.

So Crayola and the kid on the hood and the mom are just crap marketing. Ask the minivan. 8:1 sales rates. 8. To. 1.

 

[kvermeer]

Neither are cute, but few people are willing to pay for cute for their car, as cars are associated with identity. Call a grown woman "cute" and see how she responds. Hint: not well.

Depends on the woman. Also, someone doesn't have to think of themselves as merely "cute" to enjoy owning, driving, wearing, or decorating with things that are cute: that stuff sells by the truckload.

 

[Adam W]

So Crayola and the kid on the hood and the mom are just crap marketing.

Slate's marketing is crushing it, dispite what you think it should be. Their approach has broken containment of the traditional automotive press a number of times, most recently with a call out in Architect magazine. They've been getting the truck in front of a much wider audience, getting people that would never look at a truck to take notice. You seem to have a very narrow view of what a truck should be; anything that challenges your fragile sensibilities is instantly waved away as crap, and anyone that disagrees with you just has a problem with reading comprehension. The continued marketing god schtick is boring.

I've never seen a grown adult get so upset about crayons.

 

[KevinRS]

The idea of a paint store partnering with Slate in a collab is kind of odd. Are they going to paint the truck with house paint?
It's a truck you wrap. not one you paint.
Now sure I've seen painters driving wrapped trucks, with a bunch of splotches of color on the wrap to advertise their business, but I can't see a company that makes paint getting in on a collab at this stage, 5 months before the truck ships. A paint store/company could surely buy a fleet of trucks, and wrap it with their branding and maybe images of paint chips or something, but I can't see them buying in on cross advertising with a collab on an upcoming truck.

 

[tubes]

 

[CorvusCorvax]

[cringe]

I doubt, very seriously, that you have ever worked in marketing. BUT, that really doesn't matter at all - the internet is full of folks who like to think they know stuff. The anonymous nature of the medium almost encourages it, sadly.

I own a classic Porsche, AND a full-size truck. And a couple of station wagons. I worked like you wouldn't believe to get my wife into a minivan when our first was born. What a rig to haul all the crap a young kid seems to require, plus some adults, plus a dog. No dice. She had no desire to "graduate" to a mom-mobile after driving European performance sedans. I was able, after some amount of time (and the amount of gear Tetris with a smallish Audi sedan requires) to talk her into a European station wagon.

BINGO. Cargo plus not-minivan. See, we have two people here. She is one of those folks that resembles the folks you talk about. Fast forward 10 years further along. Oldest is 10, youngest is 6. We're going to drive around Yellowstone, and I'm tasked with getting the vehicle. You guessed it - minivan. Would you like to know who, after the trip, said "you were right. I should have listened to you"? It wasn't me, as a hint. And now, when the kids are full-grown, she still prefers wagons. Even though the practicality is not needed any more. I like my E91 because station wagons are invisible to law enforcement, and because mine is a unicorn in the U.S. - RWD, 6SP, no iDrive - in essence, the stripper model Touring of that year. Is a picture forming? I am all about the simplest vehicle I can get, that solves the practical purpose. Even my classic Porsche fits this mold, if you understand my priorities.

So does Slate. The truck we have doesn't fit our needs. Too big, too thirsty, starting to get to it's "fix me often" stage of its life. What comes along but a truck that will do every, single truck thing that we need, doesn't require so much input with maintenance, repair, fuel, storage space - and SIMPLE. No reporting back to the mothership, no giant pile of infotainment and nested menus, just a simple truck like the one I drove on the farm, except better. Now it can be my daily commuter, and I can charge it at work, so operating costs are even further reduced. Since fuel for the truck and the BMW run me over $3k/year, I see a 9-year payback on investment in just fuel costs.

I don't care that some people think it looks cool. I *do* care that I won't have to go to a dealer for it. That I won't have to accept a trim package of fifteen things to get the one thing I want. And, after ALL of that, I get a simple, practical *new* vehicle, after a lifetime of used vehicles, chosen for (most often) practical purposes. Slate can market however they want, and it won't affect me at all.

 

[bartflossom]

I'm gonna age myself her, as if I haven't already. I remember the "collab" Levi's Gremlin. Not to mention the Bicentennial Maverick.

 

[Luxrage]

Ignoring the rest of it, I think a Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams collab wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. It's not Paint vs Wrap, more that people would trust them to curate color collections that would be pleasing together in a multi-color wrap and interior package. Hand picked by the same design experts that curate their paint pallettes.

The Woodland Charm Slate by Benjamin Moore

Dark walnut and Forest Green two-tone wrap with Golden meadow accents. Birchwood and Baby Fawn color-keyed arm rests and dash trim. I'd kinda dig it.