Monday, February 25, 2008

Press Release for JCOM 2300

Corey Sparks

JCOM 2300

Assignment #2

I picked a recent press survey from BMW to do my assignment on. The press release from BMW was an announcement for the MINI John Cooper Works and the MINI John Cooper Works Clubman. This announcement shows that they are taking a previous model of their MINI and their even newer Clubman and are making a higher grade model more in line for those people who like to drive everywhere like it’s a race. These two specific models are driver’s cars. From their bigger and faster engines down to their redesigned underpinnings that will help the car be more stable and able to turn sharper.

The first article I found was at a website called Autoblog. This is a site where they take all the news that comes out in the automobile industry, in this case the actual press release, and then they write an article about what they really think of it from a consumer standpoint. This article was written by Michael Harley and was a very positive overview of the press release. He goes through and talks about how the new engine will be even faster then the old one. The new suspension and transmission are both upgrades as well, along with a newly upgraded interior that give the car an even better look as well. The overall tone of the article was extremely positive, with nothing in it that showed a negative side. Even the sticker price for the car was mentioned, but right afterwards he hinted that you might need to “storm your dealers” explaining that for what you are getting, it really is a good price.

The automobile world is very vocal if they think that any new innovations that a company is coming out with soon, might be a bad idea. But the one thing you can always count on, is if you have a company, like BMW, that is highly regarded especially as a “driver’s car company” any new press release that adds to this overall idea will be regarded extremely highly. It’s just how most people want to envision driving a car everyday of their lives.

The next article I found was at a website called Winding Road that seems to cater pretty exclusively for those people who like to drive a car like they envision it should be driven. Meaning if you own a car that has any sort of history as a race car, then you shouldn’t hesitate to drive your car that same way. The article was written by Dustin P. Walsh and is another announcement for the brand new MINI’s. The cars originally debuted at the Geneva Motor Show and this article just goes into a little more explanation about them. It talks about the brand new turbocharged and direct injected engine putting out 207 horsepower and how fast to 60 miles per hour it will be. It also goes into minimal detail about some of the new upgrades: light alloy rims, light and extremely high- performance brakes, a new exhaust system, and a modified six-speed manual transmission.

The overall tone of this article is once again extremely positive as well. Both of these two editors probably pride themselves on being very knowledgeable on how to drive a car, and they both probably like BMW. Most people usually have a pretty hard time finding a lot of fault with a company like BMW, because they market themselves so well. The company logo is “BMW, The Ultimate Driving Machine.” And if you drive a BMW, you totally believe in this. Ask either one of my parents. They bought one a few years ago, and not only did I always have to hear about how great their car was, over and over again, but they were extremely proud of that car. I think with the great engineering and great marketing of their products, bring about an immense source of pride and happiness to the customers.

These two articles were actually incredibly easy to find using Google’s search engine and the simple key words from the press release. If you are in the automobile industry you probably like to talk about cars all the time. And there are multiple magazines out there that contribute to these desires. The automobile industry is changing incredibly fast, especially in the face of all the environmental concerns and the fact that the government is getting ready to enforce a few laws in the next few years. The press release that I used was very good. It talks about the upcoming cars in a way that makes them look like everybody who wants to be somebody should own one. My only complaint was after the first couple of paragraphs, it lapsed into lots of technical specs that really made me just gloss over some of the paragraphs. And the press release was incredibly long. Automobile companies are always bringing out special editions and more superior upgraded models every year, and for the most part these “new” cars are always looked upon eagerly and with a feeling of longing towards them. This press release was no different. In the past, MINI has taken the John Cooper name, upgraded their current platforms, and sold these upgraded models for a premium price above the everyday current models. It seems like they’ve found a winning idea that their consumers appreciate, and they’re following the proven road and doing it once again.

1 comment:

Nolan said...

looks like you have a lot of good info to set you up for the press release. good luck!