Despite Porsche officially turning down MINI’s offer of a race, MINI USA is still pressing ahead with their public campaign. According to our sources they are going to create a public campaign (perhaps even a petition) to get Porsche to Road Atlanta for the race on the 21st of June. Stay tuned…
Leave a comment
<p>Well just got the petition email from MINIUSA. I for am not going to do anything with this personally. If MINI feels like racing something why not align up against its real competition.</p>
<p>Petition on Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/MINIUSA?v=app_122731241101196" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.facebook.com/MINIUSA?v=app_122731241101196</a></p>
<p>That petition was on on their FB face since this challenge came about. It’s not something that was put up since Porsche turned them down.</p>
<p>Race or not, this has already proven to be great publicity for both co.’s.</p>
<p>MINI should say they will donate X amount to charity if Porsche will race them.</p>
<p>Then it is a fun charity event and not a straight out race.</p>
<p>It will make MINI look even better and Porsche would have to really think hard before throwing that out because of a PR backlash.</p>
<p>agree completely.</p>
<p>Imagine the amount of media this would get if it were for charity. I would imagine that owners of both parties would appreciate that.</p>
<p>Just get a old porsche racer from the day and line it up with a MINI, thats what might happen in the end.</p>
<p>BTW, I don’t like porsche first statement.</p>
<p>If MINI are as serious about this as they seem, why don’t they get together a team and race officially like Porsche suggests. If MINI are confident in beating them in a race, lets do it properly!</p>
<p>Tim, MINI is not serious about racing Porsche – they knew going in Porsche would decline – not a thing in it for them – not their demographic regardless of the fact that Porsche would wipe the track with MINI. It’s called viral marketing. Stir up a tempest in a teapot by issuing a challenge whose sole purpose is to subliminally imply to your customer demographic that your $30,000 cars can compete, performance-wise, with a $120,000 Porsche. Then have the MINI community loudly arguing MINI’s merits. Marketing for the 21st Century.</p>
p>@MKH</p
<p>100% TOTALLY TRUE!!!
I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. MINI is already laying the groundwork for serious racing again. Teams like Octane Motorsports up here in Canada are tearing up the Touring Car circuit. Teams in the States like the RSR guys are also not only competing…but winning!!!</p>
<p>This stunt by MINI is pure PR</p>
<p>That’s fair enough but what would of happened if Porsche accepted and basically made MINI look a bit silly? I know it was a light hearted challenge but to me it just doesn’t seem necessary. I can’t see how this type of PR works? =S</p>
<p>Tim – Porsche would never in a million years do it. By accepting, they would implicitly by that action lend weight to MINI’s subliminal(and false) marketing message that a $30K MINI is near the same competitive plane in performance as a $120K Porsche. At the same time, they diminish the Porsche brand with it’s demographic by implying that they ARE being challenged by a much less expensive niche car, and they have to go “prove” to everyone they can beat the MINI. Even if Porsche blows the doors of the MINI on the track, and laps them several times (as would likely happen) – Porsche would end up looking bad to their market, while shining a nice bright light on MINI. While on top of it all, Porsche or no Porsche MINI wins. They get to pretend they are “stuff” enough to race a Porsche to their sales demographic, and beat their chest and look heroic when they are turned down.</p>
<p>Ah, I see what you mean now. As you can probably tell, marketing isn’t one of my strengths. It seems quite clear that American marketing campaigns are much more different to those in Europe. What I would of like to have seen is a marketing stunt like this that unveiled a new 300BHP RWD JCW GP!! Let’s see Porsche turn that down!</p>
<p>While I believe most of what MKH says is true (with the exception of the subliminal part, I don’t seriously think, once the results were in, that simply because a Porsche raced a MINI that people would consider the two equivalent vehicle), Porsche should still do it (But insist on the full track, not a portion of the track). They’d crush the MINI. Everyone wins.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if Porsche increases MINI’s cred by accepting the challenge–these two cars are in two totally different segments. Not too many people are cross shopping a GT3 with a JCW…</p>
<p>But if Porsche does something special, sets a track record for instance, and the MINI looks half way respectable, like I said, everyone wins. And in the process, maybe some of the snobbery associated with Porsche is rubbed away, and maybe for MINI, people will take it a little more seriously. No one hurts anyone’s sales, and both companies come out smelling like a rose. As for Porsche looking bad to their market, if they killed the MINI, I really don’t see this being an issue. People with that attitude will point out the superiority of the Porsche more than anything else…</p>
<p>But by the tone of Porsche’s letter, doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.</p>
<p>Well since I’m right here in Atlanta, Way Motor Works will definetly be making the trip to Road Atlanta to see what happens.</p>