Motorola Hypes Made-in-the-US Label in Major Dailies’ Independence Day Eve Ads
On the eve of Independence Day celebrations in the U.S., Motorola attempted to appeal to the patriotic spirit of Americans by coming out with ads in major dailies hyping the fact that the smartphones made by the tech firm are made in the U.S.
The full-page spread came out in the July 3 editions of The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. The advert is selling consumers the Motorola X smartphone, rumoured to be rolled out sometime in October 2013.
Motorola Mobility and Google, the current owner of the iconic mobile phone brand, stress in the advert that the upcoming device is assembled in the U.S., unlike the best-selling Samsung phones that are made in South Korea or the HTC handheld units that are manufactured in Taiwan.
It seeks to appeal to their sense of national loyalty since buying phones assembled in other nations is partly to be blamed for the unemployment problem in the U.S.
But more than the fact of the unit being made in their homeland, the advert also hinted that phone owners could customise the design and hardware specs of the Motorola X.
The copy reads: "The first smartphone that you can design yourself. Because today you should have the freedom to design the things in your life to be as unique as you are."
The hint could imply the buyer having the option to choose a colour, build materials, extra memory, processing power and other specs usually pre-determined by the device designer and maker.
Motorola Vice President of Global Brand and Product Marketing Brian Wallace compared smartphones to more personal items such as the shoe or the watch. "You carry it with you everywhere you go. Everyone else sees what phone you're carrying and they judge you on it. Yet, it's the one thing you carry that's the least customizable," Techradar quoted the Motorola official.