Of course, behavioral metrics are not required for Lexus to know that delivering a superior product at a relatively low price is a smart business plan. Knowing what limitations customers will tolerate (e.g. unavailable options, compromise in quality of materials) in the service offering this relatively low price requires research. If I understand Glashub correctly, part of what he was sayng was that Lexus must undertake such research in its sub markets, generating mathmatical models which can tell what potential buyers will insist upon, what they might prefer, and what they will tolerate. These powerful analyses help them satisfy their target markets, boosting sales.

 

^^^^

Yes, CtsFox. That's exactly right.

SonyHome may dismiss me and basically say I don't know what I'm talking about but I'm betting he didn't read my posts in their entirety nor did he click through the link to look at the Influence book I provided.

Okay SonyHome. You win. I haven't a clue as to what I'm talking about. You're right. But let me say this -- based on your choice of an alias name for this forum and the fact that you live in MN -- I could just off the top of my head using only 12 years of digital marketing experience -- without using any ready available behavioral data -- put together a probable biographical profile of what you would buy, your price point tolerance, and what you consider valuable/not valuable, your HHI, etc.

You really doubt that Lexus with MIT graduates in its employ and sophisticated programs run by people with hacker quality skill sets doesn't know how to be uber efficient in manufacturing and marketing and profit making?

This multi-billion dollar company with access to user generated data for billions of people can't put together recursive, behavioral, and predictive models? I drove today with a buddy in an expensive Audi. No butt coolers, rear shade, nav or mirrors that go down. I asked why. He said -- it just isn't important to him. There are a lot of people like that. They want the brand or they just like the car with or without the features.

Finally why do you think the 50K mark is important in America? 1. Americans expect more quality and to pay less. We think it's our constitutional right. Hence sweatshops in Asia. But more than that -- people buying an IS are not 1%'ers. We may be the top 10% but there is an increasing divide between the 1% and the remaining 9%. The remaining 9% see adjusted wealth at about what it was in 1989. That 9% has real ideas of how much we'll spend and on what.

IS buyers are not as important to Lexus as GS buyers and LS buyers and LS buyers are the most important imo because the margins are much bigger on those cars.

The verbiage about the 10% etc. is my opinion.

 

There is probably some truth to that.

 

Knowing that the options that are missing in the US are available in other markets clearly indicates that Lexus chose not to offer them based on factors other than manufacturing.

I refuse to believe that Lexus couldn't offer an F-sport Luxury edition with the features we all want and charge another $2-3k or some appropriate price for the bundle, thus pushing the OTD price into the mid 50's for an IS350. I think park assist, rain sensing wipers, cooled seats, memory seats (along with the currently available radar cruise & sunshade) could be done for $2000-2500 MSRP.

If Lexus doesn't believe they wouldn't sell a good percentage of cars with this option package then they are fools. Are the losing sales because of it? Maybe not a significant amount. But if the comments in this forum are any indication, the lack of these features is causing some on here to delay their purchases for another year or two in the hopes that these features will be offered in upcoming model years.

But then what would we have to complain about?

Edited to add: I was initially extremely disappointed at the lack of memory & cooled seats and other features with the F-sport and if I wasn't ready for a new car with my old one being 5 years old I would have delayed my purchase as well.

 

The money they're losing in sales is more than compensated for by the money saved in setting up factories and assembly lines to accommodate outliers who would pay 55-60K for a small car -- for an IS imo.

I think most of the people who own the IS on this forum bought the Fsport.

 

Not trying to argue with you. You have some very good points and some of what you say may be true but to say Lexus knows exactly what their customers are looking for is the statement I disagree with.

Also your assumptions about my user name may be incorrect. I tried to get my usual car forum id but this forum did not allow it for some reason. I have not purchased Sony product since my XBR2-70" got the green blob.

 

lol Yes but -- there may be actionable significance that you defaulted to that name. I may be wrong but it would be worth the investment to test. See what I mean? I'm not saying Lexus knows what each person wants -- data gathering isn't there yet.-- and may never be there.

Want to read about something cool? Really smart people around the world want to make this happen.

"Psychohistory depends on the idea that, while one cannot foresee the actions of a particular individual, the laws of statistics as applied to large groups of people could predict the general flow of future events. Asimov used the analogy of a gas: an observer has great difficulty in predicting the motion of a single molecule in a gas, but can predict the mass action of the gas to a high level of accuracy."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional)

 

Link didn't work.

Which IS do you drive?

 

You guys should hug it out, lol.

With every car, there's always something I don't like, but I gotta say that even without the butt coolers, mirror tilt and fog lights, I still really love this car.

 

LOL! I'm still considering IS F Sport but definitely my decision got tougher. Unlike most here I try to pay cash for my car and keep it for 8 - 10+ years. My current car is 12 years old with 120k miles. It's still running good so I'm not in a hurry to purchase but IS F definitely got my attention.

 

My last car was a Camry, and I finally pulled the trigger on the 3IS, and it might've been the best decision I've made in years. I had my Camry for 12 years. Also, I buy my car, not lease, so I think longer term too. I've learned that you will end up losing out on half the fun if you over think things.

 

Nobody in this planet stupid enough to spend $50K for a car that not even has memory seat. I think memory seat has come out a long time, and it must be standard by now.

 

It may kill the deal for you, but not true for everyone.

 

That's probably true but I've learned over the years that there is no reason to rush into things especially if it's not exactly what you want. I want something I won't regret for next 10 years and that may be getting features I want.

 

Yeah, I'm like you, I buy and hold. My car I am selling is a 2002 BMW 330xi with 150,000 miles on it Ordered a IS 350 F Sport AWD (Nebula/Red, Nav/ML) coming in November. I plan to keep this car (fingers crossed) at least as long as my 1999 Rx 300 with 200,000 miles on it and still running well!