For its newest round of marketing, Land Rover is coming down from the mountain and into the city.
The luxury auto brand — synonymous with outdoorsy ads for its lineup of crossovers and SUVs — is taking a more urban approach for the U.S. launch of its redesigned Range Rover Evoque.
The vehicle, the smallest one in Land Rover's fleet, is part of the highly competitive compact crossover segment. As sedans and compact cars continue to fall out of favor with consumers, high-riding smaller crossovers and SUVs have emerged as a huge priority for automakers. Land Rover has sold more than 772,000 Evoques globally since the first-generation model debuted in 2011, according to Automotive News.
Evoque's U.S. sales fell 17 percent in 2018 to 9,197 deliveries even while Jaguar Land Rover's total U.S. sales grew 7.3 percent.
For the redesigned 2020 model, which hits dealers soon, Land Rover is making a concerted effort to lure female and urban buyers. Roughly 70 percent of the buyers of the first-generation Evoque were women, many of them under the age of 35, said Kim McCullough, vice president of marketing for Jaguar Land Rover North America, in an interview last week at the Chicago Auto Show.
The 2020 model, which has a starting price of $43,645 (including shipping) is "a really important product for us to bring a different type of buyer into the brand overall," McCullough said.
The U.S. national campaign, called "Live for the City," is expected to debut on April 1 with ads by the brand's global agency, Spark44. Ad buys target female-friendly networks like Bravo, E! and HGTV. Land Rover will also pepper 10 key urban markets with videos tailored to local tastes produced by Cool Hunting, an online publication.
Marketing also includes a partnership with The Wing, a network of work spaces designed for women in New York, San Francisco and other cities. Plans include using Land Rover vehicles in conjunction with The Wing's "Camp No Man's Land," which involves nature excursions with activities such as a "bro-less beer pong tourney," according to a trip agenda from last year posted on its website.
