After listing to the Ward's Auto podcast with Mr. Keogh I have a few thoughts.
Words on a screen often come across as significantly more aggressive than intended. I'm offering a mild critique. This is not an attack or castigation nor am I looking to censure anyone. Quite the opposite, I have a great appreciation for the open lines of communication and I commend Scout Motors for having an open forum for us to speak. It shows that you respect the history of the Scout, including the demise of IH when the execs stubbornly ignored their dealers, customers, and employees. I feel the concerns of those who love the classic Scouts are being heard. I also feel this board isn't just here for us to say 'atta boy' to everything and many folks have a reluctance to offer their dissenting opinions in a constructive manner. I'm not one of those guys.
I think it's important to avoid corporate jargon when interviewed about the Scout.
Corporate jargon has its time and place. If you're talking about the company as a whole on Morning Surveillance with Jon, Tom, and Lisa, throw it all out there. That's where you are talking to investors, the management of competitors, and other peers in the business world. They want to hear it. If you're talking to Audi buyers it'll work, they are probably in a lot of meetings throwing the jargon around themselves. Same with VW buyers; they are in the cubes calculating their path to becoming one of the Audi crowd.
I know Ward's is an industry news source and not geared toward the public. That's not going to matter until the Scout is widely available. A lot of people bought cars during the pandemic. The novelty is wearing off, but they still have 3 or 4 years until they are going to trade it in. That just happens to line up with the projected release date. Those people are daydreaming about what they want next. The ones looking for an off-roader are clamoring for anything that will enhance the daydream. They're paying more attention than many acknowledge, and they are looking for any morsel of info on the Scout. That includes industry publications and automotive news sites that summarize those sources.
To me, Jargon is off-putting when talking about the Scout. The Scout is freedom from that. The Scout takes me to where my cell phone has no service, which is the only place on earth where I can disconnect from office life. It's where I go to have some feeling of reconnecting with my blue-collar roots.
it takes me to places that are serene where I can clear my mind and feel refreshed when Monday rolls around.
My dad was a school bus driver, my grandfather a coal miner. When I sit in the Scout I want to relive the times I had with those men and feel like they are still right there with me. The last thing I want to think about is synergizing action items of paradigm shift and functionality while full stop unpacking pain points. I certainly don't want to hear the ever-present, severely demeaning verbal crutches of "Look" & "at the end of the day". I pride myself on being a consumer advocate and the polite dissenting voice in the office, I sure do hear those last two A LOT!
I'm not asking you to make a point of screaming "Raise hell, praise Dale!" every time the word Scout is heard. Just use the vernacular you would in the Scout with family or a close friend.
That's who all Scout owners are. We are your friends that become family or family that is also your best friend. We're the people that'll still hold a door for you, we'll stop and help a stranger with a flat, or rush over to help someone load something heavy in a parking lot. Let's preserve that very special heritage. Let's not allow Scout Motors to devolve into just another soulless bunch of numbers on a spreadsheet & culture swamped with office idioms. We're talking about the Scout here. It's different in every way. The Scout needs to be spoken of with a certain reverence like nothing else in the auto industry. That's simply because anything less is just a car.
now, about that removable roof....
Words on a screen often come across as significantly more aggressive than intended. I'm offering a mild critique. This is not an attack or castigation nor am I looking to censure anyone. Quite the opposite, I have a great appreciation for the open lines of communication and I commend Scout Motors for having an open forum for us to speak. It shows that you respect the history of the Scout, including the demise of IH when the execs stubbornly ignored their dealers, customers, and employees. I feel the concerns of those who love the classic Scouts are being heard. I also feel this board isn't just here for us to say 'atta boy' to everything and many folks have a reluctance to offer their dissenting opinions in a constructive manner. I'm not one of those guys.
I think it's important to avoid corporate jargon when interviewed about the Scout.
Corporate jargon has its time and place. If you're talking about the company as a whole on Morning Surveillance with Jon, Tom, and Lisa, throw it all out there. That's where you are talking to investors, the management of competitors, and other peers in the business world. They want to hear it. If you're talking to Audi buyers it'll work, they are probably in a lot of meetings throwing the jargon around themselves. Same with VW buyers; they are in the cubes calculating their path to becoming one of the Audi crowd.
I know Ward's is an industry news source and not geared toward the public. That's not going to matter until the Scout is widely available. A lot of people bought cars during the pandemic. The novelty is wearing off, but they still have 3 or 4 years until they are going to trade it in. That just happens to line up with the projected release date. Those people are daydreaming about what they want next. The ones looking for an off-roader are clamoring for anything that will enhance the daydream. They're paying more attention than many acknowledge, and they are looking for any morsel of info on the Scout. That includes industry publications and automotive news sites that summarize those sources.
To me, Jargon is off-putting when talking about the Scout. The Scout is freedom from that. The Scout takes me to where my cell phone has no service, which is the only place on earth where I can disconnect from office life. It's where I go to have some feeling of reconnecting with my blue-collar roots.
it takes me to places that are serene where I can clear my mind and feel refreshed when Monday rolls around.
My dad was a school bus driver, my grandfather a coal miner. When I sit in the Scout I want to relive the times I had with those men and feel like they are still right there with me. The last thing I want to think about is synergizing action items of paradigm shift and functionality while full stop unpacking pain points. I certainly don't want to hear the ever-present, severely demeaning verbal crutches of "Look" & "at the end of the day". I pride myself on being a consumer advocate and the polite dissenting voice in the office, I sure do hear those last two A LOT!
I'm not asking you to make a point of screaming "Raise hell, praise Dale!" every time the word Scout is heard. Just use the vernacular you would in the Scout with family or a close friend.
That's who all Scout owners are. We are your friends that become family or family that is also your best friend. We're the people that'll still hold a door for you, we'll stop and help a stranger with a flat, or rush over to help someone load something heavy in a parking lot. Let's preserve that very special heritage. Let's not allow Scout Motors to devolve into just another soulless bunch of numbers on a spreadsheet & culture swamped with office idioms. We're talking about the Scout here. It's different in every way. The Scout needs to be spoken of with a certain reverence like nothing else in the auto industry. That's simply because anything less is just a car.
now, about that removable roof....
