Brand Swag: Trump Mobile T1 ‘Made in America’ - Part infinity Fail
Campaign: Trump Mobile Phone - "‘Made in America”
Objective: A few tweaks in the wording solved the issue of false claims of “Made in USA” which was quickly challenged because there are no smartphones made in America. They got around it by changing the slogan to, "Premium Performance. Proudly American". The site states that the device is "designed with American values in mind" and that "American hands stand behind every device". In the "Key Features" section, it is first noted: "Design, proudly American"... However, this does not indicate that the smartphone is manufactured or was developed directly in the USA.
Why it DOESN’T work:
UPDATE: It gets worse, they leaked thousands of customers’ data: “Trump Mobile’s big phone debut has hit a dropped call before the devices could even land in customers’ hands. Days ahead of the release of its T1 Phone, the company confirmed that a large cache of customer information had been left exposed online.
The issue reportedly affected more than 27,000 customers who had pre-ordered the gold-colored smartphone or signed up for Trump Mobile services. Exposed records included names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, account identifiers, and preorder details. Trump Mobile blamed a third-party platform provider tied to its operations, saying its own internal systems were not directly breached.
According to researchers who examined the flaw, customer records could allegedly be accessed through basic HTTP requests on the company’s website. The exposed database apparently contained personal contact details, shipping addresses, customer numbers, and preorder IDs tied to thousands of users. The vulnerability was later patched, but not before the information had potentially been viewed or downloaded by others online.
1. In the world of marketing, be careful about what you say; it will come back to haunt you. The Trump team tried spectacularly to brand their newest product a smartphone under the umbrella, “Made in America”, however, they were challenged and quickly made an about-face.
2. Trump wants to own the American experience and everything associated with it, even the words themselves, but one thing is true for him: his poor quality reigns supreme. Faulty products, misleading claims, and “alternative facts” always supersede everything else. This time, it’s his claim that is easily debunked.
3. Clever tweaking of their words from ‘Made in America’ to "Premium Performance. Proudly American" - just doesn’t have the same punch. Nice try, though.
4. What kind of shoddy business leaks their customer’s information? I mean seriously. This is wrong, (yet on-brand) for them. First, people shell out their hard-earned money at the cost of $600 a pop, wait around for over a year, then have their information leaked. It’s insult on top of insult.
