Ditzy Docherty Makes Waves In Deutschland, Blames Ill-Informed Customers For Lack Of Chevy Sales
Yesterday, we wrote about Susan Docherty’s grand strategy for Cadillac: Make Cadillac great in Europe to convince the Chinese to buy Cadillac. Clever strategy. But what if it fails in Europe? Trust me, its European failure is assured. In the meantime, the story has landed in Europe. Germany’s premiere car dealer magazine Der Kfz-Betrieb runs with the story today (with a nice shout-out to TTAC, Danke.)
The experts at Der KFz-Betrieb give the grand Cadillac strategy only passing mention and recommend to check with TTAC if someone wants an assessment. What the magazine is most interested in are Docherty’s comments about the “lackluster performance of Chevrolet in Europe.”
Docherty blames the ill-informed European customer. Docherty said that European customers know Chevrolet only for its Corvette and Camaro. “What they don’t know is the Spark and Aveo and Cruze and Orlando, and the newest one we’re about to launch, the Trax,” Docherty told WardsAuto. “Not only are we trying to raise the opinion of Chevrolet and Cadillac, we’ve got to increase the overall awareness.” Again, another laser-sharp Dochertanian observation.
Right on, says Kfz Betrieb: “German Opel and Chevrolet dealers have demanded more advertising for years. Chevrolet Germany however only wants to spend more for advertising when the dealers have moved more cars.” While chicken waits for egg and egg waits for chicken, Chevrolet’s sales dropped 40 percent in January in Europe.
While dealers are waiting for ads and GM is waiting for dealers to make them some money, there is plenty money to sponsor Manchester United. Says Kfz-Betrieb: “This deal did cost GM half a billion Euro, but it will hardly significantly raise the awareness of the brand and its specific products throughout Europe.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Instead of trying to sell Cadillacs to those who will never buy them (no one buyed the Cadillac BLS wagon! diesel! stick! aka Saab 9-3 - it was an answer to a question no one ever asked) - build a new halo car for Europe, just for car shows, the press and showrooms. Opel Diplomat "4 dr Coupé" based on the Cadillac XTS, baroque, curvy and plenty of headroom in the backseat. I6 triturbo diesel shopped at BMW. Rolf Benz leather. Elm wood trim. Glashütte dash clock. T+A sound system. Handbuilt in the Bochum plant. Limited to 150 units, half of them armoured. Plus 50 convertibles. Why all the effort? Just to sell an XTS based high volume Opel Admiral. And an rebageded ATS based Opel Kapitän.
You are really going beyond the truth here. What she said is that the customer is uniformed about the products. She didn't say it was the customers fault that they don't know about the products. She is saying that GM hasn't informed them. When consumers don't know about the products, it is a marketing failure. In this case, it is also a product failure because of the lack of diesel options, including what Caddy is doing. I get it, you don't like Docherty, but be honest with the criticism.