#Marketing
Buick Envision: A Ghost Unicorn Waiting for the Spotlight
Raise your hands if you’ve seen a Buick Envision, or even heard someone mention it?
The Chinese-built crossover is now on sale in the U.S., but you’d be forgiven for not knowing that. Due to a case of odd timing, the model will see a short (and expensive) 2016 model year before all trim lines go on sale this fall as a 2017 model.
With no advertising to be found, it seems General Motors figured “Nah, we’ll tell them about it later.”
Vellum Venom Vignette: The Proliferation of Plastic Cladding
Mercedes-Benz Isn't Popular With Women, but Wooing Them Could Be Dangerous
Women play a very large role in the purchase of new vehicles, and automakers are scrambling to tap into the demographic — among them, the staid, dignified and traditionally male-centric Mercedes-Benz.
The German automaker wants to throw off that old image and make itself the top premium car brand for women by 2020, according to Automotive News.
Crossovers Will Take Over the World, And Here's Proof
Once they’re behind the wheel of an SUV or crossover, it seems drivers stop wanting anything else.
That’s the gist of a report by IHS Automotive, which found that SUVs and crossovers have the highest owner loyalty rates of any body style in the industry.
Once you go big (and boxy), you never go back.
TTAC Reader Unimpressed With Tone Deaf Volkswagen Mailout
Pity poor Volkswagen. It’s constantly accused of doing the wrong thing in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal.
But guess what? There’s reason for it, and here’s yet another example.
TTAC reader Rudy Lukez has waited months to find out what Volkswagen plans to do with his 2014 Jetta Sportwagen TDI. So, when a package from the company showed up in his Highlands Ranch, Colorado mailbox this morning, the repeat Volkswagen owner figured his questions were about to be answered.
Wyper Wants You to Find Your Next Car the Same Way You Would a One-Night Stand
Automotive search startup AU.TO is getting into the mobile game, and it wants you to find your next car in the same way you judge members of the opposite (or same) sex — at the swipe of a thumb.
AU.TO’s newest initiative is called Wyper (rhymes with “swiper”), and the company bills the app as “Tinder for Cars.”
I found this interesting, so I asked a few questions.
Priceonomics Details Subaru's Lesbian Marketing Love Affair
Subaru didn’t always enjoy the recession-beating success it’s famous for today. In the ’90s, sales at Subaru were in the tank, and marketers in the company needed to do something different.
After identifying core groups interested in its cars, Subaru found something curious: lesbians, for whatever reason, loved Subaru. For our edutainment, Priceonomics has detailed the history of Subaru loving those lesbians right back.
Matthew McConaughey's Intense Lincoln Love Affair Isn't Over
Perplexing. Mysterious. But most of all, masculine. If Matthew McConaughey wasn’t already human, he’d be a cologne.
Everyone’s favorite slow-talking actor is back, and he’s ready for more puzzling and cerebral Lincoln ads. What unfathomable essence lurks within the heart of this man, you ask.
Words Have Meaning: Dodge Is Not The Fastest-Growing Performance Brand In America, Whatever That Means
After climbing to a five-year high in 2013, sales at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Dodge brand fell 4 percent in calendar year 2014 and a further 10 percent in 2015.
So when TTAC columnist Bark M. tweeted a Dodge marketing tagline — “Fastest Growing American Performance Brand” — my confusion, doubt and skepticism were kindled.
Bark heard the tagline in a radio ad, which unfortunately isn’t Googleable. However, he swiftly supplied a link to this 2016 Dodge brochure in which the following claim is made: “The Dodge brand may have started from humble beginnings, but it is now the fastest-growing performance brand.[1]*”
Seriously? Let’s look into it.
Cadillac to Open Artsy Manhattan Coffee Shop; Idea is Either Brilliant or Terrible
Will there be black berets, obscure Russian poetry and Yoko Ono albums for sale at the door?
Fans of the General no doubt recoiled in horror at reports that Cadillac — a brand that conjures images of Elvis, Bruce Springsteen, the movie Badlands, and the hopes and aspirations of middle America — is opening a swank coffee joint in Manhattan.
Well, it true. They’re here, they’re upscale, get used to it.
If you’re really lucky, maybe one day you will find yourself drinking java from the upper slopes of a mountain you’ve never heard of while discussing designer fragrances and interpreting (wrongly) works of modern art…alongside a Cadillac.
Chevrolet Really Wants Hip Young People to Think (and Buy) Small
The official launch of the first-generation Chevrolet Spark played out like a detective in a comedy film who has to go undercover in a high school, all the while clumsily pretending to be hip. It was an awkward pander to the Millennial first-time car buyer, set to too-carefully chosen music.
With refreshed and updated small car models on their way (or already here), General Motors wants young people to rediscover their often overlooked bottom-rung vehicles, so it left the marketing to experts.
Koda SUV is Strong Like Bear, Forces Alaskans to Play the Name Game
Call it a friendly occupation.
The Czech Škoda brand chose a tough-sounding name for its upcoming Kodiaq SUV, but the Alaskan town (and bear, and island) that inspired its name was left with one “k” too many.
Something had to change. So, the townsfolk went to work bringing the two names into line for one day only, as Škoda’s cameras rolled.
Volkswagen Won't Quit the U.S. Consumer, Because Love is Stronger Than Diesel
They’re on a little break right now, but Volkswagen plans to saunter back to America’s door, flowers and chocolates in hand.
As the diesel emissions scandal plods along to its buyback conclusion, the automaker plans to woo U.S. buyers with desirable products and a less confusing brand strategy, Automotive News reports.
Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess told reporters in Germany last week that the U.S. was still a target market primed for growth, but first the company must convince those buyers that it has changed its ways, and that it’s ready for commitment.
This 1984 Dodge 600 Turbo Commercial Is a Nightmarish Fever Dream
The Chrysler Corporation was riding high again by 1984, but were they riding high when they made this ad?
A turbocharged engine was a brand-new option that year, and the resurgent automaker clearly wanted to celebrate the hot little 2.2-liter by having one abduct a woman and take her to the afterlife.
Acura Takes a Sepia-Toned Selfie With Its BFF, the Millennial Car Buyer
Acura is turning 30, and to celebrate, it’s turning its attention away from the yuppy Gen-Xers who first discovered the brand to the hopeful, car-buying Millennials of today.
It’s not pandering for vehicle sales, it’s a relationship, see?
Honda’s luxury marque just launched a marketing campaign that seems perfectly designed to lure in the largest-growing segment of car buyers. Called “30 Years Young,” the ad plays up Acura’s status as the leading luxury brand of this age demographic, while stroking the ego of the Millennial buyer.
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