'Halo' Cars That Shine

[Murrow]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13150972/

Business Week Online

Updated: 2:06 p.m. ET June 7, 2006

A halo car is a showcase vehicle, typically intended to represent the best of a manufacturer's talents, such as Daimler Chrysler's Dodge Viper or the new Saturn Sky from General Motors (see BW Online, 5/31/06, "Sky High"). All the performance and styling a brand can muster are wrapped into one drool-worthy, rare, expensive package. "Traditionally, these vehicles are intended to epitomize everything a brand stands for, everything a brand can do," says West Brown, a partner in the Los Angeles consumer marketing-research firm Ideology. "But they're also supposed to draw traffic to the showrooms."

[megeebee]

No mention of XLR-V or Escalade?

[tgagneguam]

To me, the following represents the take-home message regarding halo products:

...Both Brown and Miller acknowledge that in order for the halo coup to succeed, follow-through is vital. "You've got to be able to move consumers from wanting a Viper to actually buying a Neon," says Miller. Brown adds, "It only works if the promise is met. The rest of the showroom has to be up to snuff."

In other words, the Sky will do little to move more Ions and Relays. Rather, as Brown and Miller point out, Saturn's gonna need to have the rest of the line to be competitive for the Sky's "halo effect" to have the intended impact.

...Saturn's Sky, however, which closely resembles the Solstice, has better chances according to both Miller and Brown. "It's about the brand context," explains Miller. Brown adds, "Looking at Saturn before the Sky, honestly there wasn't too much to be happy about. But the future models they've been showing really pick up where the Sky left off. That could work well for them."

[camaro_freak]

tgagneguam hits it right on the head!