GM's "Once and Done" Advertising

[CobaltSScrazy]

limited ad budget????!!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!??? I thought GM spent more on advertising than ANY competitor in NA? Yes the one and done bs is embarrassing, I'd like to see brand advertising and show nifty features or highlight the brands core values and an example of a product WITH those core values. Fuel for the soul, my arse, fuel for the over-hyped underdeveloped POS.

CobaltSScrazy

[SDRacing]

Originally Posted by cromagnum

I bought an 06 Monte SS recently. I know it's going out of production soon, but there were alot of changes with the 06 model (v8 engine specifically), that I was not aware of until I happened to stop and look. I almost bought an Accord v6 coupe, but test driving the SS Monte sold me. Point is, I never saw ANY advertising on the car. Maybe helped to kill the car, don't know.

How do you like your MonteSS, and how is it holding up? I agree with you regarding the advertising of the car. I am a Monte SS fan, and also thought the car just needed more advertising...

[NationsKappatol]

Gm has had some great ads. Sadly, once you see them, they are gone forever. The Cadillac STS ad with the damcing Bimmers and Mercedes...best, ad, ever. The Saturn ads we see all the time here in DC show the full-line (minus the icky Ion) and they are great. I see Saturns popping up all over the place.

Maybe if they took the money and invested some of it into better mid-life refreshes, and advertized then, it could be a push to generate more revenue and increase the positive cycle. I don't know.

[mrgto]

As a GM exec told me once.....you advertise the cars that sell VOLUMES. Why push the SSR when the Impala outsells it 20-1?

Why push a Colorado when the Silverado outsells it 5-1?

That is why GM pushed the GA/G6 instead of the GTO because they sell MANY MORE of them and GM only has a certain budget on advertising per FY.

[Geotpf]

Here's an example of a really bad ad: The Buick Lucerne's heated windshield wiper fluid ad.

This was a national ad.

So people in Southern California, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, etc. saw this-you know, places where it doesn't snow or get cold enough for anybody to give a shiat.

That should have been a regional ad only.

[Ytriox]

Sure, GM spends lots of money on advertising. The overall budget is huge. But they also have more products to cover, and that's what spreads the money thin and leads to apparent neglect.

Toyota has 3 brands in the U.S. and 27 nameplates.

GM has 8 brands and upwards of 50 nameplates. GM would have to roughy double Toyota's ad budget to spend as much per model.

That's why GM has to focus more on launch models, brand advertising covering multiple models, and planned campaigns.

[asim]

I agree, I don't really like this "once and done" stuff done by all the automakers. I think people tend to forget about the car after the entourage of advertisement is over. I think the way they should advertise is have a good launch period followed by a good trickle of advertisements.

[Shotgun]

Originally Posted by CobaltSScrazy

limited ad budget????!!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!??? I thought GM spent more on advertising than ANY competitor in NA? Yes the one and done bs is embarrassing, I'd like to see brand advertising and show nifty features or highlight the brands core values and an example of a product WITH those core values. Fuel for the soul, my arse, fuel for the over-hyped underdeveloped POS.

CobaltSScrazy

I agree their advertising sucks. You do have a point, Cobalt. Their budget isn't limited, it's just that they dump too much money (for use elsewhere) into things such as the 900's, that they can't afford to advertise as much for other brands. I tell you the new Silverado and Sierra already have been excessively advertised, in my opinion. You don't need to see a Silverado commercial every 5 minutes on the same channel. GM should spread the wealth a little better. The trucks and suvs can practically sell themselves.

[Hotspur]

A Trillion marketing dollars can't overcome GM's biggest problem - that is, people who know cars. Consumers discuss a purchase before they buy. When they ask "Should I get a Chevy_____?" and the answer is NO WAY!, marketing won't help.

When GM products get street cred for quality then marketing will work again.

There are only a handful of GM products that auto alphas will OK without reservation. The Corvette, possibly the new Saturns, and well...not much else.

[t-rex]

I don't watch much TV, and when I do, its docu-type channels such as History, TLC, Court TV, A&E, etc. The only GM ads I ever see is for GMC, Saab and Hummer, my fave being Hummer's featuring The Who's "Happy Jack", and there were the dancing STS's a while back, but I never saw it again. Both were extremely good commercials. I can't remember any Buick ads at all nor any from Pontiac or Saturn, and I only saw the new truck ad while I was watching a football game at my kid brother's house. Now I'm going to have to go to youtube and check out some GM ads.

GM badly need some catchy slogans that represent each brand, and keep that slogan around for a few years, rather than constantly coming up with a better slogan. I personally like Born From Jets, because it emphasizes Saab's history, and Chevy's An American Revolution wasn't bad either. It was American, without being over the top like the new truck ads, which seems to be polarizing opinions. I would also strongly avoid ads that in any way suggest how bad GM's cars were in the past. Total emphasis should be placed on how good GM cars are. I wouldn't suggest advertising the weaker models like LaCrosse and the CSV's. No need for a new customer's first GM model to be something this lacklustre.

I think one area of advertising that's possibly as important as TV ads are the brand's websites. GM needs serious work here. Chevrolet's is the best, Cadillac's and Hummer's are good, Saturn's is horrible, and the other brands are weak IMHO. Pontiac's isn't bad, but a really in-your-face introduction might help. Buick's is beyond boring, and GMC's looks exactly like Buick's. Saab's is unacceptably cheap and unprofessional looking for a premium brand.

GM needs a new advertising agency and some better web designers.

[knightfan26917]

Originally Posted by 5 watt

I loved there "Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple pie & Chevrolet" campaign but the rest of the year the adds aren’t very compelling.

I liked those ads ... initially. But, when Chevrolet added the tagline of "Baseball's #1 fan", I became a bit irritated ... because "baseball's #1 fan" chooses to thumb its noses at its own enthusiasts....

*shrugs*

Originally Posted by LAMRONH

One reason is that people know what an Accord is. They know that 10 years ago there was an Accord and in 10 years there will be a 2017 Accord.

LeSabre. Lucerne. Century, Regal. LaCrosse. In 2012 it will be _______.
Pontiac 6000STE. Pontiac Bonneville. Pontiac G8.

Is there a problem here?

Yep.

And, along with that ... people know what an Accord is. Names like "Century", "Regal", "Monte Carlo", "Malibu", "Impala", "Nova", etc. ... have all been on all sorts of different cars.....


Ming, definitely agree with you.

Heh ... sure would be nice to see some other creative ads ... and highlight the _features_ of the vehicles ... and NOT the amount off or special financing rates of the week....



Cort:33swm."Mr MC" / "Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker
PICS:lego.HO.model.MCinfo.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort
"Confusing what is real" ... Linkin Park ... 'Crawling'

[cadillac jack]

I notice more consist6ency with higher end brands like Cadillac, Saab, and HUMMER. They tend to get more print ads, because i guess GM assumes that people with more money read more magazines, which is where all these ads I see are. I see life liberty and the pursuit, and born fromn jets at leat once in most magazines I flip through. Lower end models, though, like Chevys, and Pontiacs I almost on;y see in Auto rags, and not usually in any other magazines, except if the models just came out. I guess its mostly brands that sponsors tv programs like Chevy, GMC or HUMMER does football, and Chevy does NASCAR. But I guess they also stereotype Chevy buyers as middle american NASCAR watching rednecks a little bit, when you frealize how GM focuses ther advertising.

[IROCNROL1]

Originally Posted by igor

look at what this strategy did for the Ford Five Hundred .. various sources agree that the car should/would sell about another 2k units am onth if Ford continued to advertise it after the initial launch - the FH was launched properly but after the first MY that ad budgets went to practically nothing.

Once-and-done is a flawed strategy - Ford learned it, and starting with Fusion does continuous advertising ... GM needs to learn that as well.

Igor

You're on the mark, Igor. The average consumer has a short attention span.

[djo165]

Originally Posted by LAMRONH

From my view, it looks like the scores of MBAs in advertising are reaching the dilution-to-ineffectiveness level, just as the scores of MBAs in management are.
Time to look less at the degree, and more at the brain of the potential employee or contract help.
THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'.

Couldn't agree with you more.

I'd like to raise one other possibility. It seems to me that big corporate cultures are almost always short-sighted. They worry about the next quarter, or maybe the next year, but rarely about what's going to happen five, ten, or twenty years in the future. This kind of thinking applied to marketing probably contributes to the problem of "Once and done" advertising. The marketing people get geared up for launch, execute the launch, then shift all their attention to the next vehicle that's about to launch without thinking about the damage that can happen to a nameplate's image if it isn't kept in the public eye.
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[djo165]

Originally Posted by t-rex

I think one area of advertising that's possibly as important as TV ads are the brand's websites. GM needs serious work here. Chevrolet's is the best, Cadillac's and Hummer's are good, Saturn's is horrible, and the other brands are weak IMHO. Pontiac's isn't bad, but a really in-your-face introduction might help. Buick's is beyond boring, and GMC's looks exactly like Buick's. Saab's is unacceptably cheap and unprofessional looking for a premium brand.

Good point. I would add that GM's "Build Your Own" features need improving also, as there are better examples out there as far as response time and ease of use. And Cadillac's web site, though nice, could use a bit more technical info in a form that's not audio or video.