GM has released the following statement on its apparent decision to discontinue use of the term “Chevy” in communications.
DETROIT — Today’s emotional debate over a poorly worded memo on our use of the Chevrolet brand is a good reminder of how passionately people feel about Chevrolet. It is a passion we share and one we do not take for granted.
We love Chevy. In no way are we discouraging customers or fans from using the name. We deeply appreciate the emotional connections that millions of people have for Chevrolet and its products.
In global markets, we are establishing a significant presence for Chevrolet, and need to move toward a consistent brand name for advertising and marketing purposes. The memo in question was one step in that process.
We hope people around the world will continue to fall in love with Chevrolets and smile when they call their favorite car, truck or crossover “Chevy.”
“In global markets, we are establishing a significant presence for Chevrolet, and need to move toward a consistent brand name for advertising and marketing purposes. The memo in question was one step in that process.”
Global markets, like Mexico?
They even have a car not called but NAMED Chevy.
I’ve placed a link to the Chevy page on the comments 2 posts below…
Saludos
This reminds me of one of my dad’s favorite sayings, “They could screw up a two car funeral!”
Your tax dollars at work!
I’m thinking China…. and fear of Chery. Intellectual property battles fare poorly in Chinese courts. So, their answer will be to make sure that all their advertising and the butts of all their cars say Chevrolet.
(As opposed to saying Daewoo) :-)
This is just silly. Don’t many of you talk of strengthening the brand and making sure it means something? They say that they want to strengthen the brand by only referring to it as Chevrolet. GM gets teased for silly marketing speech, probably deservedly. People misunderstand, apparently due to poor reading comprehension. GM clarifies and is further teased and accused of backpedaling by the very people who demand strong brands when they in fact are not backpedaling. My head hurts.
“We’d ask that whether you’re talking to a dealer, reviewing dealer advertising, or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet moving forward.”
How this is then misconstrued into GM getting rid of the Chevy brand is mind-numbingly boggling.
I would be the first to defend GM like you are because hurting them hurts us, the taxpayers. But you can’t defend the indefensible – this directive is moronic. The best explanation posted here is that they want to avoid confusion with Chery, but this belies the fact that Chevy pre-dated that ridiculously named brand. It’s like saying (as he notes), don’t call me Coke, don’t call me Bimmer, don’t call me Caddy. If anything, it makes GM sound more pretentious, rather than approachable, which is the last thing you want to do with your “value” brand. This is idiotic beyond belief.
Fuel… loaded
Spark… checked
Flame thrower… ready
Ignition in 10…
Chevy owns the autoblogs and watercoolers today, hmmm….what’s that about word of mouth? sometimes people aren’t as dumb as they might appear.
Autoblogs, perhaps… but I really doubt those standing around office watercoolers are talking about Chevy. If they are, it’s a quick comment or sneer and then they’re no doubt going back to their lives.
There’s no way this is positive publicity for Gov’t Motors.
I’m with Buickman here. This is buzz and GM isn’t paying a dime for it. In a marketing world where the only thing worse that being talked about, even badly, is NOT being talked about at all, buzz like this is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Much like the Corvette brouhaha, no matter how it winds up, people are talking about your brand with little or no cash outlay, and that’s smart business.
I’m thinking that since GM wants to cash in on the China market, that they are worried that ‘Chevy’ might sound too close to ‘Cherry’ which is a China car brand.
But really, if GM has ‘this kind of staff and management time’ to try to figure out how to get its employees to stop saying ‘Chevy’ in hallways at GM HQ, well, the company’s still in trouble in my opinion.
Oh, good. Because it sounds so strange to say “took my Chevrolet to the levrolet but the levrolet was dry.”
Chevy to be known only as Chevrolet ? That’ll be the Daewoo.
An individual does not give himself a nickname. They are given by the public. Coca Cola did not give its product the “Coke” name, nor did Federal Express name its delivery service “Fed Ex”. These names were bestowed by the public. Therefore, GM really can’t take away “Chevy” since they didn’t invent or give the car the name. The public did!
If only an iota of concern regarding repairing the numerous defect my Silverado incurred during the warranty period as has been shown by Chevy/GMC regarding Chevy/Chevrolet nomenclature they would have likely avoided created a life-long enemy who will demonize those spat upon me so openly in order to save a few bucks while leaving me with a defective vehicle and increased my cost of ownership needlessly by several thousand dollars.
I really don’t see the big deal. They didn’t say everybody else couldn’t call it Chevy. If I ran Chevrolet, I would prefer employees referred to it by the formal name as well. In turn, a Cadillac salesman shouldn’t walk up to a prospective customer and ask if they’d like to “See the latest Caddys”.
Let’s take a trip down Chevrolet/Chevy brand recognition memory lane, shall we?
Late 1980s, Chevy brand reputation got so bad that “Geo” was created, basically to trick customers into buying GM products without knowing they were buying a GM. Chevy Sprint became the Geo Metro. This was around the same time Saturn came to be (the company that spent as much money on advertising as engineering). About ten years later in the late 1990s the Chevy reputation had improved and Geo Metro became Chevy Sprint again. No need to trick customers anymore. About ten years later GM goes bankrupt and milks the taxpayers… and the (heart)beat goes on…
Whatever.