Earlier today, I noted that
Revitalizing a once-dominant domestic brand is a lot harder than telling the quality-improvement story of a once-reviled Korean value brand
and I think this video helps prove the point. For a brand like Hyundai, highlighting product details helped change perceptions… but then, Hyundai has never asked Americans to think of their cars in especially emotional, patriotic, or culturally significant ways. They’re just high value cars that have become better and better over time. For GM and Chevrolet’s new top marketing execs (freshly poached from Hyundai), the plan seems to be to follow the Hyundai “quality story” gameplan, with a little awkwardly hip flair. For a brand that’s been “the heartbeat of America,” “like a rock” and more, this latest video seems stuck in “excellence for everyone” (i.e. generic and directionless) territory.
Besides, when the word “solid” is used in marketing materials to describe a “3,100-3,300 lb” compact car, it sounds a little like a Mom calling her kid “big-boned.”
Marketing a Chevy is no easy job these days….
I’m not sure how I’d even attempt to approach selling a Cruze.
First of all, I don’t like the name. Then there’s the car itself…
But maybe — Start out showing a 64 Impala with Dina Shore singing
“See the USA in your Chevrolet” and then do a record-needle screech! and cut to some Rap-rock song with the Word ‘Crusin’ in it and switch the video to a couple of Mitsubishi style teen girls smilin’ and rocking out to the tunes in their car… or even a couple of gerbils, ala Kia.
Market research suggests an illiterate customer base prefers an illiterate car.
It’s why the Cadillac Escalade brochure says rims instead of wheels.
aspade:
Market research suggests an illiterate customer base prefers an illiterate car.
It’s why the Cadillac Escalade brochure says rims instead of wheels.
And your name speaks VOLUMES about your 6*(10^1) IQ level commentary.
Don’t let the detractors get you down, aspade. Your observation is dead-on accurate… and, I suspect, hits the naysayers a little too close to home.
Turns out the name “Cruze” scored high with San Francisco focus groups.
Give me my money back first then we’ll discuss how to improve their marketing.
I first read the commentary and thought to myself that you were being a little too harsh over this – especailly for something that’s just marketing palaver. Then I watched the video – man is that some serious corn pone (carn pone? ark, ark, ark)! Not to mention a ripoff of a much better stunt pulled by Top Gear during their, uh oh Gubment Motors, British Leyland challenge.
Two missing screws to hold the bottom of the bottom of the license plate so it doesn’t jiggle and rattle when the trunk lids closing? Fail. I might give slack for that if the ad weren’t extolling its solidity. D’oh!
And the name thing is bad to me, too. I’d rather have taken the chances with sticking with Cobalt over Cruze if it were my decision.
Hyundai:
10 yr/100k powertrain warranty
5 yr/60k warranty on most other things
When GM stops talking and starts showing they make better cars, people will begin to be open to changing their minds. The path that worked for Hyundai was the above warranty. Until GM does that, they’ll be viewed as unwilling to stand behind their word.
Hey GM, Hyundai is eating your lunch in your home market.
Yep they should put their (our?) money where their mouth is. Warranty the heck out of the darn thing. Hyundai’s “basic” warranty is better then Caddys!
Zoom in to the “boys in the ‘hood.”
Have ’em commence rapping how they ain’t gonna’ be cappin’ nobody to ‘jack their ride lessin’ that ride be a Chebby’.
After the exuberant youth ‘jack their Cruze show the ho’s clamoring for a ride while wearing minimalistic attire and nearly swooning over the virile male youth with such obvious fine taste for the rides they select.
“Be the hero of YOUR ‘hood… the Cruz it be good!!!!!!!!”
You betcha’.
This is NOT an original advertising concept either. The genus for the first part of it is STOLEN from a posted video some students did a couple of years back…they created a mash-up from a group of sampled /recorded sound effects involving opening the doors, hood, latches, locks and other parts of a Jeep Cherokee.
Agreed, but I like the Honda choir ad that is a bit similar, but more creative.
Yup, that’ll fool the:
– Civic shoppers.
– Older white guys who can’s stand the thought of driving a New Cavalier at their age.
– Public that grew up exposed to serial GM cheapthink.
What an obnoxious ad, I thought it was going to induce a seizure.
Yeah, I made it through around 30 seconds of doors slamming and it was time to stop.
After spending 10 days with this car, I simply hate it, another typical rental style GM.
I didn’t realize the Cruze was already on the road. If it’s as you say, that’s bad. Can you elaborate?
I never, ever go for the white coat technician/scientist/engineer schtick. This kind of ad is similar to the sitcoms that play up stereotypes. As an engineer, I know that’s not how engineers work.
But GM isn’t directing that ad toward me. They’re directing it toward unhappy former GM owners who have defected to other brands due to GM’s legendary qualityn’t.
Besides, it might be more effective to have independent claims of “solid” rather than actors pretending to be GM employees.
Clever commercial. It would make a good Superbowl ad.
The Cruze is all over Vietnam as a Daewoo. It’s really not that nice inside, and the interior has a very distinct Korean look. Riding in one of these (top of the line), I felt the materials, refinement, and the ride was better than the Yaris and Corolla (Yaris is also all over Vietnam), but not really revolutionary as everyone’s saying it is. Of course, I didn’t get to drive it, but my first impression is that while it’s nice, it’s not OMG NICE LET’S GET IT NOW!!!!!!
This car will dominate the C-class….it will be the best out there…the Focus is a hack job (2012), Chrysler really has nothing, the only real competition is the Civic and the Elantra.
And you people need to loosen up a bit…it was a goofy video…meant to be funny. Take it for what it is….rather than what you want it to be.
Take it for what it is….rather than what you want it to be.
Words to live by, indeed.
This car will not dominate anything… this car will be an also ran in it’s class.
God Z71_Silvy you are such a GM ball-licking sock-puppet…. Everyone of your posts is utterly predictable “gm good… ford and everyone else bad…”
For god’s sake get a life… I doubt this car will sell as well as ford’s new Fiesa.
LMAO… dominating the C class. Ok, Silvy. In your fantasy world where it’s 1958 and everything GM touches turns to gold, I believe you. Here in the real world, the only thing GM knows how to compete in is trucks, and even that they can’t dominate. And stop giving BJs to every GM car you see because it’s getting old.
It will definitely dominate the C-class in the excess number of cars that make it to rental status.
Following the same pattern as it’s stablemates the Rentalbu and Impala of course.
The ad probably will be cut down to 30 seconds. GM needs a different marketing approach for this car so we’ll see what happens. IMO the car itself falls far short of the competition and no matter how good the marketing is marketing doesn’t sell cars, cars sell cars. All marketing can do is entice a prospective buyer to consider and perhaps look at the vehicle.
I hope GM does well with the Cruze but I think they’ve stacked the odds heavily against it. The Cruze to me is the answer to a 5 year old question where as an example the upcoming Focus is everything the Cruze should have been.
Silvy I see you snuck in while I was composing my post, shortly we will see the sales results of both the Focus and Cruze. I think you’re dead wrong about the Cruze dominating C class sales, my prediction is the Focus will outsell the Cruze by at least 50%. But meanwhile, back at the ranch, Civic and Corolla will continue their C class domination.
Silvy I see you snuck in while I was composing my post, shortly we will see the sales results of both the Focus and Cruze. I think you’re dead wrong about the Cruze dominating C class sales, my prediction is the Focus will outsell the Cruze by at least 50%.
The severely neglected Cobalt doesn’t do that now with the Focus…
And while the new Cruze represents a HUGE leap forward over the Cobalt…the 2012 Focus…other than a shiny new (and hideous) wrapper…represents a rather small improvement over the current Focus…
The Cruze seems like a nice improvement over the Cobalt, but it just barely catches up to the current leaders in the segment. The TTAC and Autoblog reviews drooled over the interior, but I don’t see the improvement in the photos. Maybe you have to actually sit in the car to appreciate it, and I look forward to doing that, but for now the Cruze, just like the 2012 Focus, remains and unknown entity.
The upcoming Focus is likely going to be priced a good bit over the Cruze. Ford’s recent moves in pricing have been towards higher priced, higher margin vehicles at the expense of total sales volume. It’s a valid approach to the market, it’s worked beautifully for Apple for example, so time will tell how it plays off in the automotive sector.
The biggest strength the upcoming Focus will have over the Cruze, besides driving dynamics and power, which, while important to enthusiasts, apparently don’t matter much to the average buyer, will be the electronics and infotainment integration. Ford has made huge strides in cornering the tech-savvy younger buyers, and the Focus will be no exception. While the rest of the industry is playing catch up to the current version of Sync, the new version being rolled out in the 2011 vehicles with MyFord Touch takes the game to a whole new level. Real natural language command capability is the holy grail of voice recognition, and with this Ford has made it a reality.
The 2012 Focus will bring back the hatch, and will be much less of an eyesore than the current US iteration. Unfortunately (from Ford’s website) the photos of the interior show that the parking brake lever in in the worst place – to the left of the shift lever (a’la Honda Civic) where my long leg would likely rub on it (unless there is sufficient leg room and thigh support to prevent that). I’ll have a look at it when it comes out, though. The Cruze? No hatch, no match. I already have an Elantra, which is 90% of the Cruze @ 80% of the price. (next year, the gap will widen considerably).
As to the commercial, it was repetitive and boring, like most propaganda. Even trimmed to 30sec, it would be the same.
Silvy I want to see GM do well, I live in metro Detroit. But I don’t see any reason for a Civic/Corolla buyer to consider the Cruze. The Focus on the other hand I do for two reasons 1) I think the styling will attract many buyers, especially younger ones and 2) Ford’s undisputed and well publicized quality gains-I think this fact will attract buyers across the demographic spectrum and GM doesn’t enjoy that advantage.
Time will tell but I just don’t see the Cruze making any serious market share gain in this segment. I hope I am wrong.
I actually liked the original mockups and show car “Cruze.” But it seems like the Malibu and Cruze slowly morphed into each other on the way to production. Now it looks a bit stale.
The flashing lights were oh so typical of a test center. Not. The sound of wiper motor was AWFUL! The ad was so very 10 or 15 years ago, even in Iowa or Montana it will be seen as lame by the gen Y kids, but hey dad will think its def, cool and bumpin.
I might not be a guy with much street cred, but even a fat middle aged suburban white guy a few miles from the Philly hood KNOWS that if I happen to catch a new neat – o, cool saying the very fact that I know said term, by definition means that said term is quite déclassé in the avant garde crowd.
I am sure the typical middle class white bread folk from Lawn Guy Land to Cali will snatch them right up. Solid.
With so many equal if not better quality choices out there, why would anyone go back to someone/thing that burned them before?
Abused spouses perhaps?
GM has a long road ahead of them….
GM used “solid” for the theme of the redesigned 1999 Grand Am in a futuristic industrialized setting. That didn’t work out so well…
What I really love about GM advertising is the fact they’ve literally always been at least two generations back in contemporary cultural references….when was that movie with the digital repeat for the TV guy? 1989? And high-five? They could have even said, “cool,” because that has gone full circle but noooo – they went to talking heads to cover up the absolute tin-ness of everything about this car (including the key warning) and particularly the sound of the doors!!!
You gotta love it…they only have to change the “v” to an “r” for their new badges once Chery picks up all the unsold shares after the IPO and leaves the US Gov (us) holding the wreckage.
Eh, it’s a Chevy. A Chevy is a Chevy is a Chevy, in my mind, mediocre me thinks.
I drove a rental version of the Cobalt in 2006 and it was decent, but that was it though, nothing special but I WAS pleasantly surprised at how “modern” it was, bucket seats, hand brake etc and the ride firm-ish (true, the Cavalier had those too) and all that, but being a rental, it was average and already, the painted finish of the plastics on the window switch plates were already scuffing off, that surprised me so in essence, while pleasant, it was little more than meh to me (as I’m NOT a sedan kind of guy) but it had some nice features in it, like automatic lighting to automatically turn on exterior lighting when one goes under an overpass or in a tunnel.
I like having my lights on all the time when I drive so I just turned them on, but did discover this feature when I once forgot to turn on the lights and went under the Seattle Convention Center once and saw the dash lights kick on.
It may be “solid”, but that video really didn’t do it for me as it really didn’t say anything useful.
Disclosure, I drove 2 70’s era Chevy Novas and they did well in the snow and drove my Dad’s 83 Citation which was mediocre at best and my parents had an ’83 Buick Skylark as well so I’m familiar with GM in many respects, oh, my Mom owned a ’76 Vega wagon that was actually fairly reliable save for carburetor trouble once and once fixed, it ran fine.
I think I speak for the majority of my demographic (30-something professionals). I won’t buy GM. Period. I’ve been burned too many times. I don’t care that it’s a ‘new’ era. I have driven the new cars (’10 Malibu rental l w/ 200 miles on the odometer last month), and don’t care how much better they are then the old, or that they are class comparable. I don’t care what GM says.
GM burned their bridges with me. I’m sure there are Ford & Mopar folks that feel the same way (and if Toyota doesn’t get their act together soon some ToMoCo folks will follow). There are simply too many alternatives of equal or better value that DIDN’T screw me (I’m looking at you 2004 new Pontiac that spent 25 days in the shop for warranty repairs in the first 6 months of ownership, resulting in $5k hit on trade-in for a Mitsubishi because GM refused to buy back an obvious lemon). Just in midsize sedans, I can count over a half dozen equal or better values in cars (Accord, Six/Fusion, Legacy, Altima, Gallant, Kizashi, Sonata/Optima). Why would I spend my hard earned cash on a GM product, even if it gave slightly better value, over any of the above options.
GM’s only hope is to give up on my generation, and try to survive on the remaining baby boomers that have Stockholm syndrome and prey on the Gen Y idiots that don’t know any better. Unless GM could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt improved build quality (say a transferable, 10-yr bumper to bumper including a loaner when the car is in the shop), I ain’t buying.
While we are of different generations, (I am turning 50 this year, ouch) I share your mindset. Having grown up a big GM fan in 60’s and 70’s I saw the quality decline before my eyes. My Dad, who was a Buick man, also gave up when his underpowered 1983 Regal was so poorly built it literally felt as though it would come apart on all but the smoothest road surface. One night, the horn started to sound on it’s own, waking the neighborhood. That was the end.
It was sad living thru the Roger Smith error, (era) the consummate bean counter that ruined a proud American brand.
I have since owned 2 Toyota’s. 2 VW’s, 1 Volvo, and 3 Nissans.
(Volvo the worst, VW’s the most fun, and surprisingly the Nissans by far the best all around.)
My point is I know quality IS greatly improved on GM and Ford products. (I have no experience with Chrysler) They are well priced and competitive, but I cannot see myself walking into a dealer and actually purchasing one. And I don’t know what it would take to change that. Sad.
+1 I would make the same statement about Ford. My ’89 Sable Wagon was a complete POS and the dealership experience was pathetic. I swore when I dumped that vehicle that I would never buy Ford again. It’s been 17 years and nothing I have seen since then has changed my mind. OTOH, I have owned 4 Chryco minivans since then and even though they weren’t luxurious they provided reliable service every day at a reasonable cost to own. Unlike many VW haters, I have also owned 3 Passats since 2002 and love them in spite of their occasional problems. IMO, there isn’t a better ride for the money. Yeah when they have problems they cost a lot to fix but I haven’t had many and my local VW dealer shop is actually great to work with – fair prices and they fix it right the first time. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there are more VW’s per capita around here than anywhere else that I have visited. In my mind what keeps me coming back to Chryco and VW is the reputation of the local dealer. I know they will take care of any problems quickly and reasonably. That may be the biggest problem with GM’s recovery, their dealer network (at least, what’s left of it).
“Market research suggests an illiterate customer base prefers an illiterate car.
It’s why the Cadillac Escalade brochure says rims instead of wheels.”
No quote better summs up the typical biased TTAc’er. Congratulations!
Don’t flame ‘TTAC-ers”.GM and the UAW worked overtime to lay the foundation for the public contempt shown for their cars and business practices. Producing ill will [and rental fodder] has been the one thing they’ve excelled at for over 40 years.
I don´t like this commercial at all.
You can get a Cruze here for SEK 140 000.
That´s 25 000 less than my Hyundai I20.
It´s a bit tempting, but the second hand value will be much lower on the Cruze.
All I really get from this ad is the wipers are squeaky and GM still has an stupid door chime.
I HATE that door chime as much as I hated the buzzer in my ’81 Mustang. Time for customizable door chimes. Somebody ought to see a module to replace that. Make a billion bucks selling custom door chimes tunes. You heard it here first. I want a cut of the profits…
I know that the sounds were probably dubbed-in, but the door closing just doesn’t sound all that good. Shut the door on a Mercedes or an Audi, it’s a solid thunk with no latch sounds. There’s no expensive magic to make it sound good. It just takes good design.
I don’t ever think I’d consider a Chevy. My brother had a Cavalier, and it was a good car for what it was. It never broke down or had any mechanical issues that weren’t owner induced. But it was just cheap in the areas that you saw, like the horrendous interior. And it was cheap in the areas that you didn’t see, like under the hood and the fit-and-finish of the engine, wheel covers and trunk. It was just too crude to consider another one. So I ended up with an Audi and he got a Mazda. Why would anyone buy a larger and more expensive version of a car that is inadequate? Until some automakers realize that owner lifetime loyalty begins with small cars, they’ll continue to wonder why they are losing market share.
I don’t believe that the Cruze is good enough. It already looks dated. And I don’t trust GMs Korean engineering.
If there is one thing good to be said about the predicessor to this thing, at least the Cobalt is an actual word.
Otherwise, meh. It’s not even an American car.