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Brand Trends - Auto Branding
By Chuck Pettis
Summaries of brand trends as reported by
leading publications covering the branding field.


Detroit Buffs Up
Fortune Magazine, February 9, 2004
    Get ready for lots of new cars from the Big Three, a record 48 new vehicles are coming to market in 2004 alone.


Pedal to the Metal
BusinessWeek Magazine, January 12, 2004
    Detroit car makers are filling showrooms to beat back foreign competitors. It's about time. Their market share has been declining for 48 years! Japan, in particular, has eaten away at the big profits from SUVs, minivans, and pickups that made the Big Three money in the 90s. Now, profits are coming from financing, not vehicle sales. What's needed is a renewed commitment to branding!


Back to the Four-Door Future: With a Renewed Commitment to Design, Detroit Hopes to Reign in Passenger Cars Again
BRANDWEEK Magazine, January 5, 2004
    When I grew up in the 50's, the "Chevy" and "Cadillac" brands meant something from a design (e.g., big tail fins, lots of chrome, fancy grills, etc.) and social status standpoint. Now, auto makers are trying to recapture the sense of identity through design elements in order to improve their market share. More cars are being introduced in 2004 than any single year since the '60s. J.D. Power & Associates reported styling and exterior design were the most important purchase factor for 60% of auto buyers.


Detroit's Hot Buttons
Newsweek Magazine, January 12, 2004
    So, U.S. car makers are rediscovering "emotional quality" - ambiance (feel comforted in stressful traffic and long commutes), feel (the size and feel of buttons), sound (the click of the key or switch), and the all important Reptilian hot button of smell as a means to improve their market share. Americans today assume a certain level of reliability. Now they want their new car's interior right down to the buttons to have the right emotional "feel" and attention to detail that the Japanese and European automakers have been doing for years.


Designer Cars
BusinessWeek Magazine, February 16, 2004
    Hot car designs are the #1 purchase factor driving car sales. The car has to look good. Carmakers have rediscovered the power of a great design that makes customers say, "I want this car!"



Not for the Faint of Heart - or Wallet
The Seattle Times Magazine, April 9, 2004
    How would you like a Lamborghini? Lamborghini's "little" Gallardo is outrageous and exotic. Just what you would expect from 493-horsepower V10 that goes from zero to 60 in 4.1 seconds. The Reptilian Brain loves the speed to escape (or catch) all predators. The Limbic Brain loves the attention and feeling that you could go 192 mph, if you wanted to. And, of course the Cortex Brain loves the great safety features, not to mention the very reasonable price, only $177,200 compared to $280,000 for its big brother, the Lamborghini Murcielago.



This is Not a Sports Car, It's a Marketing Vehicle
Advertising Age Magazine, February 23, 2004
    Speaking of hot car designs, check out the new all-American Ford GT. The new Ford GT is generating lots of publicity and generating rave reviews from employees, the press and the public. This hot car is a smart move to bring some needed life to the Ford brand itself. Try the Ford GT web site - I like the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, "vrrrroom" sound.



The $100,000 Family Car
The Wall Street Journal, March 12, 2004
    Just want a "family car." With a weakened dollar and more high-income and net worth buyers out there, car makers are rolling out mass-market sedans at a new sticker price: $100,000+. I'm not sure this makes sense for all auto brands. Do Ferrari prices and Volkswagen go together in your mind? Would you pay $102,000 for a "VW".



Detroit Becomes the New Hollywood
The Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2004
    With reliability and quality becoming almost universal in the auto industry (hurray!), media coverage, cosmetics, and hype are key to a popular auto brand's success. Hence auto designers are becoming more like Hollywood directors as design becomes an important corporate investment strategy.


Lincoln's Low-Cost Upgrade
The Wall Street Journal, March 16, 2004
    How can Ford save time and money when designing new luxury models? Simple, they change the outside look, but use existing parts and chassis inside. The only problem is that luxury vehicles created from scratch with unique body styles like Cadillac's got better sales results in 2003 over 2002 than Lincoln. People do look inside the car and want the feeling that you're getting what you pay for. That said, I will say this for Lincoln. My parents love their two Lincoln Town cars. My 28-year old son wants one, too.



Rock On, Folks: Caddy's Back
BRANDWEEK Magazine, October 20, 2003
    Check out the all-NEW Cadillac. My 80-year old mother used to be a loyal Cadillac owner. She quit buying them in the late 1990's when the drive seats, redesigned for taller and younger customers, meant she couldn't reach the gas and brake pedals. Cadillac has steadily repositioned its brand away from the white-haired older lady to middle-aged professionals. They've been putting a total "no-compromise" package together that keeps low-priced vehicles out of the line-up and uses dramatic product advertising with a consistent look and feel. They even brought in Dr. Clotaire Rapaille and his archetype discovery process to find out the code behind Cadillac: social success.



Cadillac Steers Dealers Toward Unified Messages
BRANDWEEK Magazine, October 6, 2003
    Cadillac is also doing smart things with their marketing communications. Having improved the consistency of its nationwide dealer advertising, Cadillac is now working on a program to give local auto dealer ads a more consistent look through an interactive ad creation tool kit. Consistency is the key strategy of brand implementation, so this is smart brand marketing.


From Brand to Dealer, Car Maker Seeks Seamless Path
AdWeek Magazine, March 8, 2004
    DaimlerChrysler is also working on unified advertising. They are taking steps to integrate their web sites with dealer web sites to keep web surfers from jumping ship. This is an idea that makes sense. However, it is easier said than done. When I first tried this with the Jeep web site, it crashed during the manufacturer to dealer transition, i.e.: Application Temporarily Unavailable. However, when I tried it again more recently, it worked.



The New Look of Luxury
The Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2004
    To motivate luxury car buyers to pay premium prices, car manufacturers are introducing new high-end autos with more powerful engines (e.g., the 600 horsepower, 12-cylinder engine in the new Mercedes SL65 AMG convertible) and high-tech safety systems.

    Some of the new safety features include:
    • All-wheel-drive systems that vary the power going not only to the front and back wheels, but to the right and left wheels as well.
    • Headlights that tilt in the direction of the turn to better see around the corner.
    • A warning alert if your car starts to drift out of its lane.



The Alphabet Soup of Auto Naming
BRANDWEEK Magazine, April 5, 2004
    Speaking of the "SL65 AMG," when it comes to naming automobiles, which is better: real names (e.g., Volkswagen Jetta) or letters and numbers (e.g., BMW 525). Advantages of real names: meaningful, descriptive, less confusing, a more unique personality and position, and more memorable. Advantages of letters and numbers: can be descriptive (BMW 525 = a 5-Series body type + a 2.5 liter engine), can be logical with higher numbers indicating a higher-value vehicle, puts all attention on the master or parent brand (e.g. BMW or Mercedes), can usually be applied worldwide.



Not Your Father's...Whatever:
What Does Gen Y Want in a Car? To Auto Maker's Surprise, It's Price and Value
BusinessWeek Magazine, March 15, 2004
    For young Generation Y people, 16- to 24-years old, price and value sell, just like it did for their parents. Low cost, not high cost, is the big draw for younger buyers - they really like Hyundai Motor Co.'s $10,000 Accent and $13,000 Elantra and Toyota's Scion xB at $15,000.



For Americans, Gas Guzzlers Are Again Kings of the Road
The New York Times, April 2, 2004
    Even though gas prices are at an all-time high and crude oil prices continue to rise, the trend of American car and truck buyers shifting from passenger cars to trucks and SUVs is still continuing. Why? Perhaps gas is actually cheaper now (due to inflation) than it was during the 1981 gas crunch. I believe it is because our Reptilian Brain feels "It is dangerous out on the highway, I could get killed. Therefore, I need a big and tall vehicle to be safe from attack." And our Limbic Brain feels "I need to protect my children from being hurt or killed in an accident. Therefore I need a big and safe vehicle".

    Even Porsche, known for luxury sports cars (I owned a Porsche Speedster and 356B in my younger years), is now selling twice as many of its Cayenne "truck" as its "cars." I'm not surprised. A SUV owner myself (and I actually go off pavement more than once a week), the Cayenne is very Limbic Brain "sexy". My Reptilian Brain likes that it is fast and nimble as a Porsche.



Downsized Luxury: European Auto Makers Race to Win Over Young Americans with Smaller Premium Models
The Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2003
    European auto makers are coming out with smaller, entry-level luxury cars targeted to get young executives and professionals early in their careers, in hopes that they will stick with the brand as their income increases.



Steering Away From Guzzlers
Business Week Magazine, May 31, 2004
    Ideally, we would all be driving fuel-efficient auto, driving with another person or persons whenever possible or taking the bus or train. Well, higher gas prices are starting to slow sales of gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. Kelley Blue Book found that higher gas prices changed the purchase plans of one in six car buyers. While Japanese car makers like Toyota can change production lines from big to small SUVs in 60 to 90 days, The Big Three - GM, Ford and Chrysler - not only have high fixed costs even when factories are idle, they haven't been developing new cars, particularly fuel-efficient, smaller cars because their profits rely on trucks. And incentives to cut prices and increase sales are expensive to the bottom-line.



Diesel Deserves a Second Chance
Business Week Magazine, May 31, 2004
    You would think that diesel would be an obvious alternative when gas prices rise. Diesel cars get higher mileage and diesel is less expensive than regular gas. However, while Europe has low-sulfur diesel that runs cleaner, the US diesel has a higher sulfur content that results in more particles in the exhaust that may cause health problems. And, image-wise, when U.S. automakers introduced diesel cars in the '80s they were seen as slow and unreliable.


Ford still makes America's worst gas guzzlers.
Bluewater Network advertisement, The New York Times, July 28, 2004
    This ad is sponsored by 13 environmental groups - at last environmental groups are combining forces to create advertisements. We are going to see a lot more coalitions coming together to publicly state their case for causes and issues that are not being addressed by corporations. This hard-hitting ad asks consumers to pledge not to buy Ford vehicles until Ford vehicles are climate-friendly.



Get Smart: Buyers Try to Jump the Queue
The New York Times, March 19, 2004
    What's the hottest smaller car? Get ready for the new ultra-small 61-horsepower Smart car - a brain child of Mercedes and Swatch watch company - is heating up. Have you seen the Smart car? It is cute, adorable, and truly says "small is beautiful." If gas prices stay high, or get higher, we could see a "sea-change" in attitudes about car size in the next several years and small and eco-friendly could become fashionable. I saw a Smart car in London in April 2004 and loved it! I want one. NOW
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