Car marketing firms "like ADD ferrets on amphetamines"
Whether encountered via television, print, radio, Internet or billboards, it's hard to escape automotive advertising. Because they're so omnipresent, most people tend to 'tune out,' so automakers have turned to slogans to and catchphrases to stay in consumer's minds, with the inevitable varying degrees of success.
All of which makes the frequency with which they alter their slogans a bit hard to figure. In fact, things have gotten so schizophrenic that Paul Ballew, executive director of global market and industry analysis for General Motors recently told Advertising Age that "We're like ADD ferrets on amphetamines." Lovely picture, that.
Regardless, Ballew has a point. By AA's tally, Buick has had five taglines since 2000, and Saturn and Pontiac have had four a piece. By comparison, brands with decidedly clearer identities would appear to be keeping their slogans longer: BMW's 'The Ultimate Driving Machine' mantra has carried the company through the 1980s and four agencies. Mazda has 'Zoom Zoom'd for going on five years now. Hummer has had one slogan since its birth in 2001, "Like No Other," and GM's resurgent Cadillac has held fast to the Led Zeppelin-influenced "Break Through" since early 2002. Of course, GMC's "Professional Grade" campaign has been around since late 2000, and assessing that nameplate's success is problematic. Still, the correlation bears further study.
So... how do you feel about automotive taglines and slogans... do any ring particularly true or false for you as a consumer? Do you heed them at all? Mint your own catchphrase in 'Comments.'
[Sources: Advertising Age; ewancient.lysator.liu.se]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
kyle 2:34PM (5/22/2006)
ridiculous: "born from jets"
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Eduardo Bernal 2:35PM (5/22/2006)
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Howard Kerr 2:37PM (5/22/2006)
A "tagline" or slogan WON'T get me to buy, or even consider a car or truck. However, a brand that changes it's slogan more often than a woman changes shoes, tells me that company X doesn't know what their products are supposed to do for the customer. It also shows that the company doesn't have a clue where they are going.
If Chevy had used "the ultimate driving machine", they would be laughed of the sales charts. However, if they stuck with that idea, and the cars showed that the brand/company was TRUELY headed in that direction, they could eventually gain some traction.
Buick SEEMS to be positioning itself as the American version of Lexus. Unfortunately, to get there from where there are, or were, requires more than slogans. It will even take more than a few new sedans. For Buick to be considered in the same league as Lexus, requires EVERYONE connected with the design and sales of Buick to think like Lexus. Imagine if Buick quietly introduced it's version of valet service, like what Lexus and Infiniti have (had?) when they first started. Your car needs service? we will come and get it from your home or office, and return it washed and vacuumed.
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D. Samuels 2:42PM (5/22/2006)
No Bang, No Bucks.
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Brian Tucker 2:48PM (5/22/2006)
Slogans - we don't need no steenkin' slogans.
I don't care about the talk - it the walk that counts.
Advertisers could all go jump in a lake and I wouldn't miss 'em.
Ahh, but Lotus putting an Elise at my disposal on the autocross track at Road Atlanta during the Mitty? That's walking the walk. Don't spend anything on ads - just set up test drive centers without salesmen.
Mazda does the same with it's zoom-zoom tour - don't miss it! But Mazda won't let you thrash their cars as hard - you get black marks for being a bad boy, two marks and you're out. No, I didn't collect any.
If I only had the 40k disposable, Lotus would have a sale without a single dollar spent on advertising. Except that what I did came out of the advertising budget, fer sure.
I have already purchased 4 miatae, but hey, if they are going to let me drive theirs...
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Dr. Woo 2:52PM (5/22/2006)
I agree, that new Saab tagline made me laugh out loud when I heard it.
"Fahrvergnugen" was a great tagline. I like the home-market tagline for VW as well, which is "Aus Liebe zum Automobil," - "For love of the automobile."
Honda's had "The Power of Dreams" for a while. Engrish at its best, in my opinion.
Another classic failure is "Have you driven a Ford lately?" As if that makes me want to. Now it's "Bold." Hmm...okay.
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Karl 2:53PM (5/22/2006)
I'm really stuck on Zoom Zoom. But I owned a Mazda before that and knew they were great handling cars.
A lot of them should have a much simpler tagline: Generic. So much duplication. So much looks the same, even among competing makes. Get rid of the clutter. Make it a GM Yukon, scrap the Tahoe and Escalade. Sure, if you want to make factory packages, have the Yukon Executive, with leather, heated seats, crappy four wheel drive and cushy shocks or what ever you want to do. Let us know that the Yukon is a workin' mans truck, the Yukon Executive is gonna cost you twice as much. And how about be different from the rest? I really get tired of looking at cars that seem like they are the ancestors to cars from Judge Dredd.
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D. Samuels 2:55PM (5/22/2006)
For all American car brands, "Slogans Don't Sell Cars...Neither Do We" or "Engineered Like No Other Car in the World...That's Why We Can't Sell 'Em"
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D. Samuels 2:59PM (5/22/2006)
For American Cars, how about, "At Your Service...You're Gonna Need It!"?
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mavkato 3:11PM (5/22/2006)
"Buick has had five taglines since 2000, and Saturn and Buick have had four a piece."
how does that work? is it four taglines or five?
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YOUR MOM 3:14PM (5/22/2006)
DIDN'T WE DO THIS ALREADY?
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UH2L 3:16PM (5/22/2006)
I agree that a tagline won't make me buy a vehicle but it also won't make me not buy a vehicle. That's because I know about the market and its products. For the general consumer though, a tagline could influence a sale. I agree that changing taglines too often is a bad thing. It's a way of continually adjusting course with the image you want to portray, but by doing that, a brand loses focus. Perhaps they hope that the latest tagline will garner more attention than the prior one.
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Drewboy 3:21PM (5/22/2006)
I have ADD, and you know how they treat it? Stimulants. So an ADD ferret on amphetamines would be a self treating ferret. Does the general public realize that Ritalin = methylphenidate? My doctor said it is a cousin of amphetamines... Just an FYI, the quotation sounds rediculous to those that know ADD and the pharmaceutical treatment options.
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David 3:25PM (5/22/2006)
For Mitsubishi:
From the folks that brought you the Zero
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Koba 3:30PM (5/22/2006)
Well Drewboy, the man who is quoted was a marketing guy, why are you surprised he's an idiot?
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Brian 3:50PM (5/22/2006)
Funny Drewboy and Koba, the rest of us HUMANS knew what he was saying, heck I even thought it conjured a funny mental image. I guess being a literalist turns one into a humorless douche.
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CptMystic 3:52PM (5/22/2006)
Changing your slogan frequently is just bad brand
management. The problem, as people have already pointed
out, is not the message - it's the products.
Make attractive, reliable, useful products, and people
will buy them. In fact, if you do that successfully
enough you can practically gut your advertising budget,
because your customers will sell cars *for* you.
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Dustin Tarditi 4:03PM (5/22/2006)
VW took MINI's ad company and all of a sudden, you get the Uber funny "Unpimp ze auto" ads and the VW Fast (demon rabbit thing)... bottom line, my FAST doesn't get along with other marques' slogans.
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Mad Scientist Matt 4:16PM (5/22/2006)
The only Cadillac slogan that I could remember was "The standard of the world" - and they canned that one before I was born. I sometimes hope they'll bring it back if they can build enough cars that back it up. The only other slogans I can recall off the top of my head are BMW's "The Ultimate Driving Machine" and Mazda's "Zoom-zoom." Well, and a few for individual cars - the Caliber's "It's anything but cute," "Say Hi to Neon," and "The Fit is Go!"
Here are my nominees for gag slogans:
Suzuki - If you're sick of riding your Hayabusa in the rain, we'd like to remind you that make cars, too!
Toyota - because 'personality' is a code word for 'unreliable.'
Isuzu - I'm not dead yet! (Said in a Cockney accent)
Saturn - If you don't like Detroit iron, try Tennessee plastic.
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Ben 4:17PM (5/22/2006)
All I want to see is R&D budget. I sat down in a new Mitsubishi eclipse and it was obvious that they pushed the car out just to fill a market niche. When General Motors releases a 260hp, 260tq 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with direct injection, I get excited, even though it's GM.
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