GM has been heavy in the entertainment sponsorship game, with a variety of scripted programs, award shows, and movies at some point being tied to GM product. Bumblebee has undoubtedly paid dividends for the new Camaro, and now the spy drama "Burn Notice," on USA Network, has done something of the same for Saab.
Hyundai is shaking its money makers, spending €60 million to upgrade its dealer network in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Each of 2,500 dealers will spend at least €24,000 on improving their facilities, with matching funds coming from both distributors and the parent company.
Automakers work very hard at the branding process, which takes years and years of effort to achieve. For instance, when a consumer hears Porsche, he or she likely sthink of sports cars and iconic design principles -- despite the fact that the German brand sells plenty of SUVs, too. And when a brand starts to get a negative image, it can take years to overcome that bad stigma -- just ask Ford. So,
Not long ago here on Autoblog we wondered, what exactly is the point of the Mercury brand? As it turns out, dealers have nearly the same question, and they aren't getting any clear, compelling answers. At the Chicago Auto Show, Ford's Group Vice President Jim Farley said "Its role is changing, but we're not going to compromise Mercury." Around the Detroit Auto Show, CEO Alan Mulally said Ford remains comm
The stupendous amounts of money being spent on the presidential race have got supporters of non-front-running candidates coming up with novel ways to keep up the fight. Aficionados of Republican candidate Ron Paul have created Ron Paul Racing, a web site gathering pledges to brand a NASCAR car during this year's Daytona 500.
Some crowds are worried about speed, some about interior volume, some about the number of cupholders. The pickup truck crowd has a tendency to be concerned with size, so the automakers give them what they want. And in this case, it's bigger and bigger logos. Kicking Tires took the real estate measurements of the logos on half-ton pickups at the Detroit Auto Show (and a Hummer, just for good... measure), and ranked them from smallest to the most grandiose. The logo on the new Dodge Ram is 250% la
When the new Lincoln MKS arrives next summer, it will join the MKZ and MKX. And then those three will be joined by another MK-something, perhaps a large Lincoln crossover based on the Ford Flex, to arrive in 2009. More than once we have written MKZ when we were referring to the MKS. More than one Ford rep said MK-Consonant when he meant the other MK-Consonant. More than once we have tried to figure out why Lincoln came up with -- and continues -- this type of nomenclature.
A Ferrari PDA. Joy of joys. People still use these things? If you must have one more thing strapped to your belt or stuffed in your pocket, might as well get the one with the Prancing Horse. That way, when everyone else pulls out their toys and starts twiddling as a way to avoid human interaction, you'll have something red, black and flashy.
As if Ferrari needed any help promoting its brand, they've gone and hired Dany Bahar. During his tenure at Red Bull, the intrepid Turk transformed the energy drink company from a simple sponsor into team owners, first acquiring Red Bull Racing from Ford when Jaguar's F1 team went bust, then going in on an unprecedented second team – Scuderia Toro Rosso – and even spearheading Toyota's entry into NASCAR in a team owned by... you guessed it, Red Bull. Baha
McLaren is always chasing after Ferrari. They've chased after them on the track for decades, and sometimes they catch up. They've chased them on the road, trouncing the F40 with the McLaren F1 supercar, but missing the mark somewhat with the SLR. But in the modern era where racing is only half of competition, McLaren is after Maranello on another front: branding.
The Wall Street Journal has finally picked up on the increasingly popular (and entropic) automotive trend that is alphanumeric naming. Writer Gina Chon is less than complementary about the whole business of going from actual word-based name to strings of numbers and letters, going to great lengths to catalog the legal mess that has ensued between manufacturers (Lincoln MKX vs Acura MDX, etc.), as well as the confusion that the practice has been causing consumers.
