Update: Buick goes for sucky.
Last month, I offered some free marketing advice to G.M. and Chairman Bob Lutz regarding the company’s Buick brand. Sorry to say they didn’t bother to take us up on it. Instead, they’re trying this:
DETROIT — Buick will launch a new advertising tag line Monday: “The new class of world class.”
Bob Lutz, General Motor Co.’s vice chairman for marketing, revealed the new line to Automotive News at a media event here today. The tag line will be used in new advertising for the Buick LaCrosse sedan.
The current tag line, “Take a look at me now,” was first used in June.
After he took over GM’s advertising and marketing in July, Lutz set out to rework Buick advertising. He said he wanted commercials that properly project the design and features of the brand’s new products.
Buick’s lead ad agency, Leo Burnett, did the new spots for the LaCrosse. A batch of Buick commercials that Lutz rejected had been outsourced to the firm of Gary Topolewski, a former Burnett creative director.
Lutz calls the new Buick advertising “aggressive stuff.”
Meanwhile, GM has launched a billboard campaign in Los Angeles for the LaCrosse that pokes fun at Lexus.
The series of billboards, with a photo of the LaCrosse, say: “Another thing for Lexus to relentlessly pursue,” “EX your Lexus” and “Goodbye, road rage. Hello, road envy.”
I don’t know about you, but this is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Posted by Mickey
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I’m assuming you have not actually seen the new Lacrosse or better yet driven it? I suspect this post may have gone a different direction if you had…it is a stunning vehicle.
So we’ve got World Class, and Buick Class? I think it is a fair assumption that until now the only thing about Buick that was truly world class was the Buick Open….
When I think of Buick I think of those cars with dented bodies being driven by kids who obviously have just gotten their drivers licenses. Buick needs more than a new tagline, they need to redefine their image as a car company.
Hal, thanks for your comments. You are correct in your assumption that I have not driven a new LaCrosse. I’m glad to hear it is a great product.
My problem with Buick is not the product, it is how they are choosing to market it. Ask any 10 people you know what Buick stands for, and I doubt that one of them would say “American Lexus,” or something similar. Yet that is the leap GM management is asking the car-buying public to make. As I mentioned in the initial Buick post, the brand is what people think it is, not what GM execs would like us to think it is. GM management is refusing to admit to that reality.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this,
Mickey
@Hal