Automotive News - July 14, 2008 - (Page 14)

14 • JULY 14, 2008 Best ad slogans have staying power © GM CORP. EDITORIAL STAFF 313-446-0361 E-mail autonews@crain.com Web site www.autonews.com Keith E. Crain Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Peter Brown Associate Publisher and Editorial Director DETROIT 313-446-0361 Fax: 313-446-0383 1155 Gratiot Ave. Detroit, MI 48207-2997 David Sedgwick Editor dsedgwick@crain.com Edward Lapham Executive Editor elapham@crain.com Richard Johnson Managing Editor rjohnson@crain.com John K. Teahen Jr. Senior Editor Mary Beth Vander Schaaf Deputy Managing Editor Charles Child International Editor David Kushma Retail Editor Dave Guilford News Editor Philip Nussel Special Projects Editor John K. Teahen Jr. Heard any good auto advertising slogans lately? For whatever reason, there don’t seem to be as many as in days of yore. Maybe I was easier to please when I was younger. Or maybe, as I strongly suspect, those long-ago lines were better than anything we have today. Of course, there were fewer brands in the dim, dark past. Today there are 36 major brands of cars and trucks, domestic and import, on sale in the United States. It’s hard to coin a line that will stand out among all that clutter. The proliferation of nameplates, which began in the 1960s, hasn’t helped the advertising wordsmiths. Before, a Chevrolet was a Chevrolet; now, a Chevy may be an Aveo, a Cobalt, a Malibu, an Impala, etc., etc., etc. It’s hard to write a catchy line that will cover the waterfront of names. Not that there are no top-flight ad slogans today. For instance, I’m fond of “The passionate pursuit of perfection,” which is the focal point of Lexus ads. The fact that Lexus is engaged in exactly that pursuit helps put the tag line across. Dinah Shore and Chevrolet General Manager Thomas Keating pose with a Chevrolet show car in the mid-1950s. James B. Treece Industry Editor Jesse Snyder Senior Writer Karen Faust O’Rourke Insight Editor COPY EDITORS: Bob Allen, Tom Fetters, Patricia C. Foley, Kenn Jones, Gregory Skwira Susan Zavela Bamford/Graphics Editor Rick Kranz/Product Editor REPORTERS: Leslie J. Allen, David Barkholz, Mary Connelly, Ralph Kisiel, Jamie LaReau, Arlena Sawyers, Robert Sherefkin, Richard Truett, Bradford Wernle, Amy Wilson Mary Raetz Director, Automotive News Data Center Debi Domby, Camille Pippen Research Assistants Dan Jones Office Manager Robertta Savage Editorial Assistant Corinne M. Price, Michael Garrison Information Center LOS ANGELES Mark Rechtin/Bureau Chief 310-739-8009 Fax: 310-832-6362 Kathy Jackson/Reporter 323-370-2481 Fax: 323-655-8157 Alysha Webb/Reporter awebb@crain.com 6500 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048-4947 NEW YORK Diana T. Kurylko/Reporter Phone/fax: 908-273-6059 dkurylko@crain.com WASHINGTON Donna Harris/Reporter 540-668-7295 Fax: 540-668-7296 Harry Stoffer/Reporter 202-662-7212 Fax: 202-638-3155 814 National Press Building Washington, DC 20045-1801 MID-SOUTH Lindsay Chappell/Bureau Chief 615-371-6654 Fax: 615-371-6655 April Wortham/Reporter 615-371-6617 104 East Park Drive, Suite 315, Brentwood, TN 37027 TOKYO Hans Greimel/Asia Editor +81-3-3828-9060 Fax: +81-3-3828-9061 hgreimel@crain.com Yurakucho Denki Bldg., 20th Floor 1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006, Japan TURIN Luca Ciferri/Reporter lciferri@craincom.de +39-011 961 0194 Fax: +39-011 961 0113 Viale Cavaglia, 8 10029 Villastellone (TO) Italy STAFF CORRESPONDENT: Eric Freedman/Legal file, 517-337-0269 www.autonews.com DETROIT Victor Galvan/Web Editor vgalvan@crain.com 313-446-0345 Scott Kennedy/Multimedia Editor comment priced three.” Plymouth sales grew from 64,305 units in 1930 to 502,006 in 1936. And those were Depression years. Old — and great Let’s recall some of those old — and great — lines. First and foremost, I’ll nominate my all-time favorite: “Ask the man who owns one.” That phrase meant Packard for many years, back in the days when Packard was a force to be reckoned with in the U.S. auto industry. Remember, Packard was the bestselling luxury car in the United States from 1924 through 1946 and again in 1948-49. Even grade-schoolers knew that tag line. It probably would have been a favorite of the late-night TV hosts if everyone had had a TV in those days. Cadillac long was wedded to “The standard of the world,” a title Cadillac won the old-fashioned way: It earned it. That happened in 1908 when Cadillac won the Dewar Trophy for interchangeability of parts. Seventy years ago, Ford urged Americans to “Watch the Fords go by.” As youngsters, my friends and I did that. There sure were a lot of them. During World War II, no cars were made; no cars were sold. Again, it was ‘See the U.S.A.’ John K. Teahen Jr. is senior editor of Automotive News. Ford to the fore with a jingle that expressed the spirit of those days and, incidentally, drew motorists to dealers’ service departments: There’s a Ford in your future, But the Ford in your past Is the Ford you have now, So you’d better make it last! Sometimes, a product and a celebrity are closely intertwined, like Tiger Woods and Buick today. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was Dinah Shore and Chevrolet. Dinah’s theme song on her Sunday evening TV hour was “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.” She sang it on radio and in TV commercials. Print ads featured Dinah and her Chevrolet. One night Dinah came on stage riding a donkey and announced, “There’s more than one way to see the U.S.A.” So beloved was Shore that Chevy laughed along with the rest of the nation. For many ad spokespersons, such a performance would have been a one-way ticket to oblivion. The client simply would not permit the ad people to make fun of the product. The product, by golly, was sacred. In the early 1970s, Chevrolet introduced us to “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.” It had a bouncy beat, and it caught on big — especially with Jim McDonald, Chevy’s general manager from 1972 ‘Look at all three’ More recently, Ford ads proclaimed boldly: “Quality is Job #1.” Then came the nasty ’90s when quality was not Job #1 at Ford Motor Co. The tag line vanished without fanfare. In 1932, Plymouth admen urged shoppers to “Look at all three,” grouping Plymouth with Chevrolet and Ford. As a result of the Plymouth ad, they became known as the “low- to 1974 and General Motors president from 1981 to 1987. McDonald liked it so much that he played it for newspeople at a national press preview of Chevrolet’s new models. That was an unusual occurrence, and it didn’t sit well with many of the newspeople; they objected to being forced to listen to an advertising pitch. One was Tom Kleene, the gentle giant who was auto editor of the old Detroit Times and, later, the Detroit Free Press. After the presentation, Kleene drew McDonald aside and told him softly, “Jim, don’t you ever, ever do that to me again.” That ad even gained favor overseas. In Australia, they sang “Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden’s cars.” Same tune but geared to the locale. Getting back to the present, Mercury has a line I like. An attractive young actress named Jill Wagner mentions some of the features of the vehicle and concludes brightly, “You’ve got to put Mercury on your list,” which is a variation of the approach Plymouth used seven decades ago. You may e-mail John K. Teahen Jr. at jteahen@crain.com For doomsayers, business is booming again Guido Reinking It helps to look at history to understand the present. On the reopening of the BMW Museum in Munich on June 19, Eberhard von Kuenheim, the automaker’s legendary former CEO, helped visitors take that look. BMW’s adjacent headquarters with its landmark four cylinders was planned in the early 1970s “with enough space for the company to double in size,” von Kuenheim, who will be 80 this year, told his audience. But BMW’s revenues haven’t simply doubled since 1973 — they have increased 100-fold, von Kuenheim pointed out. It’s safe to say that no one in the entire Federal Republic of Germany in the mid-1970s could have imagined comment Guido Reinking is editor of Automobilwoche, a Crain publication that covers the German auto industry. that such growth was possible. Consider events of the time: The first oil crisis was looming; the Club of Rome, a small, forward-thinking group of professionals from the fields of diplomacy, industry, academia and civil society, had released its influential report, “The Limits to Growth”; and terrorism had made its horrible debut in Munich. Even a Frankfurt auto show was canceled because of the oil crisis. There were plenty of reasons, in other words, for the auto industry 35 years ago not to see great things in its future. The doomsayer business boomed. When BMW opened its assembly plant in Regensburg in 1987, it was said that the industry had constructed its last plant in Germany. In the future, according to conventional wisdom, auto plants would be built only in low-cost countries. Germany had become unaffordable, uncompetitive. But BMW, Opel and Volkswagen have all built assembly plants in Germany since then. The Cassandras are out in force again, predicting the death of the auto industry because of spiking fuel prices, the pressure to slash carbon dioxide emissions and severe exchange-rate problems. Using history as a guide should put current problems into perspective. It is crisis, history teaches us, that spurs companies and their employees to achieve their maximum performance. And if the crisis threatens the auto industry’s very existence, as some insist it does, then the technology that will be developed to address that crisis will be all the more magnificent for having saved it. You may e-mail Guido Reinking at greinking@craincom.de http://www.autonews.com http://www.autonews.com http://www.autonews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - July 14, 2008

Small-car boom misses Chrysler Ford's large rwd car plan is iffy Suppliers: Inflation is looming Hummer H3T price: $31,495 VW may build next Passat in U.S. plant Glut of trucks pulls Prius to U.S. Ford sues U.S. over taxes Restyled Ridgeline Volvo will tighten U.S. dealer network As BMW's chief in N.A., Purves got biggest thrill out of Mini Despite pricey fuel, Jetta diesel in demand Everybody's a critic: How dealers cope with online reviews Hyundai goes big on Genesis lease The shift to automatic: A transmission transition Jaguar-Land Rover dealer: Stand-alone would bankrupt me Chevy christens compact Cruze Fiat, BMW will team up on platforms, parts Revision: Bosch still tops Auto News supplier list GM to build Volts in U.S. for Europe GM ads will push mpg for 90 days A missed opportunity 2008 sales forecast? 14,652,757 Suzuki cuts U.S. work force 8% CAFE standards: Stop whining and get to work Uncertainty is the name of the game Honda dealer rubs salt in a wound Careless driver was to blame for crash Unsafe driving wasn't Ford's fault For doomsayers, business is booming again Best ad slogans have staying power Bird Dog Club creator hunts dealer poachers Dealers How to design a Lamborghini? Passion for speed certainly helps Dressed to kill Check for children Delinquency rate on indirect loans skyrockets Group promotes payment assurance Ford has big plans for small vehicles in North America Mulally pushes Ford toward fuel efficiency Ford brand will draw on European lineup With no new vehicles planned, Mercury's future is bleak Engines promise power plus fuel economy Horbury: We'll keep our vehicle designs fresh Ford aims to move Lincoln upscale Toyota's Lentz: Don't panic over collapse; market will stabilize Personnel Chrysler's car sales sag in June — even more than trucks PG sells majority of auto glass business to private-equity firm Chrysler's Campi makes nice Suit against Ford is reinstated BMW reassesses Mini demand JCI plant cuts shift, work force CAW board endorses local president Purves: Thumbs-up for BMW innovations Current trend in Europe: Electric cars Solid reviews for Ford's new Flex Philosopher has insight for ailing U.S. auto industry The 'B' word brings media deathwatch at GM Chrysler to dealers: Don't panic

Automotive News - July 14, 2008

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