Automotive News - October 13, 2008 - (Page 35) 42 • OCTOBER 13, 2008 Meyer: Even in crunch, opportunity abounds he launch of the redesigned Dodge Ram pickup this fall is Chrysler LLC’s most expensive ad campaign this year. The “Dodge Ram Challenge” at the center of the launch draws on the popularity of tough-guy reality TV and has a major online presence. Over the next year, Chrysler’s marketing initiatives also include revamped dealer Web sites and an expanded effort to generate customer leads from the Internet. Deborah Meyer, 45, Chrysler’s chief marketing officer, discussed the company’s marketing strategies for 2009 with Retail Editor David Kushma and Staff Reporter Mary Connelly. T STRATEGY 2009: DEBORAH MEYER means of doing that. Our customer advisory board has been terrific. The decision by Chrysler Financial to get out of retail leasing has had a big impact. How are you dealing with that? Financing, even more than gas right now, is the biggest challenge that customers have in the marketplace. It is much harder to get car loans and financing. It is not just Chrysler Financial. It is a lot of the local banks that provided financing to dealers. They have backed off as the whole market becomes more cautious. We will probably see people think about keeping their vehicles longer. And they are making different decisions about how much they are putting into the packages. Those are probably the two biggest issues that we will be seeing over the next couple of years. In the future, we will be adjusting our packaging. With leasing, you had more highly loaded vehicles. This gives us an opportunity, especially with the credit crunch and the gas crunch, to focus on our high-mileage cars with more upgraded basic interiors. We have a whole effort that will come out at the first of the year. Automakers and dealers argue that leasing builds customer loyalty. Do you have new loyalty initiatives planned? A couple of months ago, we formed a new loyalty group to make sure we have a better focus. They are revamping all of the strategy on loyalty — how we go about it, how we speak to people. What do dealers tell you they want from you? It is important for them to hear from us about where the future product line is going. It is critical for them to make decisions about how much they invest now. We’ve got a real focus on that. How would you describe Chrysler’s relationship with your lead ad agency, BBDO? We are really pleased with the team at BBDO. We don’t see anything major changing. GM is jumping out of sponsoring some major events, such as the Emmys and Oscars. Are you interested in any of the spaces GM is vacating? No, I don’t anticipate that. Sponsorships of big events are wonderful, but to try to prove the return on investment all the way down to a lead is a little difficult. I also don’t like taking over someone else’s event. Is there still a place for diversity marketing, or is it all one big world now? Diversity, for me, fits along with the idea of microtargeting. Your umbrella idea like the Ram Challenge needs to apply to everything you do. Then you roll it out in market-specific ways. For Ram, we have one theme that then gets manifested in ways that are the relevant messages for the target markets. You have to have your umbrella message for high-level awareness. But if I am a family member, I want to know about the crew cab. If I am a work trucker, I want to know how those coil springs are going to hold out while I have my truck loaded up.c Is Chrysler’s marketing budget going down next year? We see it being stable — at the same place we end up this year. How the market evolves will determine where we go. Will you speed your ad spending transition to digital from traditional media? We’ve really increased our mix in digital. In general, we are trending between 20 and 30 percent, depending on the model. Now the idea is optimization. We had a relentless effort this year on making sure we followed everything we did on the Web. We’ve increased our leads by up to 40 percent this year versus 2007 and at the same time decreased our costs on the Web. Even though gasoline prices have moderated a bit, this would not seem the best time to launch a full-sized pickup. What is the message of the Ram campaign? Our theme is “Never back down from a challenge.” We’re focused on how the truck serves the needs of the regular men and women who use it and how they put it through its paces. We’ve created the Ram Challenge. It has been filmed in the new reality genre of the tough guy, such as (the TV series) “America’s Toughest Jobs,” which Ram will play a big role in. We have taken local heroes — cowboys, firemen, construction workers and military — and asked them to put the truck to the test in a competition against each other. Are you integrated into the content of the show as well as commercials? Both. And we are doing unique promotional ideas with NBC, both on “America’s Toughest Jobs” and their Thursday night comedies. The Ram Challenge will play out on Webisodes. We’ve worked out a unique partnership with Yahoo to showcase the Ram Challenge. What else tops your agenda? We are launching our new dealer Web site and lead management program. So now we have the whole circle. We’re running a unique deal with Dealer.com. They will provide all of our dealer Web sites. Dealer.com is the most flexible platform we were able to find. It will start with seven different templates. Then dealers can individualize and customize a lot of the template. Are social networking sites useful to you? Yes. The (Dodge) Challenger JOHN SOBCZAK What percentage of the marketing budget for the Dodge Ram launch is digital? It’s 17 percent. Our strategy focuses on incredibly high awareness and at the same time makes sure it flows down with specific messages for specific target customers. It is probably the most complex launch we have ever organized. launch has all been through social networking. It really does drive high traffic back to your Web site. As you encourage your dealers to get all three brands under the same roof, does that create a greater challenge in differentiating the brand identities of Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler? When we are in sales event mode or working to drive traffic to the dealerships, we use a tri-branded approach, which has worked really well. On the other hand, the brands are extremely important in terms of their individual identities. Ram and Ram Challenge is all Dodge. It is all about the Dodge attitude of grabbing life and never backing down from the challenge. Jeep remains even stronger to the core about the off-road vehicle for extraordinary adventures — go anywhere, do anything. Chrysler is the provocative brand. It has always been known for design, for pushing the barrier — the 300, the Town & Country in its time. That is where we still see it. We have a couple of exciting new vehicles that we hope to have ready shortly to start showing this. It is also a good leader for us in terms of connectivity with technology. Do you need to green up the image of your brands? We’ve had a lot of discussion about mpg and fuel efficiency. There is a lot of effort going on with electric vehicles. Will you use that in advertising similar to the way GM uses the Volt? (Laughs) I would hope to develop my own. It is important that the message gets out. We use a lot of different http://powerpusher.com http://powerpusher.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.