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Sales & Marketing
Social Media Keys Ford's Marketing Renaissance
By Dale Buss November 3, 2011When Ford CMO Jim Farley delivers a keynote address at a big national convention of bloggers in Los Angeles Friday, he will become the first-auto industry marketing chief to do so. That’s certainly a big deal for the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which has become the largest annual event in the world solely dedicated to advancing social media. But it’s even more important for Ford, which is gamely attempting to extend the early lead it has established over other automakers in exploiting all manner of social media and converting its cunning into real gains in awareness, consideration and more
Did Fiat Hit A Groove With J-Lo Ad?
By AutoObserver Staff September 28, 2011Chrysler Group LLC made a splash with the automotive marketing community when it signed pop singing sensation Jennifer Lopez to push the 2012 Fiat 500 to always tiny-car-wary U.S. buyers. For the past two weeks, it’s been hard to turn on the television without catching Fiat’s controversial and widely panned new 30-second spot featuring Lopez swerving and dodging through a city of pursuing, adoring fans. But just how much has the ad caught the attention of viewers and – more importantly – car buyers? more
Truck And SUV Incentives Primed For Fall Sell Down
By AutoObserver Staff September 22, 2011Vehicle manufacturers are offering the best deals on new pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles ahead of the winter season, according to Edmunds.com’s TMV Deals of the Month. “Coming off a particularly brutal winter last year, many shoppers in cold-weather climates will consider a truck or SUV this year to navigate the snow and slush so many dealers are selling down their 2011 models over the next couple of months,” said Edmunds Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell. The largest overall cash incentive offers are for pickup trucks, with the Dodge Dakota and Nissan Titan (above) standing out. Chrysler is offering $4,500 more
2010 Incentives Return to Lower 2008 Levels, Edmunds.com
By Michelle Krebs January 4, 2011After surging in 2009 as manufacturers tried anything they could think of to lure customers to buy their vehicles, incentives have dropped back to pre-recession levels, but with some shifts, according to Edmunds.com's analysis. Incentive spending by U.S., Korearn and European automakers was down in 2010 compared with the year earlier, while spending by Japanese automakers, led by Toyota as it tried to recoup from recalls that triggered a sales slump, rose, even though Japanese automakers still spend the least on incentives. In December, Edmunds.com estimates the average incentives was up from November as automakers attempted to close the more
2010: The Year in Marketing
By Dale Buss December 28, 2010Economics, politics, finance and safety engineering all took the front seat for the auto industry at various times during 2010, diminishing the primary roles that products and marketing typically assume during good times. But when it came to branding and marketing, there were still plenty of important, impactful - and intriguing - things going on. Here's our list of the Top Ten Marketing Stories of 2010 in the U.S. auto industry, in order of their overall significance: more
Ewanick Leaps into Role of First-Ever GM Global Marketing Czar
By Dale Buss December 20, 2010Joel Ewanick last week was named the first-ever global marketing czar for General Motors Co. He vowed to focus on empowering GM's brands around the world each to play to their regional strengths rather than take what he called a top-down, "cookie-cutter approach." "It's easy to 'peanut-butter' a marketing idea around the world: take a big idea and spread it everywhere," Ewanick told AutoObserver.com in an interview the same day it was announced he would be GM's global chief marketing officer. "We're not looking for easy solutions, but hard solutions - we're looking for the character of a Chevrolet, more
Car Shoppers Lured by Perception of Great Holiday Deals
By Michelle Krebs December 1, 2010Despite heavy advertising of seemingly attractive holiday deals, automaker incentives edged up only a bit, according to estimates by Edmunds.com. Nonetheless, the perception of great deals lured shoppers to showrooms over Thanksgiving in droves. "Thanksgiving weekend drew out a lot of shoppers," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com director of Industry Analysis. "Foot traffic was up at dealerships all over the country." Automakers post November sales results Wednesday. Edmunds.com forecasts a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of sales of 12.2 million vehicles. more
Industry Tamps Down Incentives in September
By Bill Visnic September 30, 2010As tightening inventories becomes a new business practice for automakers and many dealer lots have noticeably more elbow room, spending on incentives also is contracting: data from Edmunds.com indicates the overall average industry Total Cost of Incentives (TCI) for September was $2,576 per vehicle, down 6.2 percent from the same period last year. September incentive spending also was down by 4.6 percent - about $125 - from August, when the industry average TCI per vehicle was $2,701. Moreover, September incentives for 2010 models decreased from August, bucking the industry's history to typically increase incentives in September as automakers attempt to sell more
New GM Marketing Boss: 'GM Is Not A Brand'
By Dale Buss August 30, 2010Don't expect to see the new CEO of General Motors, Daniel Akerson, appear in a corporate television ad the way his predecessor, Ed Whitacre, did several months ago. At least not if Joel Ewanick has anything to say about it. Recently hired as GM's chief marketing officer, Ewanick is chomping at everything like an over-caffeinated Pac-Man as he bounces around corporate headquarters, the labyrinthine Renaissance Center in Detroit. He's removing a brand chieftain and replacing him with an old colleague. He's devouring bad advertising slogans. He's terminating fledgling agency relationships. And while he won't say so, it's not hard more