Marketing and all things related

The US auto industry is in a funk. Marketing is not the problem. Product is the problem. Consumers perceive foreign brands superior to comparable US makes. Marketing cannot fix this problem, but it would help if auto marketers could get on message. We learned from Automotive News that GM keeps shifting their ad themes for there models. Buick, Saturn, and Pontiac have each used four different tag lines since 2001. Of course, staying on message is not necessarily the answer, if consumers don’t buy the message. GM spent $ 2.76 billion on US advertising last year. Automotive consultant Charlie Hughes, auto brands lack meaning. . "Every dollar you spend on communications ought to let the world know exactly what you stand for," he says. "If you stand for nothing, every dollar you spend tells the world exactly that." We used to know, for example, that Volvo once stood for safety—although Ford is screwing around that successful positioning. We have no idea what Volkswagen stands for, because we believe they are confused, too. Oh, those auto taglines you have already forgotten are listed here.