How Does a Brand Make You Feel? - My thoughts on GM

About a month ago I stumbled across a blog post about New Brand Strategies for GM. The writer gave their thoughts on what should be done with the branding efforts of the remaining GM brands. Being the nerd that I am and a former employee of a major automotive brand, I decided to give my two cents. Thought I'd share it here as well.

Interesting take. The other brands you mentioned, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes (i may argue with you on the brand position you chose for them), and Volvo all cater to the senses and emotion of the brand. Toyota gives a feeling of security and reliability b/c of a history of well built vehicles. BMW gives a feeling of performance, strength and power b/c of the way vehicles drive and handle. Mercedes is a feeling of status and confidence that one has "made it" or is successful (at least in the U.S.) Volvo is definitely a feeling of safety and protection, however, has always seemed to be more niche vehicles because the feeling isn't powerful enough for the masses.

I like to ask, how does a brand make you feel, and how passionate are people about that feeling? Other than the Chevy example, I think what you have described aren't emotional enough, or just aren't realistic enough to become emotional and drive passionate feelings. Another issue is that Ford or Chrysler have a solid position with like feelings as well.

People are passionate about being American, but Ford is a brand that pretty much claims that as well. Can Chevy have the same brand and compete? Buick has, and always will be known, as the last vehicle people own before they die. Even Tiger Woods can't change that emotional tie. Buick screams: I'm old, I'm OK with that, so I drive a Buick. For Cadillac, "Leading Technology" is too niche like Volvo. It's just not powerful enough on the emotions. And with GMC, I'm with you, no reason to hold onto this one. Jeep already has the "Rugged Reliability" brand tied up.

In the end, I think GM needs to create emotion with their brands. I think a Chevy and a Ford can both be "American" brands, so stick with that and be over the top with it. Drop the Buick line and make Cadillac the "Quality w/ Status" line of vehicle. Forget technology as it is expected in this level of vehicle at this point. That brand was built off of "Quality w/ Status" and they lost sight of that. GMC needs to just become a "commercial" line of vehicles as most of their vehicles are the exact same as a Chevy model anyway. So they're down to two lines of vehicle. They have plenty of options to use stylings from Pontiac or some other lost brands for either line, but it's all they need.

Oh, and thin out the number of dealerships. Do some real market analysis and determine where you are going to make the most impact without creating an overly price competitive market. Ask the foreign brands how they do this as they seem to have it under control. Bottom line, make owning an American car emotional again.

Alert, Alert, Alert!!!

Recently I have received some Google Alerts for a couple of our communities. If you don't have these set up for your company or your communities I highly recommend you do as it's a free service offered by Google. So let me share with you the two most recent alerts that touch each end of the spectrum.

First is Bayshore Apartments. I received an alert linking me to MerchantCircle.com. I'll have to say that I'd never heard of MerchantCircle.com, but it appears to be a long tail website for city/business searches. The alert came due to a review from a former resident that was dissatisfied with us. How great! If I didn't have Google Alerts I may have never know about the review, and I would not have had the opportunity to respond. Unfortunately, both reviews have now been removed (in less than a day) as they must not have represented what MerchantCircle.com was looking for in a review. While the resident's review was obviously very negative, I'm happy I had the opportunity to respond in an apologetic way and explain J.C. Hart Company was following the terms of our lease agreement in this situation. Nothing too detailed, but a nice apology for any confusion for the resident and for readers of the reviews. I do find it interesting that MerchantCircle.com chose to remove the reviews. The only conclusion I can make from this is that they were not specific to the apartments and focused on one incident vs. being an entire review.

Now onto the other end of the spectrum. I received an alert for our Linden Square community. This was a link to City-Data.com, and a conversation thread about Linden Square. I also had not heard of City-Data.com, but it appears to be a long tail relocation forum. It was great to see positive testimonials for our community as well as for J.C. Hart. I did take the time to write a short response to those involved and thank them for their posts. This is a great way to acknowledge to our residents and future residents that we care and we are listening.

I highly recommend you find out what people online are saying about you. It's a great way to discover some websites or forums you were not aware of. Also, good or bad it's always nice to know what your customers are thinking as it may confirm you are doing things right, or it may help you to make improvements to your processes.

Enjoy your day!

Mj

Perseverance (Part 2)

Last June I wrote a post about one of the greatest sports icons of our time, Tiger Woods. In that post I asked a question, "When do perseverance and determination actually hurt your brand?" Tiger has been out of golf and out of the spotlight for more than 6 months now. He is one of the major endorsers for Nike, Buick, Gatorade, Gillette, Accenture, EA Sports, and the PGA Tour.

As I stated in the previous post, this situation presented an amazing opportunity for marketing researchers to study the impact of a celebrity on a brand. Tiger is one of the largest sports celebrities in the world so I would imagine his impact would be much larger than some others, but it will be very interesting to see how these companies are affected by his return later this year.

If anyone in marketing for these companies stumbles across this piece or if anyone has some insight into how or if there is a study for this please let me know. And, please share it with marketers around the world. Thanks and enjoy your day!

Mj

Perseverance

For those of you reading that are not golf fans (or even know who Tiger Woods is), let me just simply explain that he is one of the most influential and incredible sports figures today. Last weekend and in a playoff on Monday with Rocco Mediate Tiger showed us again why he one of the most amazing talents in sports. Not only was he coming off of knee surgery, but during the 5 day/91 holes of golf he played he reinjured his knee and created two stress fractures in his leg. Oh, by the way, he won his 14th major championship even while going through these physical struggles. If that's not determination and perseverance I don't know what is. Unfortunately, these injuries now are season ending for Tiger as he will be having reconstructive knee surgery and will miss the British Open, PGA Championship, & Ryder Cup, in addition to other tournaments he scheduled to play in.

That all being said, I think there is a lesson to be learned from this icon of sports as I'd like to make this story relevant to marketing of course. The question I ask is, "When do perseverance and determination actually hurt your brand?" Due to the season ending injury that perseverance caused in this situation I think, Nike, Gatorade, Buick, Accenture, EA Sports, Gillette, and the PGA Tour are going to lose out a bit. The "Tiger" brand will still be strong and make a come back, but without his face appearing in highlights on ESPN how will this effect these brands that rely on his image in more than just advertisements. As the number 1 player in the world Tiger not only helps increase attendance at tournaments, but also helps to increase television viewers.

With no Tiger for at least 6 months it will be interesting to see if these advertisers and sponsors see an impact on their business. This could be a true marketing analyst's dream. Take away your premium spokesperson for 6 months and see how it impacts sales. Think of the millions of dollars each one of these companies spends to have Tiger help promote their products. I see two scenarios. 1. There is little to no impact at all because Tiger is such a recognizable icon that even a picture or advertisement continues to help these brands. or 2. Consumers begin to lose the connection they have with Tiger and the brands he represents and these brands suffer for at least 6 months. I'd like to see what these companies plan to do over the next 6 months to help sustain their brand recognition with Tiger. If I were them I would be afraid that he will somewhat disappear during this period, and the excitement that surrounds his golf play will not help to support these brands the way it does when he is out amazing us with his greatness.

-Mark

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