Sometime in the beginning of February, Chevrolet Chief Jim Campbell announced that the bow tie brand will no longer use its ‘An American Revolution’ tagline. Citing a new communications strategy, Campbell told Automotive News that
There’s not really an all-new theme … It’s really communications focused at those target customers.
Essentially, this means the plan is to use different marketing approaches to reach the various target markets (customers). You could also say that the Chevrolet brand name will become the tagline in and of itself.
The GM Authority Take
This humble blogger was a fan of the ‘American Revolution’ motto, but its time has come – and gone. If executed properly, customers can be reached with targeted ads by promoting the Chevrolet brand name alone. And given the recent slump in the American auto industry, identifying Chevy’s American roots may not be a strength, but rather a weakness (as much as it saddens me to say that).
However, GM’s recent ‘May The Best Car Win’ promotional (and marketing) campaign may be considered a unifying catchphrase between all of The General’s brands. But even then, I think it’s a fairly established and agreed-upon fact that each GM brand must be able to stand on its own from both the sales and financial perspectives.
For the sake of nostalgia, here’s the commercial that kicked off the American Revolution campaign. Michael Bay and Transformers fans will undoubtedly catch a few Autobot references.
[Source: Automotive News]
Comments
Given the slopping at the public trough, the skinning of creditors and stockholders, the lay-off of thousands of American workers, and the number of Chevrolet vehicles now made by foreign workers the motto is nothing more than an exercise in hypocrisy and fraud.
Frank, that’s a very narrow-minded way of looking at the situation at hand.
Yes, the old GM was – to put it bluntly – unacceptable. The mistakes and inefficiencies of the old system led to – as you put it – slopping at the public trough and the skinning of creditors and stockholders.
However – a lot has changed at the new GM – and you should come to realize this. If products are what define a company – take a look at GM’s current and upcoming vehicles: they’re the best in their respective classes. If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself.
And being the independent General Motors fan site that we are, we follow GM news and developments very closely on a daily basis. Trust me when I say that GM is on the up and up.
And regarding your comment about laid off workers – have you checked how many workers Toyota, Honda, or Nissan have laid off in the past two years? How about Goldman Sachs? Lehman Brothers? Merril Lynch? Caterpillar? Bank of America? The list of American companies goes on and on and on. I’m not going to tell you about the economy – I hope you haven’t been under a rock all this time. But what I will tell you is that the economic turmoil finally let the old, bad GM to its deathbed. It served as a wake-up call to Detroit and we can finally see the transformation of the U.S. auto industry as it happens. Laying off workers is part of decreased demand – there’s no evil scheme.
What you should be aware of, Frank, is the fact that for every GM product sold – no matter where it is built – the resulting profits come back to the U.S.A. Can you say the same about Toyota, Honda, or Nissan? I think we both know the answer to that question.
So think before you bash. Be informed!
PS: Just so you know – we are an INDEPENDENT fan site and are not sponsored, approved, or otherwise supported by General Motors (company or corporation).