[MackSteelPrivateEye]

Originally Posted by Mountain

Sorry, guys. Just had a “WTF” moment opening instagram during lunch and being greeted by a Chevy Europe ad/post of the Camaro. Then remembering the cool ad they had on Halloween and all the ads I remembered in Europe:

Video?

[Number 3]

Just so you know GM pulls Chvroltvfrom Europe a few years ago with the exception of two cars, Corvette and Camaro. They have nothing lose to advertise there.

[Number 3]

Originally Posted by MackSteelPrivateEye

Yep...the sell about 10 Lambos a year and 20 Ferraris.

Not quite

http://corporate.ferrari.com/en/2017...-record-year-0

[7WSM]

GM will make more money on the trucks and SUVs then they do on sports cars and sedans. Look at all the tiny little SUVs out there on the roads today, they have decent power, good gas mileage and are way more practical with more room then the smaller sedans. Most of the manufactures are this way. Look at Toyota, the Rav 4 is their best selling vehicle right now. It's been like this for the past couple of years.

[Mountain]

Originally Posted by Neil350

This relates back to the culture at GM. When the 4th gen ended production, lack of continued advertisement was a major criticism to the death of the cars. GM response then and I am sure as is now is that they have a set budget for advertising in North America and focus on high volume sales vehicles in competitive market classes, trucks, cross overs etc. In Europe it would seem as a cultural play than anything, here you have a cool American product that can be used to drum up attention to the brand (GM/Chevrolet) in terms of recognition and possibly changing attitudes.

I figure that.

Still, there is little money involved with social media advertisements (twitter, instagram, etc). Page-space and air-time I get would eat up $$.

[metros11]

Originally Posted by JDP Sales

Maybe because in America most of people have families and can't afford the Camaro/Corvette so why spend the money on advertising on a sports car when they can sell an SUV or truck? I also read once that high end cars like Ferrari and Lamborghini don't do ads because the car "sells itself" as they say.

Cheers,

Kayla L.
801.545.4215

Eh, I have to disagree on the 'can't afford' comment. The average new car price in America is $35k. That's Camaro SS territory. Trucks are the best selling vehicles in America, have you seen what they cost now? There is just much lowered interest in sports cars, which is a shame considering the performance value these days. With that said, there really is ZERO marketing for the Camaro.

[squish72]

Originally Posted by YARBIE 1

they don't advertise the Corvette either, never have never will.

Have to disagree with this one. They did make one of my favorites ever!. https://youtu.be/5MaUe3bpRRY

[GroundhogSS]

Yeah, that's a good ad.

[Snrub]

There has to be a reason to believe that advertising will result in new sales. They market the Camaro through various means (eg. Nascar, Transformer movies, etc). Additionally, the enthusiast and regular automotive press give a disproportionate amount of coverage to these kinds of cars. Perhaps they're already doing what they need to do to inform and excite their niche customer base.

[Mountain]

Originally Posted by Snrub

There has to be a reason to believe that advertising will result in new sales. They market the Camaro through various means (eg. Nascar, Transformer movies, etc). Additionally, the enthusiast and regular automotive press give a disproportionate amount of coverage to these kinds of cars. Perhaps they're already doing what they need to do to inform and excite their niche customer base.

-NASCAR - performance enthusiast focused and a dieing spotlight.
-Sportscar Racing (GT4) - performance enthusiast focused; Camaro is of the most expensive choices and least fielded cars; growing spotlight but still small
-Movies (Transformers) - typically a modified version of current production; those none-enthusiasts that even note the Camaro likely just see “a Camaro” that has aftermarket stuff on it; the initial Gen5 was a big showing as it wasn’t on the road yet, there was nothing like it out yet and it was the car
-Auto Mags/Media - performance enthusiast focused and showcase the top performance models 99.9% of the time

It’s clear now that Chevy wants and wanted to compete with Mustang in sales. A car that is designed, optioned and marketed to everyone, performance enthusiast and not.

If the Camaro wanted to be sold to more than just performance enthusiasts, like the Mustang is, you have to get the attention of the none-enthusiasts... I do not see that being done.

This is why I think Camaro, as it stands, has two options: take the place as the every-mans performance coupe (NOT a Mustang direct competitor; a step up - the less compromising option before Corvette) or drastically change its current course.

I love the 6th Gen, but it clearly doesn’t seem designed in mind to sell like Mustang, but it seems like Chevy wants to, but isn’t even marketing it to sell like Mustang.

[JDP Sales]

Originally Posted by metros11

Eh, I have to disagree on the 'can't afford' comment. The average new car price in America is $35k. That's Camaro SS territory. Trucks are the best selling vehicles in America, have you seen what they cost now? There is just much lowered interest in sports cars, which is a shame considering the performance value these days. With that said, there really is ZERO marketing for the Camaro.

You have a point about the cars price but once that mod bugs bites your spending way more . Yes trucks are the best selling because they are more practical for the American people. Ever try to fit a family of 5 in a Camaro? Heck of a lot easier in a truck that's for sure.

Cheers,

Kayla L.
801.545.4215

[flaps100]

I know other members must have this occur, again just the other day, some lady asked me if my Camaro was some sort of new Mustang ???

And a guy with her asked if I had the 8 or the 6 ??? I told him close to 300HP Turbo 4 and he about passed out. Then he asked price when I told him just under $28000 selling price, again he was shocked and liked the car a lot.

Many people that might buy a Camaro don't even know there still made, don't know they have a low cost Turbo option and on and on.

It ridiculous to not run some sort of quality , cool, maybe even Retro looking ads.

Flaps

[Glen e]

my opin after being in the corp car biz for 30 yrs:

marketing/advertising has changed so much, look at the thickness of a car and driverw mag vs 10 yrs sgo. the ad funds are not going to print or media as much as before. its also a huge social mecia presence now, product events, direct contact, etc. ....your total budget is spread way thin these days.

so now you have to hit where it will do the most bang for the buck...what will increase sales NOW.....and thats the SUV's....and trucks. Advertising can move the needle 10-15 pct if the campaign is right, but cant resurrect a dead product line. camaro certainly is not dead, but to throw money for strategic camaro ID advertising is a choice I dont think most execs will make these days.

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by 7WSM

GM will make more money on the trucks and SUVs then they do on sports cars and sedans. Look at all the tiny little SUVs out there on the roads today, they have decent power, good gas mileage and are way more practical with more room then the smaller sedans. Most of the manufactures are this way. Look at Toyota, the Rav 4 is their best selling vehicle right now. It's been like this for the past couple of years.

And when was the last time you saw a RAV4 advertisement? It manages to sell quite well without ads. Marketing? Yes. Ads? No. At least not ads that reach my demographic.

Originally Posted by BuckeyeROC

Yes, the Honda CRV is by far the most prevalent vehicle on the road here. They are fugly, sad, bland, gross, awful little commuting pods, but people here think they are the pinnacle of automotive achievement and buy them like nothing else.

And again, this is largely achieved without ads. I do see an occasional CR-V ad in a magazine here or there, but can't recall ever seeing a TV ad or hearing a radio spot.

Originally Posted by metros11

Eh, I have to disagree on the 'can't afford' comment. The average new car price in America is $35k. That's Camaro SS territory. Trucks are the best selling vehicles in America, have you seen what they cost now? There is just much lowered interest in sports cars, which is a shame considering the performance value these days. With that said, there really is ZERO marketing for the Camaro.

The difference here is that when you spend 35 - 55k on an SUV or a crew cab pickup, it can handle more than 90% of the family's duty requirements. It can be a daily driver, take kids to school / practice / games / scouts etc. It can be the family travel horse. With a Camaro (or Mustang) it becomes more of a "me" car and the family still needs a "we" car. Challenger and Charger fit the family role much better than Camaro or Mustang.

Originally Posted by Snrub

There has to be a reason to believe that advertising will result in new sales. They market the Camaro through various means (eg. Nascar, Transformer movies, etc). Additionally, the enthusiast and regular automotive press give a disproportionate amount of coverage to these kinds of cars. Perhaps they're already doing what they need to do to inform and excite their niche customer base.

Advertising (ime) is best used to build awareness of a new product (My Pillow, Roomba) or significant change in an existing product. It is also used to build brand equity or pound a brand message or slogan into peoples' brains ("Dilly-Dilly", or "Where's the beef?")

Originally Posted by Glen e

my opin after being in the corp car biz for 30 yrs:

marketing/advertising has changed so much, look at the thickness of a car and driverw mag vs 10 yrs sgo. the ad funds are not going to print or media as much as before. its also a huge social mecia presence now, product events, direct contact, etc. ....your total budget is spread way thin these days.

so now you have to hit where it will do the most bang for the buck...what will increase sales NOW.....and thats the SUV's....and trucks. Advertising can move the needle 10-15 pct if the campaign is right, but cant resurrect a dead product line. camaro certainly is not dead, but to throw money for strategic camaro ID advertising is a choice I dont think most execs will make these days.

One thing to consider is this...at GM, there is the Camaro Product Development Team (Al O's team) and there is a Chevrolet Marketing Team. They are separate teams with separate goals, but they do interact. Chevy Marketing people sit on Al's team and participate in the meetings. The goals of the Product Development Team are to produce the best possible product with the resources (people & $$) that they are given. Part of the measure of the goal is achieving a certain level of profitability and hitting average transaction price (ATP) goals.

The goals of the Marketing Team is to support the Product Development Teams (every car and truck team) in meeting those goals and to promote the most profitable product sales mix for Chevrolet. It is my OPINION that if Chevrolet is meeting its overall sales and profitability targets AND Camaro is meeting its ATP targets, the Marketing Team is more likely to twist the bigger knobs
( Silverado, Equinox, Traverse, Malibu ) to achieve their profitability targets. They are not likely to lose sleep over Camaro missing sales numbers if Camaro is still profitable and ringing the ATP bell. It's certainly what I would do if I were in that role.