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On August 31st, I posted a blog entry here titled: “Ask Dr. Z"....
In that post, I was ruminating about Daimler Chrysler’s latest marketing campaign, which utilizes Dr. Dieter Zetsche, its chairman as spokesman, and the pros and cons of such a strategy.
The TV and radio advertising spots coordinated with a web site askdrz.com, all designed to point out the many advantages of the merger between Daimler and Chrysler. That is -- better quality, improved handling, more fuel efficiency, etc, based on the collaboration of the best American and German engineers and designers in both divisions.
My questions were these: will this be a successful strategy? Will it lead to stronger sales? Will it burnish the image of the flagging Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep brands?
Some of you who responded to the post had strong opinions and interesting POVs about Daimler Chrysler’s use of its chairman in its latest marketing campaign. Many bloggers out there are still convinced that Dr. Z is an actor!
After launching the campaign on July 1st and running it for two months, Chrysler has suddenly announced it will pull the TV and radio spots for the time being--or so the company says—in favor of advertising its “zero percent finance offer.” This was reported in Automotive Digest on September 1st, as well as the Detroit News.
With business still down substantially on its former mainstay SUVs and trucks, and Chrysler’s planned roll-out of ten new vehicles by year’s end, the focus for the time being will apparently be on hard-sell tactics. However, the company has assured the press that Dr. Z will be returning in the future.
In the meantime, the Ask Dr. Z site will remain in place. Apparently, that site has fielded nearly 6 million questions to date. Chrysler also reports that Internet activity is up 15% on the company’s Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep web sites. While that hasn’t translated to lifting sagging sales yet, Daimler Chrysler spokesmen have expressed optimism since there is increased consumer interest in its products.
So for now, Auf wiedersehen, Dr. Z.
While Daimler Chrysler considers phase two of its Ask Dr. Z marketing campaign to be launched at some future, undisclosed date, some of us will miss him. Or maybe we’ll miss the humor in the way he can “head” a soccer ball, his great mustache or the thick Teutonic accent. Then again, maybe some of us won’t.
Question: if you were directing new marketing campaigns for Daimler Chrysler, what tack would you take? Would you be hard sell and push strong pricing and deals? Would you focus on the new 2007 models and more gas efficient vehicles? Or would you continue to have the chairman talk about the improved features and benefits of Chrysler vehicles?
I invite Daily Fix readers to weigh in.
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Comments
The American automobile industry is spinning. So, while I always urge my clients to increase, not decrease, margins, and sell value not price, Ford, GM and Daimler Chrysler have over the past three decades worked hard to kill their brands, and they have succeeded. Therefore, I think they are stuck with cutting prices, offering deals and focusing on better cars to come in 2007.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 09.12.06
I consider the Dr. Z ads investing in the future and the hard sell ads more of a short-term tactic. As such, if I were in charge there I'd keep a more modest schedule of Dr. Z ads running throughout while interspersing enough hard sale ads to jack up my immediate term volume. Mixing campaigns like that seems counterintuitive to marketing types, but the average viewer wouldn't think twice about it.
Posted by: Susan Emerson | 09.12.06
Thanks, Lewis, for your on-target comments (as usual). Let's hope that the U.S. car makers have learned a few lessons as a result of past mistakes and that they can rebuild their brands by winning back customer trust. They can only do that with their consumer-perceived value and quality issues resolved. They must also respond to the customers' real need for more fuel-efficient vehicles as their foreign competitors have done. To Susan's point: the balancing act of hard sell advertising to push units out of dealers' lots and brand building advertising in concert, might just be what the Dr. ordered!
Posted by: Ted Mininni | 09.12.06
Didn't Dr. Z just debut in July? We hardly got a chance to know him, did we? Before they pulled the plug, I would have expected a little more patience for the chairman!
Posted by: Ann Handley | 09.12.06
If people think Dr. Z is an actor, the campaign is a flop. Using a member of senior management as your spokesperson does one of two things: it works because it’s authentic or it flops because it’s an exercise in egos gone mad. The agency has run out of ideas and says, “no one can tell the story like YOU can…” and the boss smugly agrees.
Hard sell ads are the domain of the DMA’s. Brand building is done at the corporate level. Dr. Z needs to acknowledge the many problems the auto industry has and be the embodiment of the solution. He needs to symbolize product quality and corporate credibility. If he wants to be on camera, he needs to understand his role – he’s not an actor, he’s the boss. He can then present a vision for the company, invite his viewers to share in that vision, and then (very importantly) deliver on it.
Posted by: S. Denny 'www.note-to-cmo.blogspot.com' | 09.14.06