Buick, And The Brand Revival

My first car was a 1982 Buick Regal. It seems odd to people when I tell them now, but at the time, the Buick brand was a monster. In 1981, GM introduced the new Regal with a cool flared front grill that actually got NASCAR drivers excited.

That’s right, in 1981, Darrell Waltrip won the NASCAR championship in a Buick, posting 12 wins and 21 Top-5 finishes. Now, let’s be clear, before the car geeks go nuts, it was a Buick on the outside, but all Chevrolet underneath.

In any event, it’s been a long time since Buick was at that level of popularity. In fact, when GM restructured last year, and killed off four brands, many thought Buick would be one of them. It wasn’t.

Over the last few years, Buick has undergone a complete brand transformation, and much like the Corvette and the Cadillac before it, has come out a completely revived brand. Today, in China, Buick is one of the most popular brands of cars. And, in July, numbers showed year over year Buick sales are up an incredible 137%.

At Boyd we often talk about the importance of keeping your brand healthy and in good condition. But sometimes, we need to think about what we can do to brands that are out of date or even dying. Can they be revived?

We certainly believe they can, and here are three quick ideas you can utilize when reviving old or tired brands.

1. Give the fans what they want – Many times companies will think they know more than the consumer about what he/she wants. This is a great way to take a brand from lost, to dead. With the Buick Regal, GM went back to the Buick of old by building a sedan that would be attractive to younger buyers. Instead of a “big boat” GM wanted people to think of Buick as they used to think of it.
   
   
2. Change it up a bit. – You’ve got to keep the essence of what you had but modernize it and change it up. The new Buick Regal was engineered in Germany and was a modified version of the Opel. Buick did the right thing by stating that right up front in the new marketing. They advertised the new Buick as “the first German engineered Buick”. This let us know that it wasn’t our “Grandpa’s Buick” and led us to believe that it would be like a European performance car.
   
   
3. Leverage inaccurate memories: Consumers have notoriously inaccurate memories when it comes to brand. Many times by just doing some research consumers will surprise you about their brand attitudes. For example, “Fill it to the rim with Brim” was a classic campaign that stood for “full-bodied coffee”. In fact, as far as many consumers are concerned it stands for only that. However, in recent surveys, according to a new group working on reviving that brand, no one seemed to remember Brim offered only decaffeinated coffee.

The real key to a complete brand revival of course is the team ensures that the new brand story is effectively and consistently executed. The new experience of the brand must hold together especially if a new audience is being developed to interact with it.

At Boyd we’re here not only to build new brands, but to help maintain and revive old ones. We sincerely believe you’ve got to have the right story to tell to establish an emotional connection with the people who will actually care about that story. Then, and only then will great creative execution hold it all together.