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 But sometimes, we need to think about what we can do to brands that are out of date or even dying.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.

Understanding Women

There’s an old joke about understanding women that goes something like this: There are two times when a man doesn’t understand a woman. The first is before marriage. And, the second is after marriage.

In many cases you could probably tell this joke about brand marketers as well. For example, when Dell launched their “Della” brand last year, with a campaign and special Web site, many women ridiculed them for being out of touch and condescending. The Dutch beer company Heineken failed with they launched their “Fembot” campaign which AdAge called “possibly the most sexist ad campaign ever”. And, finally, the Docker’s “Wear The Pants” campaign featured content that seemed to depict some apocalyptic world where a “genderless society” was responsible for bad kids and the destruction of cities.

A New Study Focusing on Women’s Relationship To Brands

In a new study conducted by Yahoo! and market research company, Added Value, there are some interesting new conclusions regarding how women relate to brands online. The results found that women react more positively to online content published by a third-party rather than connections through social networks.

The key, according to the study, was the “anonymity” that content Web sites offered. The women studied said that content sites offered the ability to feel like they were connecting to “like-minded women” and solutions to problems without any risk of judgment from the people they know in real life.

But, what was truly surprising about the research results, was that social media, or connections through social networks, were deemed to be “less relevant” when it was put into the context of brand and purchase decisions. In fact, content-oriented Web sites were found to have up to 3 times the impact on a woman’s purchasing decision, as compared to every other online channel.

Maybe just as surprising, the study also concluded even despite “demographic differences”, most women share very similar needs with regard to personal growth.

This suggests there may be value in brand marketers re-prioritizing their audience segmentation strategies. That is, Instead of looking at women as Generation X vs. Millienials vs. Baby Boomers, marketers may be better served by trying to understand these shared “needs” and “motivations” as it relates to the product or service they are offering.

New Opportunities For Brand Marketers

This new information provides a significant opportunity for brand marketers that target women by beginning to build relevant relationships with them through the creation of content driven Web properties, as compared to building social media or community-oriented channels. In fact, the study found women are most receptive to marketing messages on lifestyle, specialty and review-oriented Web sites.

At Boyd, we’re big believers in using content to build relationships with target consumers. In the end, this is what engages the consumer, and ultimately builds trust and loyalty.