Olds' Brand New Day

Brandweek, April 17, 2000 by Jeff Green

Although the gross sales data don't reflect it yet, Oldsmobile may be coming back, in the process serving as a test lab for some of GM's more outre marketing gambits. In a Brandweek interview, Olds' exad director Mike Sands makes the case that the effort to make Olds new is getting results.

Oldsmobile has been the incubator of many of the wildest marketing ideas in General Motors, from sponsoring Web simulcasts of Drew Carey and offering shopping applications for Palm Pilots to an aggressive courtship of younger buyers and minorities, and an over-the-top, Gap-inspired Super Bowl spot.

It's also been the corporate guinea pig for new brand marketing organizational experiments (Brandweek, Oct. 11, 1999) and, not least, general manager Karen Francis is on just about everyone's short lists for the next big marketing job at GM.

But despite a lineup that has been completely refreshed and the most aggressive approach to brand management at GM, Olds has hit a bumpy stretch. Sales are down for the quarter while most GM divisions are up. More worrisome, the crucial Intrigue sedan is struggling when other sedans are selling well.

Brandweek auto reporter Jeff Green talked with ad director Mike Sands just before he left last week to loin Olds interactive agency Giant Step, Chicago, for his assessment of what the automaker has done wrong and what it is doing right.

Brandweek: What is going on with sales? The rest of GM is picking up the pace, but Olds appears to be struggling.

Mike Sands: Oldsmobile's overall sales were very good in the first quarter. There was a little bit of a dip on some of our brands in the March timeframe but overall we're very pleased with where we're at, especially with the fewer body styles and the absolutely fewer number of vehicles that we have in inventory with [discontinued] Cutlass and 88 not in the lineup. So we feel pretty good about where we're at. We're particularly happy with Alero, which continues to be our volume leader and is really bringing in a whole new type of consumer to the division.

If you re-base [sales numbers] year over year based on the body styles we had last year, then carry them over to this year, it shows we're tracking up. On an absolutely total basis, we are down, but that's primarily due to lower inventory level.

BW: What about Intrigue? Even within GM there has been concern about the mid-size sedan, with sales off 22.8% so far this year

MS: We think the Intrigue is a terrific car and a terrific value. I think it's a story that needs to be told. The car has this terrific new precision control system [PCS] system in it, which speaks to its safe driving. It has great styling. It has an award-winning engine. The important thing for us is to get that message out into the marketplace. Every time we've advertised Intrigue aggressively, sales have accelerated. Again, it's an unknown quantity. It's been out in the marketplace but it hasn't necessarily established the awareness we would like. We've just completed a new pool of advertising that we think highlights the strengths of the vehicle; that work will be out in late April/early May. We really believe that, in particular, will help re-accelerate the brand. So we're particularly excited about Intrigue's prospects going forward.

I think we're being very rigorous in focusing on the benefits of the vehicle; be it the strength of its award-winning engine, its new PCS and the fact that it leads to a very safe driving experience. Importantly, we've done a lot of tests with this car against competitive vehicles, especially the Nissan Maxima. We realize, whether it's braking or acceleration or other key measures, that we have a terrific story to tell versus the competition and we're not going to be shy about telling that story going forward.

BW: So less of the moody music and windy roads and more product features?

MS: More product features, a little bit more of a competitive tone telling consumers more reasons to believe this is a terrific product. And importantly, we want to elevate the brand image. I don't want to say we want to make it lighthearted, but we certainly don't want to dwell in the moody and mysterious, where this brand has always been, because in the end Oldsmobile has to be about a holistic, very open and very upbeat approach to the consumer--very much like the Alero. While we're not going to take the Intrigue where it's similar to the Alero advertising, we want to learn from the success that Alero's had and bring that into new advertising and bring it to Intrigue. A little bit more lighthearted, not taking itself quite so seriously having a little fun and at the same time building the brand.

BW: If X Files is the old Intrigue image, from Intrigue's participation in the X Files tour, what would be the new image?

MS: We're going to the fan of a Fraser or a Seinfeld--very sophisticated, a little upscale, but a little humorous as well.

BW: What was the reaction to the faux-Gap Super Bowl ad?

MS: It's very interesting because we've gotten feedback from a lot of dealers that have sent us e-mails and voicemails saying literally they've had teenagers and young adults coming into their dealerships specifically mentioning that ad and looking for the Alero. I won't be shy in saying it was a very polarizing ad within our dealer body. Many dealers who understand the direction we're going really appreciated where that ad was taking the division in terms of its humor, its lighthearted tone and its ability to speak to a younger audience. But a lot of dealers didn't understand the ad. Overall we're extremely pleased with the net results. We thought it was a great way to kick off the year.