General Motors Corporation

300 Renaissance Center

PO Box 300

Detroit, Michigan 48265-3000

USA

Telephone: (313) 556-5000

Web site: www.gm.com

AN AMERICAN REVOLUTION CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

Chevrolet was a division of the General Motors Corporation (GM), the largest car manufacturer in the United States. Long facing pressure from Japanese automakers such as Toyota, the company decided to revamp its vehicle lineup in 2004 by launching 10 new and redesigned models under a single campaign, "An American Revolution." This marked Chevrolet's first division-wide marketing push in more than a decade.

The campaign was headed by Michigan-based ad agency Campbell-Ewald. Beginning with a television commercial on December 31, 2003, during Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve, "An American Revolution" featured dozens of TV spots, each featuring a vehicle in the company's fleet. Key spots promoted the sports-car model Corvette C6 and the SSR truck. Chevrolet reached out to many demographics, using "An American Revolution" as a flexible umbrella that encompassed many targeted mini-initiatives. This included a male-focused print campaign for the Silverado truck and a hip-hop themed radio and television campaign for the Impala and HHR. The campaign relied on exposure during key events, including New Year's Eve, the Super Bowl, the Vibe Awards, and the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The campaign was mostly successful. Many models, such as the Corvette and the Impala, had strong sales numbers. Consumers responded favorably to the new commercials, which all fared well in USA Today's Ad Track surveys, with 26 percent of respondents giving the campaign the highest score possible (against an industry average of 16 percent). At 98 percent, dealer participation was impressive. The company also generated significantly more traffic at its website and maintained its high public profile. Nevertheless, some individual lines, especially the SSR, did not sell well.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Chevrolet was founded in 1911 by Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born race-car driver, and William Durant, a former executive at General Motors. By producing cars such as the 1912 Classic Six, a five-passenger sedan, the company soon became successful enough for Durant to buy a majority of GM's voting stock. Soon thereafter Chevrolet merged with GM and became a separate division of the older company. GM dominated vehicle sales in the United States throughout the twentieth century, with Chevrolet as its premier line. By 1963, in fact, 1 out of very 10 vehicles sold in the United States was a Chevrolet.

The brand featured a number of well-known vehicles over the years, including the 1957 Bel Air, which would later be known as the "'57 Chevy," and the most

Chevrolet's Super Sports Roadster (SSR) concept pickup truck. © Reuters/Corbis.recognizable American sports car, the Corvette. The Corvette was introduced in the early 1950s and became the most famous vehicle in the entire Chevrolet line. Production on the car continued through the twenty-first century, making it Chevrolet's most established vehicle.

In the face of strong competition from such competitors as the Toyota Motor Corp., Chevy decided to update much of its fleet in a 20-month period beginning in January 2004. Ten of the vehicles would be launched in that period: the cars models Malibu Maxx, Aveo, Cobalt, Corvette C6, Uplander, and Impala; the trucks SSR and Colorado; and the sports utility vehicles (SUVs) Equinox and HHR.

As Chevrolet's signature car, the Corvette was to be the centerpiece of the campaign. The SSR was also important to the launch. Based on Chevy's midsize SUV, the Trailblazer, the SSR was a stylized, convertible truck that Chevrolet hoped would prove popular enough to boost the sales of its other trucks.

TARGET MARKET

The target market for the campaign varied from vehicle to vehicle. The SSR and Colorado trucks were aimed at men, especially those in their 20s and 30s. At a price of more than $40,000 per vehicle, the SSR would have to find a lucrative audience of young professionals to be successful.

Chevrolet also used the "American Revolution" campaign to reach out to minority consumers, particularly African-Americans. The Impala and HHR were especially important to that outreach. The company also made a push for Latin-American consumers. The Accent Marketing agency of Miami was hired to run the parallel Spanish-language "Subte" (Join Us) campaign. The campaign featured television spots that aired on Spanish-language stations such as Telemundo and Univision as well as radio spots and print ads.

COMPETITION

Chevrolet's traditional competition came from GM's primary American competitors, the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler ...

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