General Motors is running a new advertising campaign in the US to lure car and truck buyers who wouldn’t usually consider the firm’s various brands into showrooms, Reuters reported.
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GM will reportedly launch the print campaign next week to convince the 40% of US vehicle buyers who shun its models that GM vehicles now have world-class quality and it will follow with other ads aimed at improving GM’s overall image beyond the pile of incentive deals it regularly dangles in front of buyers, the news agency said.
“The message of the ads is simple. We may not have done everything right in the past, but we’ve learned from it, we’ve improved from it and today we’re confident our products bear a much closer look,” GM North America president Gary Cowger told Reuters.
The first ad, titled “The Road to Redemption,” includes a passing reference to GM’s quality problems, along with claims that GM’s new cars and trucks are now as reliable as the best in the world, Reuters said.
Cowger told the news agency that GM had a record on quality, technology and customer satisfaction that it could back up with facts, but had not made any real attempt to publicise it with consumers. Cowger reportedly added that about 40% of US buyers do not consider GM vehicles, including around 10% to 20% who reject anything with a GM brand.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Reuters, GM’s quality image began deteriorating in the late 1970s as Japanese competitors began importing inexpensive models that proved far more durable than what Detroit had to offer. Today, while GM leads its US-based rivals in initial quality, according to industry analysts JD Power, its long-term reliability record is still mixed, the report added.
Both measures still trail those of its Japanese competitors, Reuters added, although the gap has closed in recent years. GM has also been able to increase the number of models with “recommended” grades from Consumer Reports magazine, considered an influential new vehicle shoppers’ guide.
GM’s vice president of corporate advertising, John Middlebrook, told the news agency the new programme could not change GM’s image overnight.
“This is a long-term communications program. This is not something that we think we’re going to see numbers change in the next 30 days,” he told Reuters.
