General Motors is throwing down the gauntlet. It's planning a major advertising blitz starting today to persuade consumers who haven't looked at GM cars in years to consider its products and compare them to the competition.
The campaign will start with new Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. pitching the new GM in the way that former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca did for his company in the 1980s.
Whitacre is the former AT&T (T, news, msgs) chairman and chief executive who was installed as GM chairman in July by the Treasury Department. His ads will run for just a short period before GM starts plugging its four brands -- Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC -- with a campaign themed "May the Best Car Win."
In those ads GM will compare its newer models to competing Japanese and German cars, even showing attributes such as pricing, fuel economy and the warranty to prove its cars are better buys.
GM won't stop there. The campaign also offers consumers a buyback guarantee. Anyone who buys a car can return it within 60 days and get his or her money back. The idea, says Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz, is to get consumers to see that GM's new models stack up favorably against the competition, and that there's no risk to giving them a try.
"We are really in a position today where anyone can say that we are as good or better than anyone else," Lutz said in a conference call with reporters. "We have to close this monumental chasm between the product lineup and the public's perception of the product lineup."
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Whitacre will start off the ads saying, "When they asked me to take the job, I too had my doubts." Then Whitacre adds that now that he's gotten inside the company, met the employees and reviewed the products, "I believe these are some of the best cars and trucks in the world."
GM asked Whitacre to appear in the ads because he is an outsider. He also speaks with a Texas drawl and walks with a slight limp, which Lutz says gives Whitacre the look of an aging cowboy. When GM showed the ads to consumers in prescreening events, viewers said they trusted Whitacre. "People said he sounds very sincere," Lutz says. "Central casting could not have done better."
When he takes the screen, Whitacre will be the fourth auto executive to do so. Former Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche appeared in the Dr. Z ads, which got Chrysler some buzz but didn't help sales much. Ford Motor (F, news, msgs) family scion William C. Ford Jr. did the same several years ago, but he wasn't forceful enough, says Daniel Gorrell, principal of Autostrategem, a marketing consulting company in North Tustin, Calif.
Video: GM launches satisfaction-guarantee program
Most famously, Iacocca appeared successfully in Chrysler's ads, which worked because he was a big-name personality, Lutz said. In this case, GM just wanted someone new to Detroit to appear in the ads to lend credibility. "Product spokespersons like Iacocca are necessary when you need style over substance, when you need the cult of personality to overcome the weakness of the product," Lutz said.
Will the gambit work for Whitacre and GM? "We'll have to see how he comes across onscreen," Gorrell says. "How persuasive is any (chairman)? I have my doubts."
Continued: Comparison ads just might work
