American GM Adverts

DubyaStep

DubyaStep

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Edit: sorry ahead of time. im no writer but i hope i get my point across.

So, just wanted to discuss this and get peoples input. im not an expert in this Field or anything, just have been noticing this and wondered if i was the only one.

Has anyone else noticed that GM commercials, mostly Chevy, dont really "sell the car" anymore? they always seem to talk about the gimmicks on the cars. Its always "look, you can move things around on your touchscreen" or "our vehicle uses momentum from going down a hill to go up the next one" and so on, they never talk about the actual car. I know this sounds like im bias or being picky or whatever but just pay attention and you'll see it. My point is, this is proof that the big wigs at GM are out of touch. If i make a product and the only people that buy it are the ones who dont really care what it looks like (fleet) then i know im doing something wrong. thats my opinion. It reminds me of Geico, they never sell insurance in their tv spots, its always just some stupid talking animal that yaps on about something for 25 seconds and then say you can save money with a phone call.

Now, with that said, im not a big fan of anything made by GM. to me they all seem like just lumps of shit sheet metal lined with plastic inside and no effort is made to hide that. we are talking about a company that thought "well, lets kill pontiac but keep GMC, why have a popular badge that we can save when we can sell the exact same trucks with a different grill". My point here is that i have seen the new Chevy SS and i think it could be great. That car looks good and sounds good but im confident it wont drive that good. Why havnt i seen a single commercial covering that car? thats a flagship so why wouldnt you talk about it all day? Yes, im aware its a 2014 but its been shoved in our american faces because NASCAR is using it.

This company needs new leadership. When they killed Pontiac they killed the Trans Am. Well, people didnt like that, here are some shots of TA's made from the new camaro:




I really just think they dont get it and the recent commercials are proof. Here are a couple, the one about how a car can use downhill momentum to get up a hill kills me, i know there is something special that the car does but it still just sounds like they are reaching to say "our car builds momentum going down the hill to go up the next hill. all you have to do is press the gas pedal!" what is really sad is that people are inspired to spend $20,000+ on a gimmick.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/user/Chevrolet?v=mgz_-xym__M[/video]

Also, just for the sake of stacking to many videos on this thread, here is a link to chevys youtube channel. I know this sounds like a stupid post but really, what do you guys think? There is alot that can be learned from this i think. Rant over (for now).
 
By points:

The reason they don't sell 'the car' in their ads is because aside from a couple models they don't have any product that they can sell that way. Seriously, do you think they'd be able to sell the Cruze that way? The Impala? The Volt?

They kept GMC because that brand ties in with their commercial medium and heavy truck line under that badge. GMC, with the exception of some few models, is sold to fleet buyers who already have GMC badged heavier trucks - one stop shopping for business, basically. That said, neither side of the GMC badge is looking terribly healthy these days.

Yes, they need new leadership. No, they're not going to get it as long as they can keep getting bailouts and waivers and crap like that. They're going to have to fail and fail hard before their failed leaders will be replaced.
 
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Spectre said:
By points:

The reason they don't sell 'the car' in their ads is because aside from a couple models they don't have any product that they can sell that way. Seriously, do you think they'd be able to sell the Cruze that way? The Impala? The Volt?

They kept GMC because that brand ties in with their commercial medium and heavy truck line under that badge. GMC, with the exception of some few models, is sold to fleet buyers who already have GMC badged heavier trucks - one stop shopping for business, basically. That said, neither side of the GMC badge is looking terribly healthy these days.

Yes, they need new leadership. No, they're not going to get it as long as they can keep getting bailouts and waivers and crap like that. They're going to have to fail and fail hard before their failed leaders will be replaced.
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ok, the GMC thing makes sense. I guess what im observing is a company that needs to fall. If big changes arent made it will die and im hoping that another bailout wont happen. Remember when someone tried to buy Saturn and they said "yes, we will sell it but all you get is the name and the badge. No factories and no dealerships" or something along those lines.
 
To be fair, lots of industries' ads are like that. Look at movie trailers, for example. I would say that a solid 95% of all movie trailers seem to just want to show you a slickly-edited compilation of clips, rather than trying to tell you a narrative about the plot of the movie to pique your interest. This is not just for action or big budget films...smaller films do it to, where it's just a bunch of clips, edited to an interesting song.
 
GM marketing sucks, other than for the full size pickups. Ford's done much better in that regard. I agree, they don't know HOW to sell their cars, always on the lookout for the next big catch phrase instead of coming up with substance. I own a Volt and they simply don't know how to market it. the owners are better at marketing the thing than GM is. It's a great car. I drive it daily and I haven't had to put gas in it for two months, yet I COULD drive it on a 1500 mile round trip tomorrow if I wanted to (and did two months ago).
 
Merc63 said:
GM marketing sucks, other than for the full size pickups. Ford's done much better in that regard. I agree, they don't know HOW to sell their cars, always on the lookout for the next big catch phrase instead of coming up with substance. I own a Volt and they simply don't know how to market it. the owners are better at marketing the thing than GM is. It's a great car. I drive it daily and I haven't had to put gas in it for two months, yet I COULD drive it on a 1500 mile round trip tomorrow if I wanted to (and did two months ago).
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That is very odd to me now that you mention it. While I don't really watch TV and wouldn't see adds anyway, I don't think I've seen a single thing about the volt outside of these forums(including stuff about carblog stories). I think they need to cut the price down a bit and really push the thing. The underlying tech seems pretty damn good and worthwhile, but I feel like the price is just too high for how nice of a car it is, even if you are supposed to be paying extra for all the fuel savings and to help recover R&D in early iterations of the platform.
 
Anybody paying full retail for a Volt is DIW. With credits and incentives, my Volt, even though it listed at $41k, actually leased out like a $28k car at $350/mo with all taxes and licensing rolled in and $500 down. That compared favorable with a lot of similarly equipped gas cars, and I don't have to use any gas (and my electric bill is only $8 a month increased since I got the car). So it's essentially free to commute and run errands, and the insurance is lower than my outgoing '06 Mustang, so it can actually save quite a bit of money over a comparable new ICE car.

Supposedly Volt II will be cheaper yet, with more range and power (right now, this car makes 280 lb ft of torque, but a similar drivetrain in the new Spark EV puts out nearly 400 lb ft of torque... In a Volt that would be amazing.)

GM can't market it and their dealers don't know anything about the car. It's up to people to drive one and ask at GM-volt.com to learn anything about them. Which is sad.
 
Merc63 said:
Anybody paying full retail for a Volt is DIW. With credits and incentives, my Volt, even though it listed at $41k, actually leased out like a $28k car at $350/mo with all taxes and licensing rolled in and $500 down. That compared favorable with a lot of similarly equipped gas cars, and I don't have to use any gas (and my electric bill is only $8 a month increased since I got the car). So it's essentially free to commute and run errands, and the insurance is lower than my outgoing '06 Mustang, so it can actually save quite a bit of money over a comparable new ICE car.

Supposedly Volt II will be cheaper yet, with more range and power (right now, this car makes 280 lb ft of torque, but a similar drivetrain in the new Spark EV puts out nearly 400 lb ft of torque... In a Volt that would be amazing.)

GM can't market it and their dealers don't know anything about the car. It's up to people to drive one and ask at GM-volt.com to learn anything about them. Which is sad.
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its funny you say this. this isnt just a GM thing, i have seen it with all amercan dealers. I went to look at the Dart and started asking question but the guy had no answers. I said to him, how do you expect me to give you $30k with you knowing what your selling. Im not buying shit from you" and he didnt understand what the big deal was. all i wanted to know is what the differences were between the base model and the sport/high end model. Atleast ford dealers know the names of the cars.

NecroJoe said:
To be fair, lots of industries' ads are like that. Look at movie trailers, for example. I would say that a solid 95% of all movie trailers seem to just want to show you a slickly-edited compilation of clips, rather than trying to tell you a narrative about the plot of the movie to pique your interest. This is not just for action or big budget films...smaller films do it to, where it's just a bunch of clips, edited to an interesting song.
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i see your point but im not sure its the same thing. Movies atleast use scenes from the actual film but to compare GM uses he snack counter at the theater to see the movie. Basically, if they were promoting a movie they would tell yo all about the new popcorn machine and maybe how the soda has "a new type of fizz" but nothing about the film.

here is a couple great examples of the stupidity of the GM marketers.
up to the final moment its a good commercial (yes, 1mpg isnt a great improvement but at least its not a lie) untill he says the lawnmower thing. Im confident they thought they were making fun of Honda (you know, Honda, the ones who make EVERYTHING as well as cars) but in the end all they said was "we only make cars and trucks, haha, look, honda is good at something we wont go near"

Another one here. I mean, come on, this is just plain bad

Ill end with this one. This is the "haha, we will make fun of your feature but we have no better ideas so nothing to compare it to."

This is an issue that i noticed years ago. Its not like i woke up yesterday and though "huh, they cant do ads". i remember the lawnmower one, it made be fall off my couch laughing. Im thinking "wait, did he just say that?"
 
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But that was a truck ad. They tend to do much better with their full size trucks.
 
To be fair, most car commercials now adays have absolutely nothing to say about the actual car. They just splurge a bunch of marketing nonsense to get your heart into it then couple it with some flashy cinematography and expect the car to sell.

It's not just GM, it's everyone. (I think GM, Lexus and Volkswagen are the worst offenders here though)
 
JipJopJones said:
To be fair, most car commercials now adays have absolutely nothing to say about the actual car. They just splurge a bunch of marketing nonsense to get your heart into it then couple it with some flashy cinematography and expect the car to sell.

It's not just GM, it's everyone. (I think GM, Lexus and Volkswagen are the worst offenders here though)
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And i agree with you but GM does it different. Atleast the others have "fun" commercials or they look cool (like the audi vampire one or the Spock one). GM just seems to really point at crap and go "look! Its go A/C! Buy this!"
 
I think the problem is GM goes all-out to sell the features of the car and not the car itself.

With Ford, you'll get a voice-over going over the selling points while you get good shots of the Fusion doing things a Fusion will never do. You get to see the car, it helps it's a good looking one.

With GM, you get Peyton Manning or Shaq or whatever celebrity sitting in the car going over the selling points and you get to see the interior of the car so they can focus on the selling points and not the car itself.

Ford sells you a car and lets you know why you want it. GM sells you a personality and demands you want it.
 
racingfan1 said:
I think the problem is GM goes all-out to sell the features of the car and not the car itself.

With Ford, you'll get a voice-over going over the selling points while you get good shots of the Fusion doing things a Fusion will never do. You get to see the car, it helps it's a good looking one.

With GM, you get Peyton Manning or Shaq or whatever celebrity sitting in the car going over the selling points and you get to see the interior of the car so they can focus on the selling points and not the car itself.

Ford sells you a car and lets you know why you want it. GM sells you a personality and demands you want it.
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that is exactly my point (i think).
 
That's just how I got to my point of view, admittedly a little biased. But even going to Mercedes or BMW, they sell you on the car and what the car can do, not what you can do with the buttons on the steering wheel.
 
Car commercials sell feelings first and foremost, the product is of secondary nature.



[video=youtube;2R00h-_Xt_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R00h-_Xt_Q[/video]
 
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GM does similar advertising here. This one's all over the place at the moment.

[video=youtube;-1aeWZ0COR4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1aeWZ0COR4[/video]

Also selling the car entirely on one feature. Kinda misleading too - because it's not the car that has voice control, it's your phone connected to it.
 
AiR said:
Car commercials sell feelings first and foremost, the product is of secondary nature.
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This.

(is what I came here to say) And to post some Chrysler commercials since we're talking about american mfgs.

 
Smart have made a video catering to OP's tastes! No feelings here!

 
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