I was speaking with a colleague the other day and we were trying to think of an instance where an automobile manufacturer (or any brand for that matter) looked back into its own history and re-introduced a brand tagline that had been thrown in the bin.
We couldn’t think of any and we began to talk about what a mistake that was. We were able to rattle off a number of instances, where great automotive brands walked away from positioning or taglines that perfectly encapsulated their brands. Mercedes-Benz left behind “Engineered like no other car in the world.” Volkswagen threw away “Drivers wanted.” Chevrolet moved away from “Heartbeat of America.” A few months ago, BMW, one of the most consistent marketers in the industry, looked as if they were moving away from “The Ultimate Driving Machine” in favor of “Joy.” In the case of BMW, this has been hotly denied and “TUDM” still appears at the end of the ads but it has certainly been demoted.
Why does this happen? Why does it seem so difficult for marketers to realize that they have a real asset that needs to be protected and nourished? A lot has to do with the constant pressure to increase volume and the find something new to “take the brand to the next level.” The other factor is the constant churn of marketing management and agencies. New marketing leadership needs to demonstrate that it is moving the business forward and that means doing something new. Every agency is genetically coded to do something “new and unexpected” to burnish their reputation. Bringing back an old idea can also be seen as a copout.
So it struck me this morning when I read an article in Advertising Age where Joel Ewanick was interviewed and he said that Fallon (Cadillac’s new agency) had developed the brand’s soon to be introduced tag-line: “The new standard of the world.”
de force meant to take the brand up against the likes of Mercedes-Benz. A true D-class car with all the luxury and performance the segment demands. It was truly an excellent automobile and from a product point of view pretty darn competitive. It was also a heck of a lot of car for the money.
