Clever Copy About an Industry in Crisis Isn’t Easy--Just Ask Joe Isuzu
Lee A. Iacocca walks into Chrysler’s boardroom and looks angry enough to kick a dog. He paces while telling the nervous board members that American consumers are dead wrong to think that Japanese cars are better than American cars.
“The frustration is, we have advantages over the Japanese in every car we make.” Iacocca says. “But nobody knows it. And that’s going to change.”
By now, just about everyone has seen that Chrysler TV commercial. That ad is but one smidgen of the estimated $5.6 billion that auto makers are expected to spend this year to try to persuade American consumers to buy their cars.
Is the Chrysler ad effective? “It’s risky to tell American consumers that they’re stupid,” said Graham Phillips, chairman of the giant New York agency Ogilvy & Mather. “I think the campaign may be an outgrowth of his own frustrations.”
Iacocca is hardly the only auto executive frustrated right now. Sales are off considerably, and the airwaves are flooded with auto ads promising rebates big enough to swallow Manhattan. In its latest image campaign, Chrysler doesn’t crow much about rebates. Instead, it says American car buyers are essentially being hoodwinked by the Japanese auto makers. “We knew the campaign involved some risk,” said Tom Houston, a Chrysler spokesman. “People seem to either love it or hate it.”
While Chrysler is pushing a patriotic image campaign right now, most rivals are instead selling price. Two exceptions are Volkswagen, which has embraced the German word fahrvergnugen , and Infinti, which has embraced just about anything made of earth, water or sky.
But despite all of their best advertising efforts, virtually all car makers--American, European and Japanese--are in the pits right now. Sure, everyone knows there are too many cars for too few buyers. But the question still begs to be asked: Is poor advertising at least part of the problem?
“As long as the attitude is to only show the sheet metal, then automobile advertising will continue to be wretched,” said Jerry Della Femina, chairman of Della Femina, McNamee WCRS, which creates “Joe Isuzu” ads for Isuzu. “It’s pathetic. Every automobile ad looks alike.”
That, however, may only be part of the problem. Agencies are mostly reacting to the demands of the auto makers who are seeing sales continue to slip. It can be difficult to create intriguing ads when the only message in many of them is rebates, rebates and more rebates.
“Everyone is trying to fulfill sales goals without being realistic,” said John David Power, president of J. D. Power & Associates, the Westlake Village automotive research firm. “Some of the agencies might have great image-making campaigns, but much of the money is being diverted into promotional ads because the product has to be moved.”
In fact, nearly two-thirds of all automotive advertising dollars are now being spent on ads that hype incentives or price promotions. That is what Power told executives who last week attended his firm’s First Annual Automotive Advertising Strategy Conference. Those attending also were reminded that annual automotive ad spending in is up 100% from just five years ago.
“We’ve created a meaningless glut of automobile advertising,” said Larry Light, president of Arcature Corp., an advertising consulting firm. “By focusing on volume instead of value, auto makers have taken the first step toward marketing suicide.”
Yet the timing of this poor ad strategy is dubious. Some 40 auto makers are selling a record 300 different models in the United States. At the same time, auto makers, dealers and dealer associations became the nation’s single largest combined buyer of broadcast advertising in 1989--surpassing grocery chains for the first time.
But they have little to show for all this, said Phillips, whose agency creates ads for American Express. “The auto makers never stick with anything. They panic.”
Panic also seems to be the byword at their agencies, which go to the mat to land automotive clients. But once they land them, it isn’t jubilation but frustration that often sets in.
“Any advertising is inspired by the atmosphere a client creates,” said Gerry Rubin, president of Rubin Postaer & Associates, which has created Honda ads since 1974. “In Detroit, the same nepotism prevails. Clones are promoted up the ranks. And they bring the same ideologies and diluted visions with them. No new visions are ever created.”
Of course, it isn’t just in Detroit where frustrations are felt at agencies. The president of the Torrance ad agency that creates ads for Toyota said the pressures to create ads for auto clients are unlike those felt from any other clients. “You’re constantly defending yourself,” said Joe Cronin, president of Saatchi & Saatchi DFS/Pacific, which creates those ads of happy Toyota owners jumping in the air. “You defend yourself with the dealers, with the dealer groups and with the client. Sometimes you do something you think is really good. But then, the market conditions change and you realize the strategy you’ve created can fall apart at any time.”
How to improve auto advertising? Ogilvy’s Phillips suggests that car makers start by better understanding their buyers. “The auto market is similar to the fashion market,” said Phillips. “Their are so many models and options to choose from, you can now wear your car.”
$120-Million Offer for Saatchi’s Hay Group
Saatchi & Saatchi is trying to sell away its troubles.
On Monday, the French management consulting group Bernard Krief Consultants said it made an offer to buy the Hay Group, a consulting unit of Saatchi & Saatchi Co., for $120 million.
How have Saatchi’s recent troubles effected the rest of the advertising industry? “In any industry, it doesn’t do anyone any good for the brand leader to be in a position of perceived weakness,” said Martin Sorrell, chairman of British-based WPP Group, the world’s largest advertising agency. WPP has not performed very well in the stock market even though it recently posted a huge jump in profits. “But in all these things there’s a pendulum. It will swing back. These are short-term aberrations.”
How Long Can They Keep This Guy Lying?
Are Joe Isuzu’s days numbered?
“Every campaign’s days are numbered the minute it starts running,” said Jerry Della Femina, chairman of the agency that created the fibbing car salesman, Della Femina, McNamee WCRS. “Our concern is, you don’t want it to be in the market one minute longer than it should be. But you walk away from it only when you’re certain you’ve got something better. “
Although several new spots featuring actor David Leisure began to air last week--including one that features him lying as a child--some say the campaign has begun to lose its zip. “There will be a time when it reaches a point of diminishing returns,” said Della Femina.
But is that time now? Della Femina stopped short of stating that the “Liar” campaign is on its way out. In fact, he noted that while Isuzu car and truck sales were up last year, virtually all other Japanese auto makers were down. “Every year we take a long, hard look at Joe Isuzu and try to come up with something better,” said Della Femina, who met with Isuzu executives on Monday at a corporate planning session. “We do have some other other stuff that has tested very high in research.”
Foote Cone Workers’ Cups Runneth Over
Is $440,000 a small price to pay for being named “Agency of the Year?” That is the amount of money the Chicago ad firm Foote, Cone & Belding dished out to employees last week--in company stock--to celebrate being named Adweek magazine’s top agency for 1989. Each employee received a specially engraved coffee cup with a gift inside of five shares of company stock--a total value of about $150 per employee. No word on what the coffee cups cost.
Jackson L.A. Gear Ads Won’t Air for Months
Michael Jackson fans may have to wait until the end of the summer before the Gloved One moonwalks for L.A. Gear.
Next month, L.A. Gear will probably begin filming the spots, according to Sandy Saemann, executive vice president of the firm, who will direct the commercials. But the ads won’t begin to appear on TV for months after that. L.A. Gear wants to tie the campaign to the release of the long-awaited set of albums that will feature Jackson’s greatest hits.
What about a commercial featuring new spokesquarterback Joe Montana moonwalking with Michael Jackson? Said Montana: “I don’t think so. He does pretty good on his own.”
