At Mall and Golf Course, Testing a Caddy

Hitting consumers in their own environments is a marketing tool that has long worked for the beachwear industry and the food business. Now a car company is trying it.

Why wait for potential customers to decide they need a car and then hope they’ll walk into a Cadillac showroom, executives at General Motors Corp.’s luxury car division figured.

Instead, they’re taking a fleet of sporty $30,000 Cadillac Cateras to where the customers are--places like Fashion Island Newport Beach shopping mall and the Tustin Ranch Golf Course--and offering on-the-spot test drives.

Cadillac has tallied more than 300 test drives in Orange and Los Angeles counties and sent dozens of prospective buyers to area Caddy dealerships since starting the road show last month.

The initial test was run in snowy Boston over the Christmas season, then shifted to Southern California in February to take advantage of the more clement weather. Cadillac now is contemplating a nationwide effort.

The company sees the German-engineered Catera as its best hope to draw in younger buyers and breathe new life into the brand. And the marketing tool helping that effort is proximity marketing, or “making the product available in a comfortable lifestyle environment,” said Jeff Pritchard, assistant brand manager.

“People do seem to like the idea of being able to see and drive the car in their own environment--without a salesperson,” said Christian Ames, fleet manager for Nabers Cadillac-Oldsmobile in Costa Mesa. “We’ve had five people come in over the last few days to talk to us after driving the car.”

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com