Ads



My suggestions will roll in spades when the current advertising team is fired, and I am hired.

 

I just don't see many non Volt owners having an interest in the 2016 Volt. With gas $2 a gallon only current Volt owners and perhaps other hybrid owners will have an interest in the new Volt.

GM should give all current Volt owners a great deal on the 2016 Volt with maybe $3,000 Volt Customer Appreciation discount or something similar.

 

Well I for one don't expect these gas prices to continue and would guess any adult in the U.S. over the age of 18 who has been buying gas won't either. All that's needed is for someone in OPEC to fart and not like the smell and oil prices will be off to the races again.

There are numerous reasons to NOT burn gasoline price being the least important IMHO. How many subsidy $$$ passed to Big oil in the U.S.? How many lives lost keeping oil flowing out of the Middle East? What kind of air do you want your future offsprings offspring to be breathing? How much Fracking and it's resulting undesirable effects? Not to mention Well to wheel costs.

We only have "ONE" atmosphere to live in for the foreseeable future. It may be wise to continue the push for ways to better preserve it. Is there a real danger?? Who knows But when you are down to your last "anything" especially something you can't live without, it might be wise to employ all due cautions in it's preservation.

 

With gas so cheap now and not too many main stream buyers likely to be as impressed with the EV driving experience as we are I think emphasizing the convenience and time savings of skipping gas stations is key. I guess mentioning the Volt being a hedge against future high gas prices wouldn't hurt too. When the Gen 2 Prius launched gas prices were a nice tail wind. The are a head wind right now.

 

When the Gen 2 Prius launched gas prices were a nice tail wind. The are a head wind right now.

They are a head wind now, but at some point they will go back up and then they will be a tail wind. The timing might work out that it happens when the Volt 2 becomes available. Or maybe a little later, and whenever it does, GM can increase their ad spending accordingly.

 

Maybe they should follow Elio Motors example and sell them before they build them. This would allow them to guage demand and the 50% bonus Elio offers is a good incentive to order in advance. If they had such a offer I would probably order a new one to replace our current one. If the ELR had used this approach they probably wouldn't have built so many that are still sitting on dealer lots a year later. Its a cool car but still expensive compared to the Volt. Yes I bought into the Elio just because I want it to succeed and I think its a unique vehicle.

 

If GM does that and can guarantee service at ANY GM dealer, including the few in Puerto Rico, then I will place my order for a 2016 Chevy Volt!

 

How can owners best help market the Volt?

By chance, this is a question I've mulled around for the past week.... and my conclusion is that our best tool for reaching out to the masses is the actual car itself - our Volts. So - what we can and need to do is to utilize these tools (our Volts) in a way that helps bridge the gap (chasm?) between Joe and Jane Doe in their daily life and the Chevrolet dealer they would have to visit.

Here's my idea - Volt owners assemble in localized groups and organize open-to-the-public test drive events that would periodically take place in communities across the country. These would not be sales events - merely helping get people familiarized with the superior driving dynamics the Volt has. Chevrolet dealer involvement would be minimal and indirect, or not at all. It would be owners reaching out to the public.

This is pure grass-roots marketing which I believe would be an extremely effective way of getting more Volts on the road.

 

Here's my idea - Volt owners assemble in localized groups and organize open-to-the-public test drive events that would periodically take place in communities across the country. These would not be sales events - merely helping get people familiarized with the superior driving dynamics the Volt has. Chevrolet dealer involvement would be minimal and indirect, or not at all. It would be owners reaching out to the public.

This is pure grass-roots marketing which I believe would be an extremely effective way of getting more Volts on the road.

That's an interesting idea and could really help out. I do this on a one-one basis to some people I know, but something more organized could be really great. The people who are on these forums are probably the right people to do this, and it would also give a good excuse for Volt owners to get together and share experiences. Some other companies, such as Solar City, do this to market their products and services by funding a "party" to get people together. They provide some brochures and money for food/drinks and in return they hope to get a few leads that might be interested in purchasing. GM might want to also offer some purchase/lease incentives to people who come and attend or some cash for going to visit a dealer next. Is anyone on the forums here connected with their marketing department and maybe could explore the idea with us?

 

Selling products isn't ever a marketing issue if the product has clear value, it sells itself. When its in a crowded market of similar products, marketing can sway purchases, but since the volt is pretty much alone, all this talk of Volt marketing as in issue is false.

Just face facts, Volt owners are outliers percentage wise of the car buying demographic, no amount of advertising will change this. 2016 may have good sales ( current level of 17K units would be outstanding with gas going closer to a buck a gallon in 2016 ) if the current owners move in droves to trade in there current volts. Otherwise, it will be very low sales, few buyers are looking for a sub-compact car that offers little savings if any over using gas for 10K more purchase price, yes the truth hurts.

I am very happy with my Volt, I am not anti-volt, but I'm also not blind to the world we live in.

 

Selling products isn't ever a marketing issue if the product has clear value, it sells itself. When its in a crowded market of similar products, marketing can sway purchases, but since the volt is pretty much alone, all this talk of Volt marketing as in issue is false.

I disagree. A lot of advertising serves to raise awareness and educate people about what is great about your product. Apple makes great products, but they don't sell themselves. Apple spends a lot of money on marketing to make sure that their products are on people's minds and also to demonstrate the benefits of buying their products.

Toyota spent a lot of money on marketing the Prius Gen 2. Nissan has spent a lot of money on marketing the Leaf. They have seen good results from these efforts. The Volt needs a similar level of campaign effort to really take off in the market. Once a product becomes established in the market, the advertising spending can back off and more word of mouth effects will take over. But it's up to GM to get it to that point.

Tesla is an exception to this, in terms of not having a lot of mainstream advertising. But they do spend money on making sure that wealthy people are aware of their cars and have a way to experience them. Also, because they are high performance, sporty and luxury, they get free advertising because people are always interested to hear about those things and the press covers them heavily. In addition, so far their demand has outstripped their supply, so there's no reason to try to get even more sales. If they do come out with a "mainstream car" I am certain they will at that point start to spend more money on mainstream marketing.

 

Untill I'm on GMs payroll, I'm not selling their cars for them.


That said, My Volt and experiacne have inspired the purcahse of 6 other volts.

 

The fundamental value proposition is missing for Volt. Other cars can be easily compared. Volt cannot.

Until there is a direct competitor, Volt will be alone in the market with no way to compare to other cars. The nearest comparison is LEAF, but, these two cars are way different from each other.

Volt loses on most comparisons with:
- Price. Way higher price than other compact cars. If you do a search in a price range below 30k, forget Volt. It's not there. No entry-level version either.
- MPG. Volt is advertised as 35-40mpg in a field where 40+ is normal. The dual-fuel nature of the car is rarely mentioned.
- Size. Volt is a small car inside. Not a very good competitor for a soccer-mom lifestyle.
- Weird. Volt has a strange center console and keyless ignition. Not normal so not mainstream. More cars are being built with these features, but, Volt is way ahead of the curve and therefore weird.
- Chevrolet. 'Nuff said here. Most shopping for compacts are shopping foreign cars. Chevrolet sells trucks and Impalas.

Volt sells to people that don't care about the above. The buyer pool is high-tech, highly-educated, high-earning and bleeding-edge. As it turns out, a fairly small percentage of the universe.

If GM dummies down Volt with a $2x,xxx.xx price, 5 seats and bollixes up the data stream (more), they will lose some of us.

 

Most car ads seem to communicate via good feelings.
I keep coming back to this early online ad for Volt.
http://bcove.me/wj9eip35
It covers the important messages in a "feel good" way.

KNS

 

Most car ads seem to communicate via good feelings.
I keep coming back to this early online ad for Volt.
http://bcove.me/wj9eip35
It covers the important messages in a "feel good" way.

Yes, that is a good ad and many of the points are the same as the ones written up here. They should do a similar treatment again for the new Volt.

 

People are sick to death of causes. When it's a personal economic decision with a profit, then they listen. Right now it's a higher buy-in cost that pays off over time, just like solar PV. Bring down the buy-in and it gets easier - just like the $5K price drop, which is when I bought in. Mine was about $25.5K after rebates/tax credits in late 2013, which is in my price range easily but not so much for a lot of folks. We'll see what Chevy's new price point is very soon.

 

Our brains have two distinct personalities, the left side is objective, analytical and logical. The right side is more emotional. It deals in a,more subjective, random, emotional way. So far the Volts ads speak to the right sides of our brain. But decisions are made from inputs from booths sides of our brains. If anything the more emotional arguments are more compelling than the logical ones. That's why people drive sports cars that can perform well beyond anything they will ever do, or trucks and SUV that can do extreme off road tasks or two 15 tons.

The Volt advertising people need to figure out how to speak to both sides of our brains. I think ads should speak to the senses and emotions, you know, smooth and powerful, warm and friendly, people will view you as a leader, etc. Once you convince people why they will love the car then use facts and logic to speak to the other side of the brain to rationalize this decision.

 

The 2016 Chevrolet Volt. 50 miles per gallon.....or.....50 miles without gas. The choice is yours.

 

Nice. Or this:

The 2016 Chevrolet Volt. 50 miles without gas, then 50 miles per gallon.

 

Good "word of mouth" reporting is the best sales tool that a car manufacturer can ask for. Since most Volt owners are very satisfied customers we usually are pretty good evangelists for thew car.

As for the commercials... I suggested this one: http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...um/showthread.php?54905-Please-improve-your-TV-commercials!&p=715417#post715417

 

As I tell my friends, "If you live within 20 miles of work and can afford a $35K purchase (about the same as a Prius but much better), there's no real reason why you cannot be getting over 200 MPG." The problem is that consumers don't know this is true for current models of the Volt--no need to wait for 2016! It doesn't matter how fabulous the new models are, they're worthless if Chevrolet continues to keep the Volt a secret.
I have a bumper sticker: "This car gets 250+ MPG (that's not a misprint)" You would be amazed at how many people ask me if that's for real and get angry they weren't told before wasting their money on a Prius

 

and get angry they weren't told before wasting their money on a Prius

F-them! They should be embarrassed they can't think for themselves and follow the herd.

 

We should not have to rely on word of mouth when Chevrolet seems to be keeping the Volt a secret while advertising their smoke-belching air breathers. Even in the ads promoting awards, Chevrolet fails to mention the Volt as the IIHS Top Safety Pick. Toyota ads promoting the anemic Prius as the champion hybrid went unanswered. A friend has a plugin Prius with a pitiful 10-15 charge range and has never attained the advertised mileage but not one peep about that. I have a bumper sticker: "This car gets 250+ MPG (that's not a misprint)". When people ask me if that's for real, many get angry they weren't told--especially those who felt cheated by the Prius.
It's not as if GM doesn't have an advertising budget, they're just wasting it.

 

I bought a Volt as a going-away gift for hitting Week 100 of a chemo regimen. I am an electrical engineer who has considered building my own EV. Even as a motivated consumer, I had no idea what a great car the Volt is. Don't blame ordinary consumers for not knowing; how were they supposed to find out if all they are hearing is Toyota's smoke and mirrors?
I shouldn't be the only one spreading the word. Studies by cognitive psychologists show something new has to be at least twice as good to be considered equal to the incumbent technology and a full order of magnitude better to replace it. The Volt qualifies but perception defines reality and I have seen nothing GM has done to advertise the Volt and thus change perception

 

I bought my Volt in June and filled it the first time January 6th. 2253 miles on less than 7.5 gallons and a negligible effect on my electric bill (on a par with running two SETI@home PCs 24/7). In general, consumers are bad at arithmetic and have to be told that's basically 300 MPG. Same with commuting. They may know it's 20 miles to work but they basically have to be told it's a 40-mile round trip. So tell them it's 250 MPG to work and back, 50 MPG after that. People simply don't realize that the vast majority of their trips are well within a single charge and that, barring extended road trips, it will probably be months before they refuel. Yes, they have to be told.