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Glorified Chevys, etc.

The choice of music in the new GMC "Precision" campaign will be familiar to many talk radio listeners in the Pittsburgh market - Jim Quinn and Rose Tennant used it as bottom-of-the-hour bumper music for about 20 years. It's a production piece roughly based on The Who's "Eminence Front" from 1982. I think it's close enough that many who see the spot will think it's "Eminence Front", whose hook goes, in part:

"It's an eminence front, it's a put-on...
It's a put-on...
It's a put-on..."

Not sure I'd want that association with a brand still thought of by most as a glorified Chevy.

Charlie Mitchell
Burgettstown, Pennsylvania


That didn't take long.

Time was, GMC was known as "a Chevy truck with lock washers."  Pontiac engines, painted bumpers... a sincere truck.  A no-nonsense truck.  A grease-under-your-fingernails, working-every-Saturday, wash-it-once-a-year, way-too-rough-for-the-wife kind of truck.  Too bad the marketing powers-that-be couldn't harness that Snap-On tool kind of "feels right in your hand, purring ratchet, everything fits" exactness for their campaign.  Apparently, they've gone for the "Lexus of Trucks" image; after all, it's worked so well for Buick to be the "Lexus of China."

Precision.

I'm bored already.

C.C.
Decatur, Georgia

Precision crafted.

Didn't Acura already use "Precision" in one of its advertising taglines early on (two or three decades ago--how time flies)? Apparently it's just as forgettable to GMC's ad agency as is the entirety of the Acura lineup these days to car buyers.

Paul E.
Iowa City, Iowa

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Yes, Acura used "Precision Crafted Performance." Watch a sample here. - PMD

GMC's fantasy numbers.

In this world of “quantify”, “validate” and “measurable metric” (thank you Lean Six Sigma), how in the hell do they come up with a 50% increase?  Just take the number of dealers, SAR, GMC by segment numbers as they stand today, the history of new models and marketing success in their segment over the last twenty years and the correlation of marketing dollars spent vs. sales increases and see what you get.  Never mind that Ford and Ram are pumping out great products and that GMC is still a Chevy with a different front clip and most people know that. Look, I think GMC products are just great, and I wish GM all success, but I have been reading AE for too long now and I know better.
 
Note to GM:  You can’t out German the Germans, and don’t try to out Sergio, Sergio.

D.W.
Lugoff, South Carolina

A league of their own.

So, do I have this right... Cadillac is GM's luxury brand, Buick is GM's luxury brand, and now GMC will be GM's luxury brand? And since all the ordinary GM brands have died that leaves Chevrolet for all the losers who don't believe they deserve a luxury brand? The GM marketers must be brilliant!

MRussell
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

A public service.

Thank you for not including a photo of the upcoming Land Rover Evoque convertible.  I still have nightmares about the finally-discontinued Nissan Murano convertible.

John Belbas
Houston, Texas

GM's marketing future?

This "Precision" idea is great. I think all GM divisions should switch to 1990's slogans of other carmakers:

    GMC: Precision Crafted Performance
    Cadillac: Engineering Like No Other Car in the World
    Chevrolet: Drivers Wanted
    Buick: The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection

Dan Manes
San Diego, California