TA BL E 1 0 - 3 Where Did That Name Come From?

318 PART 4 • THE GLOBAL MARKETING MIX
GM’s experience at home and abroad provides a good example of how a company’s brand strategy must be adapted to cultural realities as well as the changing needs of the market. For example, in the s GM was vying for the right to build a sedan in China. Company executives gave Chinese officials gifts from Tiffany’s in the jeweler’s signature blue boxes. However, the Americans replaced Tiffany’s white ribbons with red ones They recognized that red is considered a lucky color in China and white has negative connotations.
GM ultimately won government approval of its proposal and was given the opportunity to produce Buick sedans for government and business. Why was the Buick nameplate chosen from among GM’s various vehicle brands In an interview with Fortune, former GM CEO Rick Wagoner explained that the Chinese have a straightforward negotiation style. The Chinese wanted Buick the American company suggested one of its global nameplates. The Chinese were adamant, saying, Wed like you to use Buick The Americans agreed, and a deal was struck.
Back at home, Buick’s image has been in decline for decades. The average Buick buyer is 61 years old this demographic stands in marked contrast to that served by, say, Volvo, whose average buyer is only 50. Buick was once a popular aspirational brand among American drivers one advertising tagline asked, “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick The line was designed to motivate a Ford owner to take a step up in class by choosing a Buick LeSabre or Riviera. Another headline read, Want the Big buy for Big families?”
Unfortunately, by the mid-1980s, Buick had fallen victim to corporate consolidation and cost cutting. The resulting design and engineering overlap meant that some car buyers found it difficult to distinguish among models from GM’s different divisions. A casein point The Riviera, the Oldsmobile Toronado, and the Cadillac
Eldorado were all very similar. Even the breakthrough design of the
1995 Riviera could not breathe new life into the brand despite rave reviews (Autoweek said the new design was bound to make waves in the luxury coupe segment, the Riviera model itself was retired in By 2009, Buick’s Chinese sales totaled 450,000, more than four times the US. sales figure. Moreover, the typical Buick owner in China is 35 years old. These facts help explain why the Buick nameplate is still in production. When the US. government took control of GM, it pressured GM chief Fritz Henderson to terminate Buick. Thanks to the brand’s popularity in China, it was given a reprieve. Meanwhile, GM has phased out Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Saturn. One auto analyst summarized the situation by noting, In China, GM has played a local strategy. They left the people running Buick alone, and they were extremely successful in building the brand there.”
Now the task facing the company’s American marketing managers is to revitalize the Buick brand at home. New models such as the mid- sized Regal and the Verano compact sedan are integral to that effort. The Regal is builtin Germany, and some early print ads positioned it as having European roots. For example, one ad suggested, Listen closely and you might detect a German accent As Craig Bierley, advertising and promotions director, told Financial Times, The goal is about expanding the audience for the brand. Germany automatically says sports sedan to people In summer 2016, the Buick Envision, a midsize SUV, was launched in the United States. It is sure to be a case study in Buick’s global strategy, for one simple reason The Envision is the first Chinese-assembled mass-market vehicle sold in the United States (see Exhibit Sources James R. Healey, Buick Tries to Buff Away Its Image as Inefficient Carmaker,”
USA Today (June 22, 2012), pp. BB Sharon Terlep, GM Seeks Sway in China
The Wall Street Journal (April 19, 2012), pp. BB Bernard Simon, Outwith the Old Financial Times (October 18, 2010); Jens Meiners, Chinese Takeout Car and
Driver (October 2010), pp. 31–32; John D. Stoll, East Meets West The Wall Street
Journal (June 23, 2008), p. R Alex Taylor III, China Would Rather Have Buicks,”
Fortune (October 4, 2004), p. 98; Matt DeLorenzo, Cruising in Style Autoweek December 6, 1993), pp. EMERGING MARKETS BRIEFING BOOK
China Gives Buick a New Lease on Life

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