Buick shapes ad message to break down walls

DETROIT -- You know the song.

That catchy, almost circus-like tune Buick has been using as the backdrop for its "That's a Buick?" ad campaign for more than a year.

While it puts a playful spin on Buick spots designed to make the brand more approachable, the song also has the serious task of making the campaign stand out in the cluttered world of auto advertising.

Tony DiSalle, U.S. vice president of Buick and GMC marketing, calls the song a bit of brand equity that helps Buick's message break through.

DiSalle says Buick still has plenty of walls to knock down when it comes to perceptions that its vehicles are outdated cruisers for senior citizens, so the reintroduction phase of the Buick campaign will continue for the foreseeable future. But the messaging will evolve from simply showing the models to pitching 24-hour test drives or highlighting features such as in-vehicle Wi-Fi.

DiSalle sat down with Staff Reporter Vince Bond Jr. last month at General Motors headquarters here to talk about Buick's brand identity and the next phase of GMC advertising.

Q: What is Buick's brand identity these days?

A: Buick is clearly established as a premium brand. That's consistent with its heritage. We like to play in the upper end of mainstream and the lower end of luxury. It gives us some white space. There isn't necessarily a defined premium segment in this market, but it allows us to bring a value proposition to the luxury business.

Why has the "That's a Buick?" campaign resonated?

It's so down-to-earth. It's extraordinarily honest. It's driven off of a singular consumer insight and the reality that there is false familiarity out in the marketplace. A lot of people misperceive Buicks to be outdated in terms of their designs and not necessarily relevant to [them]. "It's for older people, it's not for me." We saw that with crystal clarity. When you have a consumer insight that is that precise, it makes it a little bit easier to focus on.

The Buick brand has been around for over 100 years, so was it challenging to reintroduce it?

The good news in terms of the history of Buick and the fact that it is over 100 years old is there is a lot of unaided awareness of the Buick brand. The interesting part was just converting that awareness to a knowledge or understanding of what today's Buick products really are and what they bring. It wasn't like we had to invest a ton of money to put this brand on the map. ... In a way, that made it a little bit easier just converting their mindset to what the product brings today.

Is the brand-reintroduction part of the current campaign over?

There are still so many consumers where we still have to bring our message to, and that job is not done.

It takes a long time to adequately convey what we want to convey to the consumer base in the United States, especially in areas where we haven't had a lot of density from a sales performance standpoint.

In places like California, for example, there is a lot of messaging that needs to be done.

You have that little song that's stuck in my head. Are you going to keep that going? 

That's equity. It's a good example of the kinds of things that help the campaign and message break through. Automotive advertising is so incredibly cluttered, and the first objective is to stand out and get people to remember the message, and remember who the message is for. There's also things like self-deprecating humor and being a very approachable brand and the kind of talent you cast in TV spots. It's important to maintain those because those are elements that help the consumer remember, "Yeah, that's a Buick ad."

Is Buick reaching the consumers it wants and converting them to buyers? 

Buick is reaching the consumers it wants, for sure. We've seen some good growth in terms of loyalty. But in order to grow, we have to conquest. So we've seen very nice growth in conquest. The Encore, for example, is our highest non-GM-source-of-sales vehicle. That's over 50 percent. 

As a brand, Buick has the highest percentage of female buyers of any domestic make. It also indexes very well among African-Americans. 

The ability to reach out and appeal to new customers has been a very successful result of what we've been doing. 

The campaign has driven a lot of traffic online. About 40 percent of our traffic to the big browser site is first-time visitors. That number goes to 60 percent of our mobile traffic. That's an indicator of the kinds of folks we're attracting.

Do you think you're reaching a younger, fresher demographic now? 

We have. We get asked a lot about average age. That's just a byproduct. We don't set an objective there. It's an indicator of, are we appealing to a broader base? 

Our average age has come down quite a bit. It's come down about six years in the last six or seven years of business. That's a good indicator. ... Right now it's running about 58 or 59. 

What about the Regal and Verano? I'm seeing younger people in those cars. 

Yes, for sure. Our youngest average age is the Regal GS, and that is about 44 or 45. Clearly, that is appealing to a younger buyer.

Buick has been a partner with the NCAA for five years. What does that relationship do for the brand? 

We've been very pleased with our partnership with the NCAA. It's a perfect fit for us. ... It brings a highly engaged viewer base to things like football and March Madness. The coverage and the scope and the ratings tend to be really good. 

When you're advertising on high-engagement kinds of programming, you do much better in terms of message retention. It was sort of that television opportunity that got us into that space, but we've evolved that into digital and social opportunities as well. 

Can we expect any new "Precision" ads from GMC during the NFL season? 

Yes, you can expect to see some new ads over the next few months. Not yet clear on where they're going to debut. We certainly have a lot of NFL media, as you know. We are working on some new spots.