Old Dogs, New Tricks 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Carbon Limited Edition. General Motors© How would you like to build your own Corvette engine, at the plant? Or maybe you’d like to badge your Subaru the way a Girl Scout might adorn her uniform? Or maybe you’d like to play a version of the old classic “Slug Bug”? These are some of the latest tactics employed by some “old” automotive brands to win the attention of new customers. Let’s start with what could be the ultimate badge of Corvette enthusiasm: Building your own engine. GM is offering customers who order a 2011 Corvette...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/automobiles/10chevy.html?hp This was reported in the NYTimes today and I have to say that I am flabbergasted! Shocked that they would call this “branding” and confounded as to why they would choose this as a way to resurrect the brand. Calling your car a Chevy is one of the most flattering things you can do. It shows a personal relationship with your car. Like when people call me “Jules” instead of Julie. Those people know me well, we have a kinship…to make it a penalty ($0.25 in the “swear jar” for those GM employees...

So this Memorial Day, as we reflect on the heroes that have helped make our country great, we are also making plans to kick off our summer properly and for many that means..road trip. But as I was thinking about places my family could run off to this weekend I was sent an invitation for a group on …Facebook that read: XXX invited you to join the Facebook group “STOP BUYING BP GAS UNTIL THEY STOP/CLEAN THE OIL SPILL”. Hmmm..I appreciate the notion but will not buying gas really fix the problem? For anyone living under a rock, there is an oil spill/leak/spew of epic proportions...

This past week I did a Skype interview with Nathan Wright on innovation, auto’s and more. Please click on the link to hear the podcast session. http://www.lavarow.com/2010/05/03/julie-roehm-talks-innovation-autos-as-social-platforms/

It’s been all over the news: Last week the Lexus GX 460 was given the extremely rare “do not buy” rating by Consumer Reports. On the heels of Toyota’s PR disaster surrounding recalls over cases of unintended acceleration, the once-esteemed carmaker has stepped in it again. Toyota’s response was typical: A calculated surprise that betrayed a more general confusion. The initial statement offered to the media read, in part, “Lexus’ extensive vehicle testing provides a good indication of how our vehicles perform and we are confident that the GX meets our high...

It’s a debate that’s more common than you might think. Strategy or Tactics first when it comes to social media? Many companies approach their participation on the social web tentatively, picking a popular tool like Twitter, Facebook or for the more adventuresome, a blog. The exercise of setting up and populating a profile, friending others and seeing what happens is akin to the proverbial “throw spaghetti against wall to see if it sticks” school of marketing. There’s a time and place for tactics, for strategy and for experimentation. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for a company to...

Follow me. This is just one of Toyota’s latest requests to its loyal (and not so loyal) public. In recent days, Toyota has jumped on the social marketing bandwagon with some gusto. Prior to their much-discussed recall, Toyota had what I would consider a rather lackluster effort in the social marketing arena. Today however, you can go to www.toyotaconversations.com to follow the latest happenings on Toyota, from Toyota and others. This is a branded channel on TweetMeme that was produced with the help of Federated Media. When you come here you can read their latest posts from their Twitter...

“Oh what a feeling!” — Toyota’s old corporate advertising theme — must be taking on a far different meaning these days at company headquarters. From some data we’ve seen, it appears Toyota could face problems regaining the trust of female consumers as it rebuilds its image in the U.S. The story just keeps getting worse and worse for Toyota in terms of announcements, Congressional hearings and a litany of bad press. On the marketing side, many of us, including yours truly, have offered thoughts and ideas on how to learn from Toyota’s mistakes should your...

Last week I was interviewed by Steve McClellan of Adweek to discuss the media auction process that I spoke about during the ANA TV meeting in spring of 2005. It was fun to look at what has happened, or hasn’t in the past five years. I still believe that there is a great deal of opportunity to reformulate the buying and selling process even if it is not exactly what we proposed in 2005. Read below for the article and others POV’s. Upfront Preview: Behind the Bust Auction-based systems to buy TV time were supposed to kill the upfront. What went wrong? And is there still something to...