I think the litte pestering brother commercials are some of the best commercials in a long time as far as cars go . Whoever said it was being marketed as a econo-vette ? In the Chevy car family , the cobalt SS would be the vettes lil brother and it IS >>chevy's<< #2 performance coupe at the moment .

 

Those commercials are funny. And they serve to introduce the Cobalt very well. They play into everything that the sport compact market claims to want. Small, inexpensive, performance.

As far as the best car commercials. I loved the Vette commercial "A Boy's Dream'. Too bad they pulled it.

 

Uhm, to answer the above question, last time I checked the #2 GM car was not the GTP, but this little known car called the GTO

I love the commercials, and hope to see more of them. This is the first time since Chevy dropped "The Heartbeat of America" ads that there's actually a Chevy ad I like! This new "Pontiac....Action" thing has me bummed...Fuel for the Soul was awesome. I have hanging in my home office 2 posters I swiped from the dealership...a black GTO and a GTO/GTP/GXP trio with the "Fuel for the Soul" tagline. Sorry to see they gave up on it so fast after using "Excitement" for 89 years...

 

At least they are marketing this car . You never saw Camaro commercials and the TA commercials where far a few between .

 

Camaro sold 30k units per year. Cobalt will probably be AT LEAST 5-6x that. That's why it gets the air time.

Remember, no one wanted Camaro around...so why advertise it?

 

WRONG....Camaro failed becasue it was not marketed . One of the first things you learn in college , business class, is that marketing is 80% of sales . Working in a sales position myself in the past I know how effective it is .
The reason Mustang sold so well and Camaro didnt is becasue fro knows how and where to market the product . People wont buy something they no nothing about . You have to entice them anad bring out their desires with the positive facts of the porduct . Chevy never did this .
For the longest time you couldnt open a magazine without seeing a Mustang add..You got some smark cookies working in the ford Marketing Division . Chevy's boys where alseep .
Ever see a comercial expressing the power of the LS1 Camaro? Nope..How bout a SS commercial that got you thinkg...hmm..thats one bad *** ride! Chevy never bothered to attempt this . Advertising is expensive but in tight knit markets , its the only way to spread the word . Most of the people I know that didnt like Camaro's " Until they met me " knew absolutely nothing about them . They had no clue of the enormous amount of power a stock Camaro had and many where under the illusion that a GT or mainly anythuing else on the road considered to eb a sports car could take them.
People wont buy something they know nothing about . Most wont anyway .

 

Not gonna re-hash the whys and what nots here , just wanted to comment that both Camaro and Trans Am print ads were widely used in various types of magazines all throughout the 4th gens life , including the last couple years , with the muscle car lives pontiac adds , and the LS1 camaro in an urban type scene with a close up pic of the front 3/4 . And they did an absolute TON of different print adds in the LT1 years for both V8 models and 6 bangers and convertibles .

 

Another thing you learn in marketing class is that sometimes you just piggy-back on another product. This was the Chevy strategy. It was the Chevy alternative to the Ford/Mustang (which was heavily marketed).

More than marketing, I think that they should have came iwth a new design instead of pumping it dry like they did for so long. Look at it in perspective: 1999+ the Mustang had a new body style and the Camaro had the same ole with new headlights.

 

I agree to an extent , but , the the sales tactics they where using where failing . They never had great marketing for either car , Compared to the Mustangs.
The Camaro should have gotten a better makeover but I cant complain about the TA . I think it looks better then the 05 GT's and better then most cars built at this time ."98-02 Ram Air "

The piggy back strategy Does not educate people on the performance of your car ..Im just saying , people didnt know much about them . But then you ask someone about a Mustang , and everyones an expert . becasue Ford got the strong points of the car thrue to the general public .

 

Ahaha yeah...the Cobalt SS is 2nd?
I have seen MC SS's cut mid 14's stock, same goes for Impy SS's. Ion RL ran low 15's, but with a real driver, Id say high 14's..
So its #4 fastest car, #3 fastest coupe
But when you compare ALL of Chevy, its #5 or #6.
Corvette, 05 SSR, MC SS, Impy SS, and then tied would be the Silvy SS and Cobalt SS.
And when you factor in ALL of GM...man...it drops. Ill let you figure it out, but you have to remember the XLR, CTS-V, STS V8, SRX V8, Vue Red Line, Ion Red Line, GP GXP and GTP, 9-2x Aero, GTO, and this isnt even factoring the new MC SS and Impy SS with the 5.3, G6 with 3.9, 9-3....wait, I thought GM didnt make cars for enthusiats? Anyway...
I say the Cobalt SS is deffinatly going to be the new hot compact for kids.

 

My guess is Corvette #1, GTO #2, CTSv #3, and Cobalt SS is likely to be #4. It's supposedly going to be on par with the SRT-4, which is quicker than the GTP, and I would say Impala and Monte SSs.




robb4964, Camaro sales dropped like a ton of bricks in 1996, at least 2 years before GM decided to stop advertizing the Camaro. There was a slight spike in '97, but sales were in the crapper after that.

Mustang sales tend to jump over the place, from 79K in '92, up to 185K in '95, down to 100K in '97, up to 170K in '98, down to 120K in '99, back up to a jaw dropping 218K in 2000, and bouncing between 150 and 175K the past 4 years. (http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...uction+figures)

Lack of advertizing may have a small role, but it most definately wasn't the big reason for Camaro's sales collaspe. Camaro wasn't kept updated (There were 3 Mustang body styles over the 4th gen's lifespan), and the coupe market imploded.

GM's F-body (if you count it as one structure) was stillthe 2nd best selling coupe in the US till the end, to give you an idea as to how well people knew the Camaro & Firebird, and how bad the coupe market became.

 

you might not believe me, but most people are very ignorant about what we consider the basics of cars/models...for example, that a base camaro/mustang is a v6 and a gt/z28...

I got a lot of attention when I bought my mustang, and heard all sorts of stupid crap. it was a basic v6 and i've had people ask me if it was a Roush, SS, and even Mach (they didn't make them in 02 when I was asked). It was washed and waxed all the time...other than that, nothing special.
Even those who think they know cars are complete idiots to the differences in models and even makes to be honest. I don't think anyone markets according to such data. if you asked people how much horsepower some model they just got done praising has, I bet they wouldn't have a clue to the range. I hear self professed experts say the most absurd things all the time.

Marketing is targetted towards the ignorant masses. people like you and me will NOT be affected by marketing at all...we will know what we want and pay little attention to them.

I'm sure a financial powerhouse like GM had enough research on sales increases in relation to advertisement, to know whether it would be good or bad to spend millions on the Camaro. I would agree with them though, that with a new designed Mustang, there really isn't much to brag about with a same ole Camaro (after ninety nine).

The Cobalt should do damn good though. It's a bowtie compact sedan, and there are a lot of diehard bowtie boys, especially in California. It helps that, unlike the neon, it doesn't have a gay / girly reputation, so the SS should be popular.

 

This is kinda what I was saying more or less .
When I bought my first LT1 car " 95 formula " I outran some local guys in a small mustang getogether and they asked me " How did a v6 outrun our v8's ?
I even had some riced guy in an Elcipse turbo ask me the same thing about my formula . It said " V8" right on the back bumper .
Then I had people saying " Nice z28 , what is that a 305 ?"
Even parts guys when I bought parts would say " What engine is that , a 305 ?"
Im just saying people didnt have a clue about these things, and to date alot of people dont .
I understand people like us will not be affected but as far as the ignorant masses you where speaking about ..they just didnt get the message .
A new F-body style surely wouldnt have hurt sales But I cant think of anything id change on the TA even if I had the op.
May have been a combination of the 2 though. One supplements the other .

 

oh man...don't get me started with those damn parts guys...I can't believe some of them actually understand english when I talk to them.

me..."I'm trying to get an FX4 part for an XL Ranger"....or "I'm trying to get a Mach I part for my Mustang"

Them, not looking up from the computer monitor..."What kind of car do you have?" then the reply..."they dont have those for your type of car"

 

LOL...man I cant count the times this has happened..Thank God my dad is a manager at a major parts store . 9 times outa 10 when they say ' We dont have that " at his store, My dad finds it .