This girl was in my class today talking about how great it was of Oprah to give away "246 Chrysler 300's to people...you know, the ones with the 4 piece sunroof".

This leads me to wonder #1, how the G6 will stand out in a market full of alpha numeric names when markets to a female audience who generally in not that knowlegable about cars, and #2 What percentage of Oprah's audience thought it was cool, but if asked now, have no idea what car she gave away.

 

Hopefully her husband or b/f will be making the car purchasing decisions...

300 mixed up with a G6 There was a girl who didn't know who Led Zeppelin was in a class debate about them once...I just think the girl in your class is just part of a very small percentage of completely brain dead people.

 

no....that girl is a LARGE part of teh female population.

I see it daily at work.

"Ok miss, what kind of car do you have?"
"umm a Chevy"
"what year and model"
--blank stare into space--
"19...9....7?"
"Ok...1997 what?"
"oh...this is hard! I didnt know I had to know all this when I went to go buy tires?"

What I say- "ahah why dont we look at the car?"
What I think- "OMFG!! DONT DRIVE EVER AGAIN!! AHHHHHHHHHH"

 

While i really don't see how you confuse 300 with G6 , I agree.. G6 is a non-descript name. The should have stuck with Grand Am, or at least came up with a new name .

300 and G6?!? I can understand maybe 300 and Five Hundred.... but G6?!?!? It boggles the mind.

 

I beleive the whole point of the Alpha-numeric names is so people focus more on the brand name "Pontiac" instead on the model name.

Look how people say "john doe drives a BMW" or "He just bought a Mercedes". People just want the brand, not the model. Corvette is just the opposite, when refering to a Vette people rarely say Chevy. Escalade is kind of the same way.

 

A very fresh perspective on the subject... never really thought of it that way.

Still not sure I agree with the idea, but at least that does give it a sense of purpose for me now.

 

As long as the marketing geeks that figure the giveaway was a smashing success.

In the public square all I've heard is "Oprah gave away a bunch of cars". Not once have I heard anyone say anything about GM or Pontiac giving away a G6's. They should have just given away the GTOs & SSRs collecting dust on the dealer lots.

 

I disagree totally.

It DID get a lot of people talking about the cars... and I get asked a lot what the new Pontiac was... by a lot of women in the office and where-ever. Everyoen is talking about this...

It created a good buzz about Pontiac and the new car, and when compared to traditional advertising costs, it was cheap and got a lot more attention.

As far as the tongue-in-cheek GTO and SSR comment... these people that got the cars, wrote in about their need for a new car for their families and such... GTO, and especially SSR wouldn't ideally fit the bill, not to mention it would have cost GM a lot more money since those vehicles are significantly more expensive...

 

I still think the alphanumeric idea is asinine. Call the new Camaro or "Chevy Coupe" a C8 and see what kind of response it gets...

Names at least have some sort of emotional attachment to them. I agree with the "focus on the brand" idea to a certain extent, but still...to me a name is somewhat important. There was nothing wrong with the Grand Am name. Sure, I disliked my '02 GT (rather intensely, actually ), but I also have owned a '95 and '98 Grand Am SE and enjoyed both cars a lot. What annoyed me on the '02 was the dash and the build quality.

The G6 has a great dash and I HOPE better build quality...calling it Grand Am would have kept name recognition alive with hundreds of thousands of current Grand Am owners, while bringing more people in. Cavalier = pure crap in the minds of many...but a lot of people really like Grand Ams. Its a better car than even I gave mine credit for. And if they call the new Grand Prix a G8, I will REALLY start getting pissed off...Grand Prixs sell themselves on my lot.

 

Fair enough. That helps explain why I'm not in marketing.

 

Neither am I, so maybe we're both wrong!!

 

Just a little off topic here. I was just at a large farming show, and to my surprise, alot of car makers had their products on display. Both the dodge magnum and the 300 were there, and they were unlocked so that people could get inside and have a look around. They were both attracting crowds. In the gm section, they had the g6 and the new buick (lacrosse in the states, I forget what name it has here). Both cars looked gorgeous, but for some dumb reason, both were locked up tight, and nobody was looking at them. How stupid is that? You could get into an aztek, grand prix, lumina, aveo, but not into their brand new products. Really pissed me off.

 

Lol, then why waste time with a clumsy alphanumeric designation. They outta just put little chrome barcodes on the back.

 

I had to correct my wife on the fact that Oprah didn't actually give the cars away, Pontiac did. Sure Oprah was the vehicle to get it done, however it was Pontiac that handed over the keys 100% tax free to these deserving women that Oprah's producers hand picked.

My wife actually got defensive about it. Many women from 20-50 worship Oprah like she is some kind of god.

Me, I always think of that line from Men in Black II:

 

Maybe you were just listening to a airhead.

Sure, women aren't into cars as we are as a group, and not everyone is a Jean Jennings (editor of Automobile, and a 1st level car enthusiast), but EVERYONE can tell the difference between a Chrysler 300 and a Pontiac G6.

Keep in mind, this idiot in your class watched a whole episode of Oprah touring a GM plant where the name Pontiac and G6 was undoubtedly mentioned numerous times. She missed this completely, yet remembered a 4 piece sunroof???!

This had nothing to do with someone being a girl.
This had everything with someone being an oblivious moron.