You’ve probably seen the recent ad spots by GM, featuring their newly Chapter 11-emerged Chairman, Edward E. Whitacre. With a Texas drawl, he walks through a GM workspace telling the American consumer that GM cars are worth another look…so much so they are willing to back it up with a 60 day money-back guarantee if the customer isn’t 100% satisfied.

He closes out the ad with a statement that sounds pretty ballsy, “May the Best Car Win“.

On the surface this sounds like an innovative message in auto advertisements. But skin the cat back a bit more and you realize this practice of buyer evaluation is already happening in the marketplace. The “best” cars are winning – and last I checked they didn’t bear a GM logo.

The Chairman’s line of thought, “People are going to like this guarantee. We’re putting a lot on the line here, but I think that these risks are necessary.”

Its a clever ad campaign in a way. It initially leaves the viewer with a tell-em-like-it-is, no holds barred kinda after-glow. But on 2nd glance, in the context of making a true purchasing decision, are consumers actually going to purchase a Chevy just because they can return it in 60 days if they end up not liking it?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Branding, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.