May the Best Car Win

Posted by Dustin Britt on September 15, 2009 Share

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?


Back to Blog

4 Comments

"As far as I've noticed, there are three ways to sell cars: 1. On the intrinsic pragmatic qualities of a car built through reputation (a typical Honda or Toyota ad) 2. on the emotional value a car can evoke (remember VW's "Pink Moon" ad?) 3. seemingly unimaginable "perks" and "deals" such as return policies and infinite warranties to overcompensate for an inferior product (Hyundai let you return the car if you got laid off early this year. Wut?).

Seems like GM is going for the third option for the simple reason that it really has nowhere else to go. If there were a bright side, Hyundai has monumentally improved its products in the past decade, and as such is getting close to being able to sell cars on real merit. Let's hope GM fully embraces this opportunity to dig itself out."

- Alvin Diec

"Can you imagine how hard it would be to return a car? There have to be some monster catches and enormous loopholes to this 100% satisfied deal."

- Darrell Kincer

"I want to "buy" a Corvette for 60 days. Or maybe one of the new Camaros."

- Patrick Ritter

"[...] couple months ago, GM launched a pretty ballsy campaign: “May The Best Car Win” — backed by a 60-day money back guarantee by none other than new CEO Ed [...]"

- Matchstic Blog » Blog Archive » May the Best Car Win, Indeed

Leave A Comment