Quote:
Originally Posted by LTb1ow
Got a little curious from that debacle of a SS thread..
Just cause this is a domestic site, lets use GM as an example, how do they determine whether to market cars in order to draw in younger audiences that are not used to GM quirks etc, or whether to go after the older crowd who has had GM and would not like abrupt styling changes etc?
Simple answer from the BigAl?
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Depends on the market demographic.
First off, you can sell an old man a young man's car, but it's very hard to sell a young man an old man's car.
Car segments have demographics, and they use info they gather from people buying their cars as well as the competition to make certain cars. Now, with that said, it doesn't exactly work out that way. Cars that tend to be marketed towards younger people also appeal to older people. Take for example the Kia Soul and the Scion xB. These cars are marketed towards young people who have "active lifestyles" and "millennials" that love iPhones and wear plaid. But, Kia and Toyota are perplexed to see a lot of Boomers driving them, and for a multitude of reasons.
If you want a glimpse inside GM's "marketing" set up, there is a good section in Bob Lutz's last book that talked about him sitting down in a room and shown this massive matrix of qualities people like in a car, and through this they could "predict" market trends and segments that are going to be big. This matrix figured out that a not-a-SUV and not-a-minivan type vehicle that seats 5-7 people is a market that needs to be approached. They found this out in the mid 90's, a while before the first "crossovers" started popping up.
So GM put together a team and came up with an answer for a car that wasn't an SUV and not a minivan. That car was the Aztek/Rendezvous.
A good idea, put in the hands of clinics, ran through the accountants, and that's the product you get.