Buick of Canada has just learned that the name of one of their models, the LaCrosse, is a Canadian slang term for masturbation. In keeping with their hundred year old tradition of avoiding association with anything pleasurable or exciting, Buick has announced that it will change the car’s name. The journal of “All Things Moist [...]
Posts tagged: car branding
Self-flagellation: car name takes a beating
October 23rd, 2003 · No Comments
→ No Comments | Categories: language · pop culture
Sport utility vehicle (SUV) names
October 1st, 2003 · No Comments
Igor has posted a new name taxonomy chart, this time for Sport Utility Vehicle names. Here is the description: This charting of SUV names reveals a singular positioning strategy that permeates most of the brand names in this industry. The bulk of these names have been assigned low marks on this scale. It’s not that [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: Igor
High performance naming: Chrysler Crossfire sports car name
March 13th, 2003 · 1 Comment
Chrysler’s hot new sports coupe, the Crossfire, has a name that does justice to the car’s edgy, explosive looks. Somebody high up in the marketing department had the insight and fortitude to ignore the usual Chicken Little focus group negativity and do the right thing. Imagine the feedback when the name was tested: Isn’t it [...]
→ 1 Comment | Categories: Uncategorized
Car Brands Naming Strategy Renaming Brand Names
February 7th, 2003 · No Comments
Ford’s Focused Favorites: We all know that Ford has been enamored with “E” names for its SUVs–Explorer, Excursion, Escape and Expedition. Hot on the heels of that successful “strategy,” Ford has now gone native, and is naming nearly every non-SUV vehicle in sight an F-word, according to a snarky story rolling down from Canada. Ford [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: Uncategorized
Put a Cow in the Title (and other foolproof marketing tips)
January 30th, 2003 · No Comments
Marketing maven Seth Godin has birthed a brand new animal, an excerpt of which–In Praise of the Purple Cow–is the cover story of the latest issue of Fast Company. The article makes some salient points that are just as relevant for the names of products and companies as they are for the products and companies [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: identity
The ultimate marketing machine
January 28th, 2003 · No Comments
BMW has a new print ad out this week that boldly reads: “If it were at all possible to prove that a BMW was not The Ultimate Driving Machine, we wouldn’t be able to say it.” Intrigued by their choice of the phrase “was not” instead of the more powerful “is not,” our forensic brand [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: taglines
Fear factor: naming corporations, consumer goods, cars
January 10th, 2003 · No Comments
“All of the good ones are taken.” That’s the explanation most often served up by those in charge of naming consumer goods and corporations. A recent Reuters article brings us these thoughts from the front lines of the auto industry: One of the oddest named vehicles at the Detroit show was Volkswagen AG’s Touareg SUV, [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: Uncategorized
Mystery genius: Chrysler brand guru
January 3rd, 2003 · No Comments
In the first big branding news of the year, Chrysler has announced the bold change of its recently new tagline, “Drive = Love,” to a drastically rejiggered and even newer version: “Drive & Love.” Who is the mysterious brand guru behind this little slice of genius? As was done with the unmasking of “anonymous” Primary [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: taglines
Jesus Chrysler: the corporate branding of cars
November 20th, 2002 · No Comments
We told you before about Chevrolet’s recent initiative to sell cars to Christians and Buick’s resurrection of a dead guy to hawk their new cars. Now comes word that an unlikely coalition of religious and environmental groups is launching a “What Would Jesus Drive?” ad campaign today, in the hope that a little pressure from [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: taglines
Baseball, apple pie and Tammy Faye: evangelical branding
November 4th, 2002 · 1 Comment
The sibling rivalry within the GM family is heating up. Unable to top the celebrity of prettier sister Buick’s spokesperson Tiger Woods, Chevrolet has settled for second best and signed God to an infinite branding contract: U.S.-based carmaker Chevrolet is linking up with an evangelical concert tour for a marketing campaign, a move criticized as [...]
→ 1 Comment | Categories: pop culture
Dead man working: a Buick resurrection
November 1st, 2002 · No Comments
Buick’s newest ad campaign evokes the spirit of Harley Earl, an icon of sensual car design who died in 1969. In the ads, Harley tells us that he has come back to build us great cars. While the spots may in fact be meant to foreshadow what’s to come, the problem right now is that [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: advertising · taglines
Green machines: Toyota and Nissan coming clean
October 24th, 2002 · No Comments
On the heels of last month’s announcement by Toyota and Nissan that the two silverbacks of the Japanese auto industry will, for the first time ever, team up to produce hybrid gas-electric automotive engines, comes today’s shocker by Toyota that it plans to have only hybrid engines in ALL of its cars by 2012. This [...]
→ No Comments | Categories: Uncategorized
