Brands Create Customers

They called it ChevyApprentice. It’s become more like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

It’s hard to discern the brand-building strategy behind GM’s current ChevyApprentice social media/advertising gambit. This initiative enables people to create their very own Chevy Tahoe ads online. And boy, do they. But instead of singing the praises of GM and Chevy, many participants have ruthlessly ravaged, mocked and derided GM and Chevy Tahoe brands in dozens of user-generated spots, for the entire world to see. The spots portray the Tahoe as gas-guzzling, anti-social, dangerous and eco-irresponsible. One begins: Don’t Buy Me.

For half a week, the Net was ablaze with such spots trying to outdo one another in jabs at GM, the Tahoe, and SUV’s in general.

Additional samples here.

Of course, GM isn’t showcasing these negative ads on its own site. They’re now spread across the World Wide Web, like a GM strain of brand flu.

GM knows there must be thousands of potential customers in the “social media space” that it can’t reach via traditional media channels. The only problem is that it doesn’t have any noteworthy cars that appeal to these people. You can engage the web generation in a creative partnership to deepen your brand (and help sell more cars) only if you have the right kind of cars to deliver.

A GM official stated: “We anticipated that there would be critical submissions. You do turn over your brand to the public, and we knew that we were going to get some bad with the good. But it’s part of playing in this space.”

Why turn over your brand to the public? Your brand is supposed to lead, not be a plaything, or a doormat. The goal of a brand is to engage customers across many dimensions and to advance them toward new forms of value—in GM’s case, outstanding motor vehicles. There are many effective ways to do this within the realm of social media. Tossing the brand into a digital playpen is not one of them. It only means the brand will come back blackened, if not busted.

If tomorrow GM announces a 30mpg SUV that runs on biodiesel, is 100% recyclable, fits into compact parking spaces and erases its tracks through the wilds, then the negative brouhaha over the Tahoe ads will have been worth it. GM will have built the buzz and primed the pump for a blockbuster “you spoke, we listened” triumph.

Let’s see what happens.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Creating Customers, Fundamentals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.