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Remember a few months ago when General Motors stirred up a storm of controversy by toning down its use of the Chevrolet slang-name, “Chevy?” We certainly do. GM insists it was only trying to streamline the Chevrolet brand, not discourage the use of the term Chevy. Chevrolet has had a number of slogans, from “Like A Rock” to “An American Revolution,” though some slogans are better remembered than others.
The Detroit Free Press [2] reports that a new slogan is circulating the Renaissance Center. So will Chevrolet’s new marketing mantra, “Chevy Runs Deep” be successful? And why backtrack on the whole Chevrolet/Chevy terminology anyways?
This is not a new marketing slogan per se, as “Like A Rock” and “An American Revolution” were. Rather, it is a marketing mantra, something the crew inside Chevrolet will use to help move the car similar to the “Heartbeat” theme from decades ago. It won’t appear on every advertisement (though it might appear on some), and certain cars will have their own slogans, like the Chevy Volt’s “More car than electric” slogan.
“It’s such a deep, wide, connected brand in America,” Jeff Goodby, the co-chairman of GM’s new ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners told the Detroit Free Press.
We’ve got to wonder though, just how deep does Chevy run? The brand itself is GM’s flagship, very well known both in America and around the world. It does also have an increasingly diverse line of products, from the plug-in hybrid Volt to the Camaro SS to the economical all-new Cruze. That certainly is some depth, and the strength of the slogan really depends on how much it is used in marketing.
But why backtrack so quickly after backing away from the term “Chevy” to making it front row and center in the new marketing mantra? Maybe GM finally opened their eyes and saw that many Americans are proud to be Chevy owners, and taking away that term would be heresy in their eyes.