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I read the article in the USA today about Saab and it got this marketing consultant and lifetime Saab enthusiast thinking about Saab's attempts to reposition itself. Brand positioning is critical to a business, and there are many products out there that sell disproportionately to their competitiveness solely on the position of their brand.
Saab recognizes it has a problem with it’s ‘quirky’ position in the market, but I am not sure it has the answer. According to says Robert Lutz, GM's product guru, Saab's new image will be:
"Safety with performance. Not traditional luxury but sporting high-performance with safety,"
Saab's answer is to abandon it's current 'quirky' position and attempt to position itself between BMW and Volvo.
The 3 components to a brand position are:
- simple
- unique
- believable
and if they go with what Lutz is saying...it fails all 3.
It may be true that Saab's are safer or as safe as Volvo, but facts are irrelevant in marketing, and it cant spend enough to take ‘safe’ away from Volvo...and the safety conscious buyer will go with the safe car they heard of first so this is folly. Also it may be true that Saab's perform well...but you will never convince their whole demographic that it outperforms BWW (even if it does). Saab's shouldn’t try to be a BMW/Volvo hybrid, it's greatest asset is that it gives you the BMW/Volvo *differently*
I am not saying Saab should stay in its micro-segment, I am saying they should expand from where they are. GM should look to what Ford did with the Jaguar and Volvo brands. They took their current positions and erased the negatives and emphasized the positives.
Volvo: boring but safe is now safe and exciting
Jag: unreliable stuffy luxury is now exclusive and exciting
They should embrace it's 'quirkiness' I think Saab needs to use it's current position but 'evolve' it.
Look at Apple Computer. Apple doesnt try to say it is like Windows....it says 'Think Different'. It is happy owning 15-20% of it's segment (and Saab would be very happy to have that kind of share).
People dont buy cars solely on their merits, they buy them because of what it says about them. Cars are a statement you are making to the world. True only us Saab nuts want to say say 'weird'. But many want to be 'individuals' or 'different'.
Article I quoted:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2002/05/21/saab.htm
posted by 24.126.24...
, Thu, 23 May 2002 12:26:41, Fri, 24 May 2002 12:56:48
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