As its title suggests, this blog is about how ideas drive marketing. In this post (and others in the future), I will zero in on some real world examples of great ideas at work in marketing. We’ll also examine other marketing scenarios where one just has to scratch his/her head and ask, "what were they thinking?"

The first marketing category that we’ll examine is automotive. I am initially focusing on this sector because I am an enthusiastic car guy (a true "gear head!"). And, the auto marketing business is home to some of the biggest and best ideas in our profession, and, for some strange reason, some of the absolute worst, too (remember Buick’s "ghost of Harley Earl" spots from a couple of years ago?!). So, herewith are two striking and incredibly timely examples of the power of ideas in automotive marketing. The lessons — good and bad — that I’ll discuss in these two case studies are applicable across the board in the marketing and communications industry.

BIG IDEA — Hyundai: I am of an age that I remember vividly when the first Hyundai cars were imported to the US from Korea. They were beyond utilitarian in design, features and construction, but also very cheap to buy (I think they were in the $4,000 range at the time, which was an entry level bargain). Because of their market-beating low cost, Hyundai’s quickly sold to young people looking to buy a first car, true value shoppers, and other folks looking for a low cost second car. So far so good for this new Asian auto import. But, Hyundai’s good news did not last long as the car’s cheapness (e.g., total lack of quality) totally blew up in the company’s face. The utter shoddiness of the Hyundai cars completely ruined the brand in the US, giving it a black eye that most thought it never could recuperate from.

Fast forward a decade, and the Hyundai Motor Company is shaking up the automotive industry with an industry first: A 10-year/100,000-mile warranty. That now famous warranty offer carried an explicit message, clearly designed to erase the bad memory of the earlier Hyundai’s and their awful quality and non-existent reliability. If Hyundai was now willing to back their cars with the industry’s richest warranty, then how bad could the cars be?

Hyundai’s warranty offer (a Big Idea if there ever was one in the auto business) started to have a positive effect. The company slowly and surely began reestablishing itself in the US market through good product planning and engineering, excellent marketing and branding, and just plain tenaciousness. Hyundai was also walking the walk as it was talking up its higher quality and better designed new cars. In fact the new Hyundai models were inching closer and closer to the more established Japanese auto manufacturers. Made in Korea was no longer viewed as a joke in car circles. (Just wait until China’s car brands get going!)

Today, Hyundai is back in a big way. It is building great cars that are more than competitive, even with the leading Japanese brands like Toyota and Honda. Its sales are climbing and customer satisfaction is apparently very strong. And, it is getting all kinds of accolades from the various rating organizations like JD Power and the car mags. I particularly love how the company is comparing itself to the paragon of quality and luxury, Lexus. Hyundai has run ads that make a favorable comparison between its new Veracruz SUV with the category standard Lexus RX 350. And, they even have a new TV spot that compares the Hyundai Azera to the flagship Lexus sedan that famously parks itself. In each instance, Hyundai smartly positions itself as a very affordable — and thus very accessible — facsimile of a Lexus. This "high quality/low price" positioning is pretty brilliant. It’s also backed up with the company’s still unrivaled 10-year/100,000-mile warranty, rounding out a powerful brand offering.

As you can see, Hyundai turned itself into a player in the ultra competitive automotive category by finding a Big Idea that works for them ("high quality/low price"), paying it off consistently through an unmatched warranty and increasingly good cars, and smart, believable advertising. Even the Lexus comparisons are believable! And that is an amazing statement given where Hyundai started two decades ago. Hyundai’s brand message of "Rethink Everything" fits this positioning perfectly. It is amazing what a company can do with good strategy, great execution and consistency.

BAD IDEA — Jeep: Of all the iconic brand names in the automotive world, Jeep is one of the most storied. Jeep made its reputation the old fashioned way — doing what it was designed to do in the most difficult of circumstances, the battlefields of WW II. After that war, the plucky little Jeep 4-wheel-drive was beloved by American service men, who supported the brand back in the US when it started selling domesticated versions of the tough little vehicles.

Jeep thus started out as a very Big Idea. But, the years and multiple corporate owners took their toll on the once gold plated Jeep brand. First, the Jeep-branded vehicles started to become bloated, veering away from the utilitarian toughness of the original Jeeps. Then, the quality and dependability tanked. But even with all of that bad stewardship, the brand still had some life in it, until, that is, Chrysler got its mitts on Jeep. The minute Chrysler (and its former "equal" partner Daimler) came into the picture, I knew the Jeep brand would be watered down to dishwater.

And that is exactly what is happening today. All you need do is take a look at the new Jeep Compass to understand how far the brand has fallen. The Compass is a re-skinned version of some other low quality Chrysler SUV. US auto industry platform brand management at its worst. And the new Patriot and Liberty models are not much better. They just don’t have any of the essential "Jeepness" which is what made the brand so unique and cherished in the first place. The only Jeep model that comes close to the old standard is the Wrangler. At least the new version of this classic Jeep model has some of the personality and styling cues of the original. But, it is still a denuded version of a brand that once stood for hard won authenticity.

Again, all of this points to basic strategic and product positioning and brand management. Hyundai, which started off in the hole with less than nothing for a product, got it and became a big winner by coming up with a Big Idea and sticking with it. Jeep, which started with one of the greatest automotive brands in the world, squandered its reputation and let bad ideas devalue and dilute its once market leading brand. 

It really does not have to be that way. The auto industry is full of Big Idea winners and losers, which is why I love studying it as a marketer. Example: The Chevrolet Corvette, whether you like the newest model or not, has done a brilliant job of nurturing, evolving and maintaining its strong American sports car brand since it was launched in 1953. On the other hand, the Ford Thunderbird, which was launched just two years later in ‘55 to compete with the Corvette, started off with a massive success, but then began a precipitous decline after just a few years of market leadership. The T-Bird’s end started when its ill advised designers read the wrong tea leaves and bulked up the car in the ’58 and ‘59 model years (the unloved "Square Bird"). The brand actually resuscitated its proud legacy for a last gasp of near greatness in the mid-sixties, but then succumbed to Jeep-like corporate idea sclerosis in the seventies. It ultimately died as a joke, remembered only by the vintage car buffs who lovingly restore the first generation T-birds built from ‘55-’57. The new retro T-bird launched a couple of years ago was a nice try by Ford, but it did not last long. Not enough of the original fire was left because Ford had so long ago killed the true Thunderbird brand ethos. 

By contrast, Chevrolet has kept the Corvette brand true to form and function every year since its launch (it did teeter a bit in the ’80s, but so did every car brand out there, even Ferrari!).

Big Ideas at work in marketing. It’s not easy to build and maintain a great brand, but it’s not that difficult either. There are plenty of great brand success stories out there — like Hyundai and Corvette — that we can look to as real world examples of what to do. And the failures — like Thunderbird and the increasingly irrelevant Jeep brand — are probably even better teachers for marketers. They definitely represent the "must avoid" category.

The formula is deceptively simple, and here it is: Find and develop the Big Idea that is distinctive and different (dare I say "original"), highly believable (brands are built on trust), and truly compelling to your target audience. Then, STICK WITH IT.

Don’t veer off course just because of the latest trends. Emboldened and guided by your Big Idea, your brand should evolve by leading those trends, not following them. Following usually just leads you and your brand into business oblivion.

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