Reports out today say that golfer-extraordinaire Tiger Woods may play a larger role in General Motor’s advertising and marketing campaigns beyond Buick. While the whole golf/Buick tie-in is an obvious match, making the jump to luring Tiger-age customers (he’s 30) from an average age of 68 into a Buick showroom is akin to taking a running jump across the Grand Canyon and hoping to make it unscathed.
Reports out today say that golfer-extraordinaire Tiger Woods may play a larger role in General Motor’s advertising and marketing campaigns beyond Buick. While the whole golf/Buick tie-in is an obvious match, making the jump to luring Tiger-age customers (he’s 30) from an average age of 68 into a Buick showroom is akin to taking a running jump across the Grand Canyon and hoping to make it unscathed.
Yet retaining Woods may be a smart move, especially if given more compelling hardware to hawk than the Lucerne. No offense against the large sedan, but when your primary competitor is the Toyota Avalon, which is not exactly the object of desire of most Gen-X or Y-ers, you’ve got to have the right product. Could I see Tiger behind the wheel of an Escalade, XLR, Solstice, or Corvette? You bet. Lucerne? Eh, not quite as convincing.
Now, the Enclave, even though it’s a honkin’ big crossover, at least has the style and substance to appeal to the desirable 35-50 demographic that Buick so desperately wants a slice of. If the brand can crank out similarly stylish vehicles with the refinement and performance to match their looks, you might even see some future Buicks knocking off the Chrysler 300 and Escalade as the “bling” rides of choice.
When all is said and done, it’s ultimately all about the product. You could have Paris Hilton selling Yugos, but whatever gain you get from the novelty factor will disappear quickly if you don’t have the goods to back it up.
We probably won’t see Tiger share his love with the rest of GM for a few more years, but once he does, it’ll be interesting to see what he’s behind the wheel of, even more so than the fact that he’s in it.
2 comments so far
It depends upon what Woods gets paid. He has taken the celebrity high road: no drugs, divorces, fights, DUIs, setting his dog on fire, etc. And he hasn’t shopped his name by endorsing too many products.
Whether this is/was his own good judgement doesn’t really matter; he is among a few gold standard endorsers.
Buick has handled him brilliantly. Since he wasn’t a great speaker years ago they kept him from saying much. Now he is pretty good. He is presentable, pleasant, and is likely to be a good rep for twenty more years.
And yes. I think Buicks are bummers.
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Actually “K” is right it all depends on what woods get paid and talking about having paris hilton in GM advertising… i would say its not a nice idea at all. By looking at this http://www.carsnaps.com/news.php?id=48 i must say GM is really catching up and i think its a very nice move or decision by GM. Tiger woods for sure will get them more sales.
December 26th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
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