Chrysler Tries to Sell New Image

09/30/96

Reuters reports that Chrysler announced two new advertising campaigns last week, one of which is the corporation's first corporate image campaign since Lee Iacocca's last TV spots in 1992. Chrysler hopes the ads will help it wipe out consumer perceptions of the carmaker's problems with poor vehicle quality.

Chrysler's second campaign focuses on the image of the Chrysler brand rather than the image of the corporation, and it hopes to overcome the image of Chrysler's line-up as little more than boring "K-cars." The K-car image persists, in spite of the fact that Chrysler has replaced its entire line-up since 1992.

Chrysler-Plymouth/Jeep-Eagle Division General Manager Martin Levine said that Chrysler's public image hasn't caught up with the reality of what the Corporation is like: "We need to change the way people feel about the Chrysler brand and the way they think about Chrysler products."

The new advertising campaigns will set the stage for the $23 billion that Chrysler plans to spend for new product development during the next five years. Automotive consultant Christopher Cedergren said it will take Chrysler a long time to wipe the memory of the vinyl-topped Imperial and Fifth Avenue models from consumer's minds, but he says the division is headed in the right direction: "Five or six years ago, anything with a Chrysler badge on it was fuddy-duddy. Cedergren indicated that Chrysler was a "fleet brand," but that Chrysler's new Sebring convertible and other new models will give the division a chance to attract new buyers.

Chrysler officials refused to say how much the company would spend on its new brand campaign, but the trade publication Advertising Age estimates its cost at about $147 million this year--about what the division spent in 1995. Chrysler's new vice president of marketing, John McDonald, said the company and its dealers will spend $2 billion on advertising this year. Advertising Age estimated that Chrysler will spend about $40 million on its new corporate image campaign, alone.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel