Trust: it’s a word that’s thrown around easily, so easily that sometimes the true meaning of it gets lost. “Trust me!� “ We’ll gain your trust!� “ Building trust!� We’ve all heard it so much that we’ve become desensitized to it. Trust is a commodity that every industry should aspire to stock up on. And there’s no better example than the Auto Industry.

There’s a well known mantra in the marketing realm: Truth In Advertising. Gone are the days of the gullible consumer and the snake-oil salesman. Advertisers and marketers have learned over the course of commercial development that, to appeal to the consumer’s intellect, there has to be a foundation of truth in whatever message they present to the public.

What better example than the famous Volkswagen ad from the 60’s depicting the Bug; it didn’t try to compensate for its tiny stature by bragging about the BIG savings in gas it offered or the BIG engineering that went into it from Germany. Instead, it utilized what was very apparent to the consumer and used it to its advantage. Think Small.

Conversely, a decade later, Chrysler introduces the 1975 Cordoba by having spokesman Ricardo Montalban (welcome to Fantasy Island, indeed) describe the many luxurious features… like Corinthian Leather. “What the hell is Corinthian Leather you ask?� After many inquiries, Chrysler admitted that it was just a linguistic cachet invented for marketing.

 

Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with injecting some style into advertising, but a kernel of truth can lend your style some credibility. Cadillac’s style (which might be seen as an answer to Lincoln’s recent spacey adventure with the MKZ and the MKS) depicts their line-up as faster-than-light-speed rockets thrusting through test grounds. But the majority of their high-performance luxury sedan competitors prefer to showcase their flagship vehicles on coveted tracks like the Nürburgring, or competing in autocross. Now, we all know we’re not gonna get in our luxury sedans and fly around a track at 120+ MPH, but there is an attainable reality illustrated in the track scenario that is an impossibility with the “rocket-launch w/ full NASA crew� scenario. I guess that’s why Cadillac dropped their Boston-based advertising agency, Modernista!, and decided to position their brand as a real-world luxurious vehicle with the help of U.K.-based Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Some might cry foul and defend the advertiser’s right to portray a fantastical world of fun and desire to entice the consumer to buy. And true, this might be a personal pet peeve of mine, but left unchecked, fantasy seeps into reality, and soon little white lies become blatant falsification. I recently observed a Chevy commercial state that its 5-year, 100-thousand mile warranty was the “Best warranty in America.� I’ve heard it over and over again. But Kia and Hyundai have been offering their 10-year, 100-thousand mile warranty for almost ten years now; obviously a slightly better warranty than Chevy. No matter how small the discrepancy is, in the mind of the educated consumer, there exists an air of mistrust. And where there is mistrust, there is no sale.

Trust: it gives you more than a warm fuzzy feeling inside… it might just be what the domestic auto industry needs to survive.

-Guss L. Tsatsakis

Designer at advertising and marketing agency, Wilburn Thomas.

Filed under: Editorial

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