BlueOx

Where is the press stirring C7 interest? I honestly haven't seen anything lately. Especially official C7 press releases.

Heck, I've been stirring as much C7 interest as anyone in the last month or so! AND I haven't even mentioned AWD since I got back from PB!

jackhall99

I was not talking about "official" C7 press releases, and you you know that! GM will release their skinny in Dec/Jan. You know what C&D, R&T, MT, Yahoo, and others in the media are writing about.

Even on this place, the interest is higher than a kite in Spring! It does not have to include facts; just interest!

BlueOx

Relax...I just thought you might have seen something I haven't.
Of course there is interest here in CF. It is the other forums and other audiences I want to see influenced and made to want this car. We are already a captive audience.

giant2121

The last time I went to Pebble Beach was in 1991 when we took the 1932 Pierce Arrow down that I painted. it won Best in Class.. Pebble Beach is for Classic Cars not new cars. I think Sema would be a cool place to release the C7

BlueOx

So you didn't see that Ferrari did the U.S. unveiling of their F12 Berlinetta there this year? You need to go back there and get reacquainted. TONS of new cars around the show, even some concept cars.

I certainly can't argue that SEMA would be a good place to market it.

John T

You must be one hell of a painter

giant2121

When I was there they had the Concept Corvette's there.

BuckyThreadkiller

Where do you advertise a C6 Corvette that is (A) - victim of a short selling season (remember they'll quit building C6s in February and the C7s won't roll out until late July at the earliest), and (B) the primary feature laden vehicle is a special 60th Anniversary Edition catering mainly to the current owner base?

You gonna get Porsche guys in showrooms because now there's a 427 convertible? No. But you may get the Corvette guys who have been clamoring for a droptop Z06 for years. Where are they? Following Corvette Racing in ALMS and the Corvette Protoypes in Grand Am.

Here's what you do - You keep your powder dry. You don't bug editors and producers and drive them nuts right now, because you're going to want to blow their doors off come next May and April.

You don't paper expensive ad venues like Pebble or the Historics right now because changing brands for people who can afford a 60K sports car is a long term proposition. If you're a Porsche Guy or a Viper guy, you don't just change teams because you saw the same model you've seen for 7 years sitting on the lawn somewhere. You want to hit those guys hard with the C7.

You fish where the fish are - you go back to your established audience and show off the GS and the 60th and the 427 vert and you point out that their 2005 it's a great car ... but now they can get that familiar C6 they love with tons more goodies. Sure the C7 is coming but - you know - it might have Camaro tailights and you can have the greatest C6 ever created right now.

GM did this with the'82 Collector's Edition C3, the '96 LT5 C4, the '04 Le Mans commemoratives with the C5 and now the Anniversary C6. It's not their first rodeo.

NOW is not the time to be trying to steal market share or trying to bring new buyers to the brand.

User 2623

Bucky, new buyers is what d vette needs desperately now.
It's in a dimimished market segment catering to a small demographic.
It can not survive without a new infusion of blood, interest and white collar upscale appeal.

I can not agree more with Blue Ox.
The PR game at this juncture is to generate interest to critical mass.
Its primary goal is to keep the target car buyer engaged yet in an uncommited mode until you launch.

GM is holding on to almost 50/60's legacy marketing methodology while trying to sell cars in the information age.

Knowledge is power, gathering intelligence is imperative.
Most younger sport car buyers can groove to a big splash reveal, but desire to gather intelligence about the car well before hand as to right level their expectations.

Racer X

I am not sure it is a small demographic. The Baby Boomers are currenlty the wealthiest generation, well at least as far the generations that are still buying cars. 67-87 year olds probably keep their cars longer and drive less. The vast majority of Boomers that can afford Corvettes are still earning and still driving.

BlueOx

Always interesting to see the old saw of U.S. baby boomers being ignored. Nobody has suggested ignoring them, just expanding the audience to the other U.S. and global potential buyers who very well may not be in the same age group as the boomers. It has to happen eventually. Why is this so hard to understand for so many here?

Guibo

Catering almost exclusively to the aging baby boomer crowd is a good way to raise the average Corvette owner's age into the 70s. When they're 80, how much marketshare are we looking at? The size of the aging (and wealthy) baby boomer crowd is one thing. Whether a sizeable portion of them buy Corvettes is quite another. Your average 911 buyer isn't so far off in age, but I think the 911 remains an aspirational purchase on a very different level for younger buyers.

GM probably has nothing to gain at this point in unveiling the C7 at Pebble Beach, but the arguments about "300g Lamborghinis/Ferraris, Paganis, exotic classics, etc" doesn't really fly when you see this at concurrent events:

That 911 isn't too far off the mark of a ZR1. That red car starts at only $36.5k. Out on the lawn at Concorso Italiano, Fiat was showcasing its turbocharged 500, a hatchback that starts at the $20k mark. That's normally for Italian cars, but Land Rover had their Evoq display there a couple of years ago. They had multiple private BMWs, Porsches, and at least one Corvette Grand Sport there so it's not like GM products would be dismissed out of hand. Surely, Corvette has enough prestige for GM to officially have an anniversary edition 427 or ZR1 on hand, with maybe a teaser of the C7. It's not necessary, but it would be a nice touch. You have to be pretty damn well off to be able to afford a play toy like the ZR1, that's for sure. I'd imagine a ZR1 with a Caravaggio interior could blow some minds.
Back in the day, a Corvette could more than hold its own among the likes of a Porsche 356, BMW 507, or Alfa Giulietta in terms of style, technical sophistication, and performance. And there's no reason why it shouldn't be able to today.

Racer X

I am not suggesting that baby boomers are being ignored. I am responding to the small demographic comment. Of the targeted demographic, it is the largest generational segment.

I think none of the generational differences in terms of buying preferences have anything to do with performance. Young and old, like their cars to be quick, fast, and handle well.

I think the differences are in finish preferences, automation preferences, the details.

I think the Corvette can address substantially of those preferences with well designed personalization program.

Leather or Alcantara (fuzzy plastic)
Aluminum, chrome, carbon fiber trim
Paint color: low key (silver, white) Dark (black, navy) Loud (red, yellow, orange, lime)
Electronics pack: mobile internet, iPxx integration, usb, bluetooth, touch screen, etc
Trans: Auto, auto manual, stick
Seats: std, comfort, sport, supersport (race)

They are trying to attack the 25-35 market, but more the 35-45 year old market. Yes they need to be aspirational for the 15-35 year olds but they are not a primary market, from a buying power perspective.

I remember when I bought my first new Corvette in 1989. It was a 1990 model. At the time I was 29. Less than 2% of new Corvette buyers were under 30. Perhaps that demographic has changed dramatically since then. Maybe in the late sixties or early 70s it was more because sometimes the guys that went to Vietnam, saved all their pay while they were on tour and bought Corvettes when they got back. Hey maybe the guys going to the middle east are doing the same thing, I don't know.

I trust the Corvette team to know their market when the new model comes out. Where GM usually falls down is not making enough changes to adapt mid generation.

BlueOx

Actually, this is the pricing writeup I saw on that red BMW.

BlueOx

...for the most part.
The whole market has changed and certainly the demographic has changed dramatically since Nam. There are so many more competitors now, so much more regulation and performance/comfort/design expectations are huge. The real difference now is the 'global' marketplace creates higher sales expectations in more diverse markets. Heck, the ZL1 is already being exported all over the place including to China. One can certainly expect the export market for the Corvette to continue growing. And while it is true that these export markets still want the American muscle, they will expect that muscle to come with very high quality packaging to be successful. I really think that, all other things being equal, the a la carte options capabilities will be critical to success.

Some folks view that as a loss of 'Corvetteness'...I'm not one of them.

John T

From a dealership perspective personalization is a cleaner way to stronger margins.
Example: There are 3 BMW dealers in a 40 mile radius . I am buying a 3 series sedan. I want a sunroof , Alcantara seat inserts and special audio system in a white or red car. Well, if I am lucky, 1 of the three dealers may have this car. If this were an American or Japaneses franchise, their cars would have " packages " not " ala carte " and more of their cars cars are identical ( few colors, same packages ) which creates much more negotiating ( less profit ) between same brand franchises

rad928music

Relax, C7 will be out soon and it will put those other sports cars on ice.
(Hopefully), and then the C8 forum will start and it will be yesturdays news like You guys did the C6.

Guibo

Ok, maybe not that particular one, but the basic model starts at a much lower price.
That's M3 money. But not too surprising when GS's are being optioned up to Z06 money. That 3-Series is probably close to average Corvette transaction prices, but the Corvette still has the prestige of being a more frivolous luxury.


As to the issue of size of demographics, suppose we have a random group of 100 people who are in the market to buy a new sports car, and the breakdown is as follows:
20-30: 15
30-40: 14
40-50: 15
50-60: 18
60-70: 20
70-80: 18
Surely, it can be better to successfully target a little bit of each of the younger demographic in addition to some of the older demographic (since we're not ignoring them), rather than to put all of your eggs into one basket/group. Which, though by itself represents the single largest group, still pales in comparison to the size of the entire group as a whole. If you've done nothing to significantly pull the average age buyer down, then by the time the average age really is 70-80, then the damage may already have been done as an aspirational purchase. It can take many model generations to wean younger buyers from the image of that car as an "old person's car."

While it may be true that whether they are old or young, people like their cars to be quick, fast, and handle well, the simple fact is that the iPod/iPhone generation places emphasis on very different things, assuming they are even interested in driving in the first place. To them, design, perceived quality, materials, technology/gadget-factor, etc., matter too.

Flex182

Even IF they knock it out of the ballpark with the C7 (which looking at a lot of the competition is hard to imagine), they are allowing other cars to completely own the stage by providing no information that might give these potential future customers pause to wait for the C7.





I too think they could have possibly missed the boat.
But if the C7 was @ least 700 H.P. and looked like something
you would consider trading your wife in on. ( Just kidding ). Then maybe.