I Bin Therbefor

Somewhere in one of the video clips I saw a slide which said the C7 target audiance was boys 4 to 12 years of age. The target market being anyone who wanted a performance sports car.

I seem to recall Ed Welburn saying that he wanted boys 4 to 12 to put posters of the C7 on their walls.

Can anyone confirm this?

By the By, Ed is a bit old. If he wants boys 4 to 12 interested, he means they will swap images on their smart phones and choose the C7 in their video games.

Sin City

57 year old men and 7 year old boys have a lot in common.

Trackaholic

39 year old men as well.

-T

C7Joy

That is true, I have been both!

BlueOx

This is the same thinking that they saw work with the Transformer Camaro, which is an incredible success. They want to make it appeal to kids and adults at the same time.

I Bin Therbefor

Thanks for all the comments

Can anyone confirm the video and direct me to it? I forgot to mark it as a favorite.

JoesC5

GM also said the average age of a new Corvette buyer is 50 years old.

Richie Fazio

Corvettes already do appeal to children ages 4-12. My younger cousins range between that age group and everytime I go to one of their soccer, baseball games, etc. in my C6and their friends are around they all stop and yell out things like "look at that Corvette!"

Young children have always loved Corvettes. It's a fact.

BWF07

What I will wait for is once the C7 hits the market, will GM hit the target group that they planned for. Will they have the younger generation enthused enough to by that first time sports car, and will they be able to convince the buyers of the European sports cars to jump ship and by American. Finally how will the new C7 be viewed in Europe by they sports car buyers over there.

Simply being a forum member and Corvette owner or any present Corvette owner stepping up to the C7 does not show that GM hit their target. The C7 will need to be embraced by a new line of owners, ones that have never had a Corvette and never was really interested in one or one that has been a European or Asian import driver that has decided that now is the time to move to the Corvette.

Sin City

Actually, that's 100% typical of most exotic sports car buyers.

Dominic Toretto

So 4-12 year old boys are the target audience. What about the target market? Quite a different age range there. Hell, I consider myself pretty well-off financially but, it would be quite a stretch for me at 30 to be able to afford a brand new C7. I remember being in highschool and I had plenty of 1:18 scale model cars. Always loved the C5(new at the time) and thought, I would have to be almost 40 to be able to get one. Fortunately I was blessed with a good job much younger and got the exact C5 I wanted when I was 24.

-Alex

Sin City

I bought a used, beat up 246 Dino Gt at 24. Paid all the money I had--$8000 -- and spent 2 years getting it running again. I wasn't rich. My mom thought I was crazy.

I think this is how a lot of us start in this hobby of ours.

Not everyone is part of the silver spoon club. In fact, most aren't as far as I can see. Work smart, save, invest, and try to keep your goals in mind and anything is possible.

QUAKEJAKE

Was out for ice cream at the local stand and standing around the Vette were a group of 5 preteens salivating over it. One of them stated "Nice Car" Another "Really nice car" I think GM hit future buyers with the C6 wide bodies and it should carry over to the C7.

Guibo

Not a video, but here is a quote in an article.

GM design chief Ed Welburn this week unfurled a poster on a table at his office in suburban Detroit showing images of the remodeled Corvette along with Stingrays from 1959 and 1963.
“I want this image on every kid’s wall,” he said in advance of the Jan. 13 unveiling of the new car on the eve of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
While enthusiasm is strong among some Baby Boomers who remember the car from their youth, Welburn said that somewhere along the way Corvette posters fell off the bedroom walls of young people. He remembered a visit of a friend’s son to his garage and seeing his excitement for the Chevy Camaro while ignoring an old Corvette.
“The challenge is that it is thought of as an older person’s car,” Jessica Caldwell, an industry analyst with Edmunds.com, said this week in an interview. About 46 percent of Corvette buyers last year through October were 55 years or older compared with 22 percent of Audi R8 and 30 percent of Porsche 911 customers, according to Edmunds.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...ew-design.html

I Bin Therbefor

Still can't find the video of the PP slides.

JoesC5

I've always had problems with math. Does that mean that 54% of the Corvette buy are under 55 year of age? Sounds to me like they need more older buyers, not younger ones.

Guibo

I think it means that. However, I don't think any company wants 46% of their buyers concentrated above the 55-year-old mark. It's not good for the image of a sporty car and it makes the car less appealing as something to aspire to for younger people. There's also a smaller portion of the market in the 55+ age group:


If you combined all seven groups that comprise the 55+ drivers, they would equal roughly the two groups comprising 35-44. Then there is the group 45-54, which is another ~36M drivers. About 62M in the under 35 category. And what if those 55+ year old drivers in the Corvette demographic are actually heavily clustered around the 70-79 year old mark? That's not good for the image of what should be a young man's car.

C7 4 Me

Not to get too close to a "cool story brah" moment - but short and quick story. My wife and I drive German at our house; not because we're too good for any other cars - but because they're the cars we like enough to buy.

I don't want to step on toes, but I've never cared much for corvettes (except for as a young kid, as others in this thread are mentioning).

But something about what GM is doing has struck a chord with me. We sold my Audi and put my wife in a GMC Terrain, and I'll be selling the BMW and getting a C7. The C7 is a seriously attractive car (something about it really speaks to me) and I'm very happy to be in a position such that it'll be my first purchase of a brand-new sports car. I was 99% certain to otherwise end up in an M3 or C63 AMG.

We're 28 and, while it was almost unthinkable just a year or two ago, we will be a 100% GM house in just a few short months.

While I don't like to use myself as conclusive anecdotal evidence, I'm pretty convinced that GM is well on its way to improving its image with younger adults and hitting new target audiences.