2014 Cadillac ELR Coupe - Poolside Commercial

[Bruce Nunnally]

Introducing the first ever 2014 Cadillac ELR Coupe.

 

[cdgrinci]

Pretty good, a little arrogant (but I think that was part of the purpose); still going to be a fight to convince enough people that there is worth in the ELR (or should I say value).

[Cadillac Jim]

I think it's a good ad. The last shot makes the guy look a bit big for the space in the car, though.

To me, the ad tries to side-step the price of the car by appealing to the high achieve in mid life, i.e. the young to middle-aged high income people. I think that the ELR has a much broader appeal than that, so it seems that GM is trying to avoid targeting too much of the demographic that they are after for the Chevy Volt.

We've discussed overlapping markets for different makes and models within GM before. That kind of thinking has been rampant within GM since WW II and eventually resulted in discontinuing the distinguished marques Pontiac and Oldsmobile. Pontiac has a performance image and sold great high-end Holden-built vehicles like the GTO and the G8, which don't appear elsewhere in US offerings by GM. The Oldsmobile engine operation has a long series of winners, including the Quad 4 (one of the main ancestors of the Northstar), arguably the best of GM's iron 307/350 cid V8 offerings.

The upshot is that the car buyer only knows what he sees and what he wants. The ELR is a different design point for performance than the Volt and has different interior and body, and this is what the buyer will see. The choice between the Volt and the ELR (and the Prius and the Leaf and the...) will be made on the buyer's preferences, his budget, and the offerings. This reality is not addressed in advertising when narrow demographics are targeted.

[70TransAM]

I was looking at an ELR ay my Cadillac Dealer and the salesperson saw me looking and jumped. I was curious so I went into his office and he pulled out the GM invoice and I noticed it had 2 advertising charges of $800 + $800 for $1600 added to the invoice at the bottom of the invoice. (wow is the ELR expensive - $80,000 to save $2,000 / year in gas) He offered me the ELR at invoice less any applicable rebates. I asked about that charge and he said it was for advertising in our area in papers and TV. I was really just waiting for my Cadillac service and wasting time. I went home to do research on GM advertising and found than many dealers have up to 2% added to pay for there manufacturers website and local advertising.

read this article as this makes a lot of sense. http://www.jamesblackcadillac.com/noads.html

Next Cadillac I will be shopping for a dealer that does not have any or smaller percentage of advertising added to my next vehicle. You can save $1600 on this vehicle if you go to a Cadillac dealer that does not have any advertising built in on the invoice. The article above says each dealer can choose what level they want including not selecting any charge at all. Like I said the next Cadillac I will be shopping the advertising level at the dealer as well as the amount they are charging above invoice.