Saturn Corporation: Why Didn't Anyone Think Of This Before?

campaign
Rebecca Stanfel Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns Volume 2, 2007

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Saturn Corporation: Why Didn't Anyone Think Of This Before? campaign Rebecca Stanfel Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns Volume 2, 2007

Saturn Corporation: Why Didn't Anyone Think Of This Before? campaign

Rebecca Stanfel

OVERVIEW On November 1, 1998, the Saturn Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors (GM), became the first car company to offer a three-door coupe when it introduced an updated model of its SC coupe. The third door, a rear access door, made it more convenient to load passengers and cargo into the back seat. Saturn hoped the innovation would shore up its flagging sales and carve out a niche for itself in the shrinking and highly competitive small-car market. Falling fuel prices and a vibrant U.S. economy had led many consumers to eschew smaller, more fuel-efficient cars like those offered by Saturn in favor of pickup trucks, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), and minivans (vehicles collectively classified as "light trucks"). Saturn turned to its longtime San Francisco-based ad agency, Publicis & Hal Riney, to craft a campaign that would not only announce the coupe's arrival but also send a powerful positive message about the overall Saturn brand. The ensuing $40 million "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" television, radio, print, and outdoor campaign, which focused specifically on the utility of the third door, used the same quirky humor that had come to define Saturn's marketing. The primary purpose of "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" was to highlight the practical elements of the coupe and to underscore Saturn's longstanding marketing position as a "different kind of company." Saturn had been receiving criticism for failing to expand or update its original line of small cars. In "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before," the company presented itself as the maker of innovative automobiles designed for the needsfrom the utilitarian to the unusualof innovative drivers. In one of the three commercials, for instance, a child stands alone in a vast, flat field playing "When The Saints Go Marching In" on a tuba. At the end of the spot, his mother arrives in a sporty red Saturn coupe. The third door clicks opens, and the boy climbs into the back seat with his tuba in tow. The message was clear: a Saturn three-door coupe could carry cumbersome items, offered easy access to the back seat, and was suitable for children. The commercial closed with a voice-over. "Arriving at last, from Saturn. The world's first three-door coupe. Why didn't anyone think of this before?" Two print ads that focused on the uniqueness of the third door accompanied the television spots. Saturn planned to use the three-door coupe as a launching pad for additional new products. It expected to release its first midsize sedan (the LS) in 1999 and first SUV in 2001. Saturn wanted the coupe ultimately to be viewed as merely one facet of

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an innovative company. In any event, the three-door coupe and its supporting ad campaign proved to be unequivocal successes. Coupe sales rose immediately to unexpected levels, providing "one of the few positive notes in the small-car market," said the Sunday Gazette-Mail. Saturn continued to run "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" through the spring of 1999. "It was a launch campaign with enough life to last eight months," said Lisa Hutchinson, Saturn's marketing director. Saturn's advertising also stressed its distinctiveness among car companies. Since its inception, Saturn had used the tag line "A Different Kind Of Company. A Different Kind Of Car" in unusual ads conceived by Publicis & Hal Riney. The commercials were slice-of-life vignettes that featured actual Saturn employees and owners. Spots such as one that depicted a security guard who logged 100,000 miles on his Saturn without ever leaving his small town were "unexpected, understated, and unsurpassed in [their] ability to carve out a brand image," according to Advertising Age . "[They] had the most brilliant marketing campaign of any car in the last decade," a marketing analyst told the The Tennessean. Although Saturn's small cars and unique brand image proved popular, rival companies were quick to imitate Saturn's friendly sales process and excellent service. In addition, the American small-car market grew more competitive, and U.S. gas prices were falling to new lows, undercutting consumers' interest in seeking out fuel-efficient cars like Saturn. Moreover, the booming economy produced more people willing to spend $30,000 or more for trendy SUVs. By 1998 the light truck market accounted for 51 percent of new car sales, while small car sales had plummeted 20 percent between 1997 and 1999. Saturn's troubles were compounded by its limited product line. With only one subcompact car offered in sedan, coupe, and wagon versions Saturn did not provide consumers with as many options as did competitors like Toyota. "Their life is dependent on how small cars are selling, and small cars have been tough to sell," an industry expert told AP Online . In the first nine months of 1998, Saturn's sales were 9.6 percent lower than in the same period of 1997, which themselves had been 10 percent less than 1996. "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" reinforced this message by making children central to the campaign. In addition to the "Tuba" spot, Saturn also ran "Pick-Up," an ad that featured a father and a Little League team. After the coupe pulls into the driveway of a model suburban home and disgorges its passengers, a small boy dashes back to close the third door left open. These two commercials touted the utility of the three-door coupe by emphasizing the car's capacity to be a family carwith style. While the campaign encouraged family-car owners to consider the coupe as a viable car option, Saturn recognized that the primary market for the coupe would still be its base of young, single consumers, who might not appreciate the car's ability to tow tykes and their tubas. A third commercial, "Mannequin," addressed these consumers. The spot opened with the scene of a young man waiting outside a restaurant as a woman leans on his shoulder. A Saturn coupe pulls up, and he proceeds to load the "woman"now recognizable as a mannequinthrough the rear door into the back seat. By stressing that the three-door coupe could carry any item, no matter how unusual, Saturn made its point to childless viewers. Moreover, even the commercials that did use kids as the focus did not resort to sentimentality. The edgy humor and quirky scenarios would draw in all viewers, with or without families. COMPETITION Saturn wanted to broaden the coupe's appeal because of the severe contraction in the small-car market. According to the Wall Street Journal, by 1998 "sales of conventional passenger cars have slumped to levels not seen since the early 1980s recession." As companies jostled to maintain market share in a shrinking pool of consumers, competition grew ever more fierce. In its bid to boost sales, Saturn was confronted by several rivals. In January of 1999, DaimlerChrysler AG debuted its model-year 2000 Neon, which it sold under both its Dodge and Plymouth nameplates. When the Neon was first launched it 1994, the company (then Chrysler) attempted to imbue the car with a likable personality. This "Hi" campaign
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anthropomorphized the small Neon. Although "Hi" was critically-acclaimed, DaimlerChrysler devoted $40 million to a new television, print, outdoor, and web banner campaign by BBDO Worldwide that began in March of 1999. "We tried to get away from cute, so the ads are more sophisticated," Arthur Liebler, a senior vice president at DaimlerChrysler told Advertising Age . The initial commercials were set to familiar song melodies, to which comedian George Carlin provided voice-overs of Neonpraising lyrics. In one ad, a Neon was shown in a field of sunflowers while Carlin intoned lines like "When your foot hits the gas and you're off in a flashthat's amore" to the strains of the Dean Martin classic. The Ford Motor Company's Escort was another challenger. In February 1998 Ford launched a new campaign created by ad agency J. Walter Thompson that encompassed the entire Ford division. These spots, which featured actor John Corbett, incorporated the tag line "Built to Last" into stories about Ford cars and their owners. Saturn would also need to fend off imports to prosper. Toyota's Corolla received considerable media spending in the brandwide "Everyday" campaign created by Saatchi & Saatchi, which debuted in the fall of 1997 and continued to run through 1999. The television ads incorporated the song "Everyday People" by Sly and the Family Stone and stressed Toyota's reliability. In March 1998 eight-page "Everyday" spreads appeared in major magazines like Life, People, and Time. In the summer of 1998 Toyota debuted the Solara, a coupe that directly challenged Saturn's SC. Honda's Civic also vied for the consumers Saturn desired. Although the model-year 1999 Civic was redesigned, Honda continued to use agency Rubin Postaer & Associates, which had crafted the company's advertising since the Civic was introduced in 1974. Spots for the Civic remained productfocused. Moreover, in March of 1998, Volkswagen AG launched its New Beetle into what the Wall Street Journal termed "a cutthroat market" and captured the bulk of the attention aimed at the small-car sector. To support the New Beetle, agency Arnold Communications conceived clever print and television ads that not only conjured up memories of the iconic original Beetle, but also proved popular among younger consumers. MARKETING STRATEGY "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" sought to carve out a distinct niche for the three-door Saturn SC coupe. To succeed in this venture, the campaign needed to make consumers take note of the coupe and its most unique aspectthe rear access door. This was, of course, no easy task since viewers were inundated with a virtual tidal wave of car advertising. But Publicis and Hal Riney strove to create ads that were intensely engaging and that captivated the viewer. One crucial aspect of this strategy was the initial teaser (or bookend) spot. Without revealing the brand or the product, Saturn aired a commercial that simply showed a child playing a tuba. During the next commercial break, the final version played, which showed the three-door Saturn coupe arriving and picking up the young tuba player. The goal was to entice viewers to wait for the follow-up ad and watch closely to see what product was being hawked with such an odd commercial. Since Saturn hoped to reach a wide array of viewers, the company used national television as its primary venue. The campaign aired on an assortment of programs, ranging from 60 Minutes to shows that captured a younger audience, such as The X-Files and The Simpsons. This initial blitz was supported with print ads in both regional newspapers and national lifestyle magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, and newsweeklies. These print pieces broke new ground for Saturn. Rather than relying on its usual print method of presenting stories describing Saturn owners or employees, the company ran two mostly graphic ads ("Convention" and "Fox") that focused on the coupe itself. The copy was spare, the visual images striking and simple. Billboard versions of these spots were erected in major markets and made available to local Saturn dealers. Radio ads and point-of-sale material in Saturn dealerships provided the final elements of the campaign.

FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

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The concept of the three-door coupe came from neither the company's design team nor from marketing planning sessions. Instead, Stuart Lasser, a Saturn dealer, suggested the idea at a meeting. His eight-year-old son had complained loudly about climbing into the rear seat of the family's two-door model. "Everybody just kind of stopped dead in their tracks and wondered why this hadn't been thought of before," a company representative told the Northern New Jersey Record.

View creative from this campaign. View more creative from this campaign.

OUTCOME Despite the pessimism of some commentators who predicted the failure of both the three-door SC coupe and the campaign to support it, Saturn was so convinced of the coupe's potential that it made the three-door design standard. "It's going to bring a different customer into our coupes, a broader market," an SC launch team member told The Tennessean. After one month, Saturn's optimism was justified as sales rose. In December 1998 Saturn reported "its first month-over-month increase since April," according to the Sunday Gazette-Mail. Sales continued to increase through January. In fact, coupe sales were 28 percent higher than in 1997. Moreover, the portion of Saturn's overall sales composed of coupe sales rose from 15 percent to 20 percent. This double digit growth continued during the months after the campaign's inauguration. Even more striking was the fact that Saturn's coupe sales soared during winter months, normally a slow sales period for the sporty model. The "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" campaign itself was also well-received. Advertising Age pronounced the commercials to be "marvelous." Marketing director Hutchinson told the February 8, 1999, edition of Advertising Age that the spots "broke through clutter and helped Saturn's coupe sales." The company continued to run the campaign through the spring of 1999, at which point it was shelved in favor of new ads touting the LS, Saturn's forthcoming midsize sedan. FURTHER READING
Akre, Brian. "Saturn Hopes For Coupe Revival." AP Online, October 29, 1998. "CMR Top 50." Mediaweek, March 15, 1999. Fann, Gina. "Saturn Springs First Three-Door Sports Car." The Tennessean, October 30, 1998. Garfield, Bob. "Saturn Ad Inscrutable but Entirely Irresistible." Advertising Age , November 9, 1998. "GM's Saturn Division To Cut Production 14% over Six Months." Wall Street Journal, January 22, 1998. Gowrie, David. "Dealer Sells Saturn on Idea." Northern New Jersey Record, January 5, 1999. Halliday, Jean. "Campaign Urges Drivers To Say Hello to New Neon." Advertising Age , March 8, 1999. ."Three-Door Coupe Cuts through Clutter." Advertising Age , February 8, 1999. Krebs, Michelle. "Saturn Hits Jackpot with Door No. 3." Sunday Gazette-Mail, February 14, 1999. Mateja, Jim. "Saturn Open-Door Policy a Breakthrough." Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1998. Newman, Heather. "Saturn on the Line." The Tennessean, May 28, 1995.

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Stein, Beth. "Saturn's Odd Little Number." The Tennessean, April 19, 1999. Warner, Fara. "US Truck Sales Reach Minor Milestone." Wall Street Journal, December 3, 1998.

NOTES & EXHIBITS

Print ad from Saturn's "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" campaign . Publicis & Hal Riney Partners. Reproduced by Permission.

Print ad from the "Why Didn't Anyone Think of This Before?" campaign for Saturn Corporation . Publicis & Hal Riney Partners. Reproduced by Permission.

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