Midsize SUV sales were down a whopping 38% in May 2008 over May 2007, while car sales rose from less than 50% to 57% says the US Department of Transportation.

That’s bad news for big car brands GM, Chrysler and Ford. GM’s Hummer is experiencing a 36% national decline in sales and the automaker is shelving redesigns for its full-size pickup trucks and large SUVs including the Chevrolet Silverado, Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon. Ford has just pushed back the debut of their redesigned 2009 Ford F-150. The company is also cutting production of 90,000 vehicles, mostly trucks and SUVs. Source: AutoObserver.com.

A survey by Autodata confirms that higher gas prices are affecting all income levels. Sales of $40,000K+ vehicles are falling faster than the rest of the market: a 14 percent decline in 2008 ytd versus the same period in 2007. Monthly sales of the Mercedes S Class and Acura RL are dropping more quickly than lower-priced, similarly-sized vehicles such as the Chevy Impala.

So how are automakers coping? Chrysler is offering three years of subsidized gas to purchasers of new Chrysler jeep or Dodge vehicles. The program guarantees that customers won’t pay more than $2.99 per gallon for the first 12,000 miles they drive each year for three years.

The deal applies to most, but not all, of the company's vehicles and ends July 7. Whether the promotion is successful remains to be seen. Sales in May, the promotion's first month, were 25 percent lower than in May 2007.

All sorts of brands are trying their hand at gas-related promotions designed to entice purchases from customers.

Jack in the Box is advertising “Two Free Tacos Day,” to help relieve customer pain at the pump. Customers can take a gas receipt to a restaurant and get two free tacos. Callaway Golf is offering $100 gas cards with the purchase of certain clubs so “golfers can now get more distance out of their drives and their gas tanks.

For a limited time, Expedia is giving travelers $50 for FREE gas when they book a stay of 3 or more nights at participating hotels in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and pay using a MasterCard® card. The San Francisco Giants are pitching $25 Chevron gas cards with the purchase of four view-level tickets for home games through August.

Radio stations, such as Kansas City (Mo.) radio station Q104 are ‘pumping’ ratings with gas promotions. The station bought $1,000 of gas and sold it off at $1.04. Even non profits such as Northern Ohio Regional Red Cross have started gas sweepstakes to lure donors.

It’s All About Performance

It’s frustrating to feel that your hard work isn’t appreciated.

If not, reexamine marketing strategies and tactics to ensure they meet the business performance objectives of your company or client.

See Cross-Channel.

Cross-channel shopping, also referred to as ‘precision shopping,’ ‘multi-channel shopping,’ or ‘web-influenced offline sales,’ describes the practice of shoppers researching a product or service online, e.g. keyword search, retail websites, etc., and then purchasing the product or service at a bricks and mortar store.

Both eMarketer and Forrester Research highlight the growing importance of utilizing web marketing to reach cross-channel shoppers because of the appeal of cross-channels shopping to buyers; they can obtain a product immediately, see and touch it before they buy, and avoid shipping costs.

Green branding is a topic that many marketers have been grappling with---not only how to incorporate a green story in their brand positioning---but to understand exactly what it is.

“Only 25% of all African-American and Hispanic consumers find marketing and advertising personally and culturally relevant,” says Yankelovich. What that means is that many brands are not connecting with a significant and growing portion of U.S. consumers.

What should marketers do? Display cultural relevance that is more than superficial, says Yankelovich. For example, don’t run a special ad for, say, Black History Month, and then ignore African-American customers in your general market advertising.

Make your brand is personally relevant, based on a genuine understanding of what’s important to multicultural consumers.

Source: Yankelovich MONITOR

Refers to the erosion of a brand's premium pricing. A decreased ability to command a price premium based on the strength of the brand. 

Starbucks has achieved significant growth. And because of their success, their brand is in danger of becoming a commodity brand in the category they created. 

The warning signs were there, as anyone with 20/20 hindsight can see, including a “watering down of the Starbucks experience” where speed and efficiency were emphasized over romance and theater, stores smelled like breakfast sandwiches instead of coffee, and a cookie cutter store design became ubiquitous.

Recently reinstalled CEO Howard Shultz expressed his concerns in a recent memo. “Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead [sic] to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.”

1. Put Some Muscle In Your Brand Positioning Strategy. Too many marketers deliver puny brand strategies that don’t demonstrate an understanding of the target, fail to differentiate the brand and define the competition too narrowly---which is too bad. A well-honed brand positioning statement defends the brand against commoditization and provides a roadmap for growth.
2. Authenticity Is The Ultimate Way To Avoid Commoditization blogs Buzz Canuck, quoting the book, "Authenticity: What Customers Really Want." Premium brands must deliver differentiated, well-conceived experiences that are authentic to core brand values to resist commoditization.
3. Ensure Employees Understand The Brand Experience. A well known hotel brand reportedly reminds employees they are “Ladies and Gentleman Serving Ladies and Gentleman.” Is there any doubt of the brand experience this company expects its employees to deliver? There’s no need for a long, involved treatise; one succinct phrase or sentence will get the job done.
4. Ensure Employees Deliver The Brand Experience. Show employees how their performance impacts customers and compares to competitors, say the authors of “Communicating Change: Winning Employee Support for New Business Goals.” Then explain how it impacts their work environment and job security---without beating them over the head.
5. Talk to customers and non-customers - frequently. See if they can express if and how you're different from the competition.
6. Use Your Messaging To Communicate Brand Differentiation. A landmark study by Copernicus/Market Facts released in 2001 warned that many brands were becoming less differentiated and more commoditized due to the following factors:

-A shift from brand building advertising to promotional programs
-A shift from informational-oriented advertising to entertainment oriented advertising.
-A shift from communications which communicate distinctive positioning strategy to communications which focus on brand essence or imagery.  

Avoiding the brand commoditization trap isn't easy. But you wouldn't want an easy job, would you?

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