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These days, Rich Cortright is one of a very few auto dealers who stands in his showroom with a genuine smile on his face. Located in the well-heeled village of [...]

At the 2008 Michigan International Auto Show in Grand Rapids last month, Doug Scheer stood on a small stage flanked by a couple of flat screens at the edge of [...]

It was a clear sunny day in Las Vegas, and it looked like the sky was falling. For marketers at least. The year was 1999 and the setting was the [...]

Pity the auto marketer today who must compete with 300-plus brands, all battling to occupy a unique space on just a handful of established mantles. The safest? Volvo has owned [...]

Joe Driver from Toledo has decided it's finally time for a new car: that all-wheel drive Pontiac Torrent he's been eyeing for months. Fortunately, he's got his down-payment and, like [...]

Like silent sentries on watch, a Saturn Outlook and the GMC Acadia--both fresh from the paint shop and wearing slick coats of gleaming white--guard the front lot of General Motors' [...]

The floor of any custom car show is bound to feature sexy imports and vintage American woodies jacked up and airbrushed down by high-end indie shops. The pimped-out autos on [...]

Fontana, Calif. -- It is a scorching Labor Day weekend on the eve of the Sony HD 500 Nascar race, and the vast infield RV campground of the California Speedway [...]

Like many marketers in the automobile world, Will Travis has a job that's varied, fast-paced, and challenging. Yet despite the success he's had in his field, it's safe to say [...]

YOU DON'T EXPECT MUCH CONTROVERSY FROM THE SLEEPY household appliance segment, but here you had LG drawing ire for one of the most un-green campaigns imaginable. At a time when [...]

In April, a revolution went down. New vehicle sales dipped 8%, cars began to outsell trucks, and sales of compacts and hybrids leaped, gratifying greenies everywhere and giving the auto [...]

CHRIS FULLER KNEW THAT HIS SEARCH FOR AN LCD TV WOULD BE SIMPLE. All he'd have to do is spend plenty of money. But he wound up doing a lot [...]

THE WORLD OF TED WARD IS INHABITED BY CAVEMEN, talking lizards and normal-sized people living in homes with four-foot ceilings. But that's nothing unusual for Ward, who, at 56, is [...]

If, as some have argued, the secret to securing U.S. market share in the auto industry was to simply build a good-looking car, Toyota would be out of luck. Take [...]

Delray Beach, FL-based office supplies marketer Office Depot promoted Charles Brown from chief financial officer to president, international. Monica Luechtefeld was promoted to vice president, business development and information technology; [...]

Since being bought by three former Microsoft execs 16 months ago, the Professional Bowlers Association has been vigorously seeking to return its tour to relevance. With seven weeks until a [...]

WHEN MARKETING FOR THE new Ford F-150 begins on Nov. 2, it will be with a 'big bang' and play to millions. The effort, one of Ford's biggest in recent [...]

BETSY LAZAR has been a major player in General Motors' drive away from big budget, big exposure events. In August, the automaker announced a massive marketing retreat from the Oscars, [...]

WHILE APPLE'S IPOD has a myriad of marketers hoping to glean some consumer cred via tie-ins with its heralded music players, the iPhone so far is standing alone. No branded [...]

BESIEGED BY POOR RATINGS, recalls and failed ad campaigns, 2007 was a tough model year. Overall U.S. auto sales have dipped to around 16 million units, down about 500,000 units [...]

SATURN'S DECISION to align itself with the flag, mom and apple pie in its latest 'Rethink American' campaign may not be an automatic home run, analysts are warning. 'They can't [...]

A WOMAN, FULLY CLOTHED in a tight dress and spiked heels, lies on her back, hips raised as a barechested man holds her down and four other men look on. [...]

Trade shows are usually percieved as an expense which drains a company's resources. However, trade shows are also valuable marketing tools which can provide the opportunity to demonstrate product quality. To achieve a high return on trade show investments, sales personnel should be properly trained. Products should be promoted even before the show, and a unique show strategy should be developed. Specific and measurable goals should be set, and exhibitors should conduct follow ups even after the show.

AS IF FORCED LISTENING to Kenny G. and the precise pain of tinkering with our teeth weren't enough, someone found a way to make our twice-yearly trip to the strip [...]

IT IS A GOOD TIME to be McCormick spices. While not the sexiest of brands, 'The taste you trust' is positioned extremely well for an economy that looks to be [...]

THAT ANNOYING CHATTER emanating from the fuzzy screen at the pump? Expect to see and hear more of it. Apparently the $4-a-gallon gougings aren't enough to drive customers crazy, so [...]

AUTO SALES AND ECONOMIC conditions are on the upswing, provided you're talking certified used automobiles. In a year when new vehicle sales could settle below 14 million, the lowest in [...]

BUICK MAY WANT TO CLEAR OUT some rooms at the 'old age' auto brand rest home. Lexus is coming. The average age of the Lexus shopper is 54, just a [...]

In April, BMW North America named Jim O'Donnell, a gritty, hard talking Scotsman, president. O'Donnell took over from the elegant, diplomatic, and also Scottish, Tom Purves, who is now the [...]

Two YEARS AGO, Kodak's Camilla Bravo was exposed to the viral ad campaign called 'Elf Yourself.' OfficeMax had scored a holiday hit by offering consumers a chance to create elves [...]

You CAN KEEP THE CRYSTAL on the shelves. There will be no octave-piercing notes from celebrities in Memorex's first major ad campaign since the brand's 'Is it Live?' effort in [...]

When Toyota unveiled Scion at auto shows in 2002-03, Jim Farley, who then was a vp at the company, proclaimed, 'We're about providing Generation Y with concepts that stand out [...]

SWEET LEAF TEAS may be taking the 'if you can't beat them, join them approach' to a cease and desist letter it received in late May. Everything was looking up [...]

AT NOON EACH WEEKEND, several DirecTV reps set up display tables at Circuit City stores in the Midwest, right next to the stacks of digital converters. The satellite dish salespeople [...]

WHEN YOU HAVE A product created for tight wallets, now is the time to make sure everyone knows about it. So Kia, armed with a coterie of gas sippers and [...]

For a period of nine months, between September 2007 and the end of May 2008, Steve Wilhite, the man who brought us the 'Drivers Wanted' campaign in 7995 at VW [...]

MTV IS OFFERING advertisers a jazzy new way to quantify their media spends. The cable net has contracted with Marketing Evolution, El Dorado Hills, Calif., to offer a system based [...]

WE'RE PRETTY SURE that Charlie Sheen didn't write the tag for the Hanes ad campaign that brags of 'a collar that lays flat,' but maybe his ex-wife--nuclear physicist/linguist Denise Richards--initiated [...]

THE DETROIT THREE'S muscle cars are going on a diet, and may even lay off the weights for a while. Case in point: When Chrysler and General Motors announced the [...]

The digital age is here. Once the Federal Communications Commission officially kills the analog signal that sends much of the TV programming to our homes, the digital conversion will be [...]

Last year, the biggest concern for many consumers purchasing appliances was what color or features to choose. This year many are worried about being able to afford a home to [...]

IN HIS LAST JOB as director of marketing, media and advertising at Maserati North America, Charles Mayer would go down to the headquarters basement where he and his colleagues would [...]

In February, as the real estate market foundered and set the economy on a downward tilt, Coldwell Banker stepped out with a new ad campaign, via McKinney, Durham, N.C., featuring [...]

AMIDST THE HAND wringing over gas prices and environmental correctness, a new label in auto marketing has finally reached acceptability: crossover. The crossover has replaced the long-dead 'station wagon,' the [...]

Henry Ford famously said something to the effect of, 'Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it's black.' Today, Scott Mellin, CEO [...]

Walking down North Street in Chicago the other day, we came across a chalkboard stand-up sign that informed us that pop icon Rick Nielsen had gone into the pizza pie [...]

AT A TIME WHEN GAS PRICES are climbing higher than Mt. Everest and motorists are exiting their large vehicles as if they were on fire, Hummer has launched an outdoorsy [...]

LOCAL PAPERS MAY BE yesterday's news for some advertisers, however college newspapers are thriving, per a new study. Alloy Media+Marketing, New York, found that 82% of students read their campus [...]

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT can't control runaway gas prices, but automakers apparently can. As the price at the pump eclipses $4 in many areas, Chrysler, Suzuki and Kia have refined a [...]

EWASTE MANAGEMENT HAS gone from being a headache to a marketing tool. Electronics manufacturers and retailers are attempting to address the problem and give themselves a green halo by encouraging [...]