Chrysler NS Minivan Launch Case Study @ craigcooper.com

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	When Chrysler invented the minivan, they invented more than just another vehicle; they invented an entire category – one that was to prove extremely popular with consumers and thus extremely profitable for Chrysler. Indeed, the minivan was fundamental to Chrysler's continued fiscal health. But where the money is, the competition follows and Chrysler's lead in the category was being eroded by interlopers, particularly the much spiffier Ford Windstar. Something had to change – and Chrysler's answer was the new NS series. Now, the launch of a new product is no stranger to risk – in fact, I think they roomed together at college – and the risk is even greater when a new product replaces a highly successful one. In packaged goods land, well-known brands reformulate at their peril. Yet even when a reformulation goes fabulously wrong – New Coke, anyone? – an able marketer can, with time, return the situation to pre-ooops status. The automotive market is decidedly not like that. Entire production lines must be dismantled and new ones built. Billions must be invested in design, development and production. And sometimes – like this time – the market has turned stone cold. There can be no fooling around. The Consumer The NS series was launched into a market with overall sales down 6% and minivan sales down 2.5%. In addition, consumers were in no mood to pay more – Chrysler's annual price increase averaged just +1.7%. Pre-launch research conducted by Chrysler concentrated on practical design innovations, and four functional improvements emerged as the key news stories: Increased interior space Improved driver and passenger visibility Easy roll-out rear seat A driver's-side sliding door – but as an option only Taken together, consumers said these improvements would heighten their interest in the new NS. It is essential to note, however, that consumers were not overly excited by the idea of the driver's-side sliding door – which is why the decision was made to offer it as an option only. To paraphrase Chas. Dickens, this must be clearly understood or nothing wonderful can come from what I am about to relate!


	A three-phase launch with television, print and outdoor was planned. Phase One consisted of a :60 second Corporate spot (created by another team) which, in an attempt to recast Chrysler's image from one of price to one of forward thinking, showcased the NS as the latest in an impressive line of innovations. Phase Two launched the four product changes emphasizing human benefits and social interaction. (Again, the work of a different creative team.) Then, as the agency (BBDO) prepared for Phase Three, consumer feedback gave reason for pause. Despite their ambivalence to the driver's-side sliding door during pre-launch research, they had clearly begun to fancy the idea. In the words of one consumer, “It's like the TV remote. When it's there, why wouldn't you want it?” This led to a game-changing decision. Even though it was only an option – and one at the high end of the NS price range – Phase Three would concentrate on the driver's-side sliding door. TV was to be the lead medium with the aim of winning the audience emotionally, and thus frequency was sacrificed to achieve that goal. Despite a budget 18% lower than the previous year's, Chrysler agreed to a launch based on a :60 second TV buy. It was at this point that my partner Briony and I joined BBDO. From the day we started at the agency to on-air was just six weeks. Spray for Mercy is what we done did.

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	Chrysler had set a 10% volume-growth objective. We left that sucker in the dust. Despite heavy competitive discounting, unit volume grew an astounding 26% versus the previous year. Even more significantly, dollar sales grew 45% – with a 15% increase in average price per vehicle on top of the 26% volume gain. And for those who just can't enough stats: share of market increased 17%, with share of the minivan segment growing by 7% – an amount equivalent to 3.0 full share points. This was an all-time-record model year. Cassie Grand Prix We won awards – lot's of 'em – but none so satisfying as the Cassies Grand Prix. (The Cassies are the equivalent in Canada to the Effies in the US.) As a Grand Prix winner, today this case study is a part of the ICA's permanent collection. In the not-so-hoity-toity-but-just-as-satisfying department, a good friend of mine who works in a world other than adland told me that a co-worker of his was talking about Spray for Mercy. When my friend mentioned that he knew the writer, the co-worker told my friend to tell me that he'd bought a Chrysler minivan specifically because of our spot. I don't know about you, but I think that's just damn cool. Bill Bernbach once said that our job is to bring the dull facts to life. Given the initial consumer ambivalence to the idea of a driver-side sliding door compared to the sales results achieved, I would dare say Spray for Mercy did just that.
	Despite the relatively low ad spending levels, a lockstep correlation was identified between sales of the higher-value driver's-side sliding door option and the shift to driver's-side sliding door creative.
	A year or so later – after Chevy had introduced a similarly-equipped minivan – a tracking study was commissioned. The impact of our campaign was such that consumers, upon seeing Chevy's advertising, perceived that the ads they were seeing were actually for Chrysler! Howz'at for an efficient media buy? Get the competition to spend their money to sell your product!

	First, a tip of the beanie to the planners and account folk for recognizing the potential in the driver's-side sliding door and directing the campaign in that, er, direction. All too often – as I knew from previous car experience – the “exciting features” one is given to write about are anything but.
	This is because it usually makes sense to advertise the model with the lowest price, which is the base model. Of course, the base model has exciting features such as hub caps, ash trays and fenders – all the stuff that is worth talking about is on the pricier models. Open letter to strategy writers: don't put lame stuff in the brief 'cause it just gets in the way. If there really is nothing tangible to say then just let the creatives do their voodoo – ever see the British Airways Face spot?
	But here – well, this driver's-side sliding door was like a slap in the head. Why didn't minivans have a sliding door on both sides, anyway? It's not like there are any cars out there with doors on the passenger side alone. We even played around script-wise in this area but the thought proved too complex even for :60 seconds. And the one thing we didn't want to do was lose our message – the driver's side sliding door was the story and thus had to be at the very core of our concept.
	Here's a little tip for evaluating film creative: if you can effectively describe what happens in the storyline and in doing so completely ignore the product's message then you've got a crap idea. A lot of beer ads suffer from this.
	So, we said to ourselves, what are minivans about? Families, of course. And families mean kids so we'll do a spot about kids and minivans. Boring! It needed something else and that something was sex. Kids and sex, that's the ticket. Relax, Jerry Falwell fan club members. Remember your own first pre-pubescent flirtations? You saw someone of the opposite (or not) gender that made your little heart go pit-a-pat. So what did you do? You threw a rock at them. And very quickly the idea came together faster than I could write it down: boy sees girls washing minivan; boy squirts girls; girls chase boy; minivan is his salvation; unknown-to-him driver's-side sliding door is his undoing; cue the logo. When we first presented the concept, we didn't yet have the wedgie gag, initially thinking that leaving the lad's fate at the hands of the girls was best left to the viewer's imagination. Once in pre-production, though, it occurred to me that a wedgie – given its standing as the prescribed sentence for all playground indiscretions – was the way to go. Our client, Steven Landry, loved the idea and bought off on it immediately. Director Richard D'Alessio reserved the right of administering the wedgie for himself. And I can assure you that in the final scene that kid is not acting.



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