Slick Marketing to Save Planet?

April 12, 2007 – Vol.12 No.3

SLICK MARKETING TO SAVE THE PLANET?

California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to make saving the planet "hip and sexy." He’s right of course. Sex sells, and if it’s sex that saves us from global meltdown that’s just fine.

What he’s really talking about is slick marketing to convince people to take action. As any college marketing major will learn, the art or science of marketing is all about convincing the consumer to buy something he may previously have had no interest in. Though many people are concerned about global warming, as well as our over-dependence on fossil fuels, relatively few take action. Like a product on a shelf in a store, the environment needs to be marketed to get consumers “buying.”

Cars are a biggie in the saving-the-world equation. Slick marketing got drivers convinced that they needed a four-wheel drive SUV often when the only off-roading they ever did over the curb at the local mall.

Drivers now need to be convinced that driving clean and green is hip and sexy. In turn, car manufacters need to crank out vehicles that are green and perceived as hip and sexy.

While the car makers aren’t there yet, at least one large chain of autodealers is going out of its way to sell greener, more fuel efficient cars: AutoNation.

AutoNation has launched a marketing scheme in an attempt to steer buyers to more fuel efficient cars. This is its E-Vehicle program.

With E-Vehicle, AutoNation with its partner Edmonds.com identified vehicles that get at least 28 miles per gallon, or deliver 10 percent better fuel efficiency than the average for their vehicle class.

Cars or trucks that meet the standard are identified on their lots as well as on the AutoNation website with a green, leafed shaped E-Vehicle logo along with a checklist that displays the particular efficiency criteria that it satisfies.

Further, flex-fuel vehicles - those that can run on E85 ethanol - are identified with a yellow leaf logo. AutoNation calls these F-Vehicles.

The E-Vehicle program should help online shoppers to research what’s available before they venture out for a test drive.

AutoNation seems serious about selling fuel efficient cars: The company was the first automotive retailer to join Plug-In Partners, the effort to encourage the introduction of plug-in hybrids to the marketplace.

AutoNation has 26,000 full time employees, and own and operates 327 new vehicle franchises in 16 states. All together it has more than 80,000 vehicles in inventory, ready for sale at any given time.

A sexy marketing program - maybe not - but it’s a step in the right direction. Visit AutoNation at http://www.autonation.com/