• by Karl Greenberg , April 3, 2015

At the New York International Auto Show, Buick showed off the Avenir large sedan concept, based on the same platform as Cadillac’s CT6 car. But the bigger news is the smaller vehicles like the Encore crossover, whose sales were up 31% in the first quarter, and LaCrosse sedan, of which the brand delivered 4,425 last month -- a 25% increase.

The automaker also won kudos for its "Challenging Expectations" campaign launched during NCAA finals last year. And Buick won the Kelley Blue Book best value luxury brand for the second year in a row. But time waits for no one and neither do competitors. In spite of that, Duncan Aldred, who became VP of Buick-GMC last year, did take a moment, however, to chat with Marketing Daily. 

Q: So, you have kept on with “Challenging Expectations” since March Madness last year. how is it working?

A: We have several new ads. The campaign was designed to challenge misconceptions of Buick head on, and it has. It's a  campaign that called out what people are actually thinking about, what are the stereotypes, and then we tackled it head on. We just came up with a new spot for Verano, and a new spot focusing on 4G LTE WiFi, but again it feels very much like that original campaign. 

Q: What is your media mix to bring younger people into the brand?

A: About a quarter of ad spend is digital now. Digital spend had increased over time, but we made a shift last year to go to a quarter of spend. And doesn't include addressable, or direct TV -- we still class that as traditional. But we are investing quite heavily in that [addressable TV] as well this year. We have had good results on Encore with it. But we are doing consistent and pretty heavy spend in the digital arena. 

Q: With the move into smaller, more youthful luxury vehicles, is Buick still the doctor's car brand?

A: I think the doctor's car analogy is a great one. That is what we want Buick to be. We want people to aspire into it, out of the mainstream brands. And Encore is helping make us become more relevant, and giving us broader appeal. 

Q: With the 2016 Cascada you have a convertible for the first time in 20 years. Why do it? Who drives a convertible these days?  

A: Part of what we are trying to do is challenge people. When we introduced Encore, people initially said “why?” But I feel in a short period of time that segment will supersede the compact sedan segment. And we see it already with people we are conquesting with the Encore. So I think Buick is that kind of brand, where we are willing to try to find white space because it helps and reshapes the brand. 

Q: Yes, but there's no growth in convertibles.

A: We are going into that convertible space right at the time other people are vacating it, so you might say, “well you just don't understand the trends.” It's the opposite. People who buy convertibles are aren't terribly brand loyal, but they are very convertible loyal. We think the vacation of our competitors there creates an opportunity. it won't be a 50,000-volume vehicle by any means, but it will again reshape expectations of Buick. It's a nice play for our brand.