• by Karl Greenberg , March 31, 2010

As Chrysler sails into 2010 under the wing of Fiat and off the launch pad of the company's turnaround program, the Jeep unit of the Auburn Hills, Mich. automaker is figuring on working out its own flight path. 

Not an easy task, as the company moves away from traditional body-on-frame SUVs on which it built its rep and toward crossovers that are more fuel-efficient and lighter, but maybe -- in the eyes of Jeep fans -- a little too tame.

Jeep has its brand equity to uphold: the best-known off-road auto brand in the U.S. built its rep on its vehicles' ability to navigate everything up to and including California's Rubicon Trail (although in recent years that standard has been replaced by a less evocative "Trail-Rated" metric.)

To keep its loyalists while appealing to people who aren't exactly four-wheeling over boulders of a weekend, Jeep is rolling out off road-themed versions of some vehicles (the Renegade Liberty, and Islander and Mountain versions of its Wrangler flagship) and crossovers that can behave on-road and misbehave off.

Mike Manley, president and CEO of Jeep, says the company is not leaving its roots behind to go after strictly ballroom types, and will keep customers engaged with the brand with a lot more interactive efforts.

The current Twitter-driven promotion around the Islander Wrangler culminating in a sandbox scavenger hunt for a Tiki icon holding a key to the vehicle is an example, he says. Five contestants chosen to dig through the sandbox on Thursday morning at the New York International Auto Show were picked from tweeters answering Jeep trivia.

"For us, social media is a massive opportunity," he says. "The way we are promoting Islander is an example of how we are trying to have an ongoing dialogue with customers. That will continue." Jeep has also been reinvigorating its Camp Jeep programs at auto shows.

Manley says the next launch -- the Jeep Grand Cherokee, hitting dealerships this spring -- reflects Jeep's efforts to bridge on- and off-road consumers and reach "adventure dreamers" who have Walter Mitty-esque dreams of exploration.

Although the new Grand Cherokee is a crossover, Manley says it can be had in different versions with differing off-road capability. "We know we can bring an authentic Jeep to market that is also a fuel-efficient package," he says, adding that the forthcoming Grand Cherokee will have an adaptive suspension system that can dial ride height up or down to on- or off-road conditions.

Manley says one thing Jeep doesn't have to dial up is brand awareness. The company launched a brand campaign last November and is sponsoring the winter X Games in the U.S. and, for the first time, in Europe.

"I wanted to get back to talking about brand, and we are seeing consideration increasing month-over-month," he says. "We've seen volume increase, and consideration is improving. We are still talking about our value in the marketplace."