• Ad Age, Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:30 AM

General Motors Corp. is implementing a value-oriented, low-price strategy for four of its top brands to more effectively compete with Asian automakers. The company announced that lower sticker prices will be applied to 57 of the company's 76 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Pontiac models. The Chevrolet effort will be backed by a national TV blitz beginning this week in which the company bills itself as "America's No. 1 brand. America's No. 1 value." "We are serious about getting our value and price story to the marketplace," said Mark LaNeve, vice president-vehicle sales, service and marketing in North America. "We'd like to raise awareness pretty quickly and we'll spend on some pretty good ad weight to do that." Under the plan, the cost of selected Chevy models will drop $2,000 from the suggested retail price. Saab, Saturn and Hummer aren't part of GM's pricing change because "we believe they are already priced very aggressively in the marketplace," LaNeve said. Pricing for most of Cadillac's lineup won't change, although Cadillac's SRX sport wagon will drop from a sticker of $39,900 to $36,900. Pricing for the 2007-model Escalade will be announced next week.

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