Hasta La Creative!

It never ceases to amaze me how GMC, Ford, Toyota and Dodge always seem to get it right when targeting their core audience when it comes to truck buyers. For example, when you’re watching your next sporting event on TV this weekend there is a 90% chance you will see all of the following: heavy duty manual labor being performed, a ball-cap and/or flannel shirt, some rough terrain driving, and of course a shiny new truck. That’s a given, it’s been that way for at least thirty years.

 

Now, here’s where it gets really clever. You will probably see four or five different landscapes that represent a generic part of the US. This gives the prospective buyer their real sense of identify. Much more so than the other characteristics listed above. To me, this marketing scheme is brilliant. What these advertisers have figured out is that “America’s Heartland” is not in the fields of the Midwest, the Texas plains, or the back roads of the South, but rather about thirty miles outside the city limits of anytown USA.

The bottom line is this; the truck is distinctly American. Not rural American, country American, western American, northern American , southern American, etc. And if you think I’m wrong, go to any major city and look at who is driving them. There is no “typical” owner. America identifies with trucks not so much for use anymore but rather for landscape and memories.