Remaking of an American icon: an NPS Graduate School case competition

Abstract : The purpose of this MBA Project was to provide a creative marketing overview of ideas for launching the 2008 Cadillac CTS Sedan into a non-traditional target market, e.g., perpetual strivers and move-ups. The project included a national case competition among business school student teams, including compressing a communications plan into a 30-slide deliverable. Data collection included comparison literature reviews, male and female focus groups, a researcher-developed survey, and interviews conducted during the Detroit Auto Show. The study team created a new logo for the CTS, including the new tag-line: "Revive the Drive." Given the boundaries of a $30M media budget the team designed a media and communications plan encompassing both traditional and non-traditional methods. Additional findings were as follows: (1) the automotive press is biased against American manufacturers, which translates into consumer bias; (2) wheels on the CTS are a prime example of past mistakes that apparently Cadillac is not willing to recognize; (3) it will be difficult to break the current brand persona as an older person's car without radically changing the surroundings in both sales outlets and promotional advertising; and (4) simply stated, likely buyers are not classifying the CTS with other similar models from alternative companies.