Building a Brand: The Saturn Story

Smith Roger B. , Statement at the Saturn News Conference, January 8, 1985. Thanks are due to Bob Ellis of Hal Riney, Tom Shaver now at Volkswagen, and Roberto Alvarez who all made helpful comments on earlier drafts. The material for this article was drawn in part from discussions with Saturn executives, retailers, and agency people and from secondary sources such as Richard LeFauve, “One More Chance,” MIT Management (Spring 1992), pp. 2–7; Woodruff David , “Saturn,” Business Week, August 17, 1992, pp. 85–91; Lefauve Richard G. Hax Arnoldo C. , “Managerial and Technological Innovations at Saturn Corporation,” MIT Management (Spring 1992), pp. 8–19; Serafin Raymond , “The Saturn Story,” Advertising Age, November 16, 1992, pp. 1, 13; Cuneo Alice Z. Serafin Raymond , “With Saturn, Riney Rings Up a Winner,” Advertising Age, April 14, 1993, pp. 2–3; Shaver T. W. , Remarks to San Diego Advertising Club, November 6, 1991; Hudler Don , Address to the Adcraft Club of Detroit, January 17, 1992; 1991 Brochure introducing the Saturn.

Lefauve Hax , op cit.

Kaupferer Jean-Noel , “How Global are Global Brands?” The Challenge of Branding Today and in the Future, Brussels. Belgium, ESOMAR, p. 209; Light Larry , “At the Center of It All Is the Brand,” Advertising Age, March 29, 1993, p. 22.

Farquhar Peter H. , “Managing Brand Equity;” Journal of Advertising Research (August/September 1990), p. RC-7-12.

See, for example. Joel Axelrod who describes how and why price premiums are measured in Axelrod Joel , “The Use of Experimental Design in Monitoring Brand Equity,” The Challenge of Branding Today and in the Future, Brussels, Belgium. ESOMAR, pp. 13–26.

Hudler , op. cit.

One by the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) and the other by the J.D. Power Company. See Hudler Don , op. cit.

Aaker David A. , Managing Brand Equity (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1991). These dimensions are reflected in the major efforts to measure brand equity across brands by, for example, Landor's ImagePower which uses awareness and perceived quality to measure brand equity and Total Research's EquiTrend which uses measures of awareness, perceived quality and loyalty. Owen Stewart , “The Landor ImagePower Survey: A Global Assessment of Brand Strength,” in Aaker David A. Biel Alexander L. , eds., Brand Equity & Advertising (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993). pp. 11–30; “Wave II EquiTrend Findings,” unpublished paper, Total Research, 1992.

Lefauve Hax , op. cit.

1993 Kelley Blue Book Official Price Guide, Western Edition September-October 1993.

Hudler , op. cit.

Aaker , op. cit., Chapter 4.

Murray Charles J. , “Engineer on a Mission,” Design News, February 22, 1993, pp. 102–111.

Johnson Brandley , “PC service problems plague Gateway 2000,” Advertising Age, February 22, 1993, p. 4.

Aaker , op. cit.

Shaver , op. cit.

Hudler , op. cit.

McKenna Regis , The Regis Touch (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1985). p. 93.