Led Zeppelin dumped for a ‘lusty’ brand image

Cadillac's new marketing agency is dumping the Led Zeppelin-themed "Break Through" campaign and the “boomer-targeted” ads will be replaced by a campaign targeting "alphas," "hot moms" and "move-ups".

Apparently, GM is trying to "put a little lust back into the brand". So says the Cadillac marketing director who intends to give up on expanding the company’s share of the boomer market because: "they are really stuck on Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and BMW and see no reason to switch." I wonder why?

Of course, "younger" is a relative term, especially in the Cadillac frame of reference, where the median age of buyers is 59 (down from 64 in 2002!).

Cadillac sales were down 9% in the first half of 2006. Always a good reason to change the ad agency.

Well this all sounds like an easy way to burn through a bucket load of dollars. Maybe, just maybe, the reason Cadillac is having problems in expanding it boomer market has something to do with their cars or/and the way they are marketed. If this is the case then I don’t think the “hot moms” will be a much easier market to crack. I bet there is a long line of volunteers wanting to conduct the focus groups with the sizzling moms. Dick Stroud