Chrysler Creates Online Customer Advisory Board
March 24, 2008

By Dale Buss

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Continuing its rapid-fire tempo of new marketing programs, devices and tactics, Chrysler LLC is launching what it calls a Customer Advisory Board that will attempt to tap visitors to the company’s Web sites for their feedback and ideas on product features and technologies.

Chrysler calls the Customer Advisory Board an industry first. “We have a new platform to engage our customers in two-way dialogue so we can harness their insights and vehicle dreams as we move quickly to develop and refine technologies and products,” said Deborah Meyer, a Chrysler vice president and chief marketing officer.

Chrysler, together with its interactive marketing agency, Organic, hired Passenger® to create the Customer Advisory Board’s closed online community. The three-year-old company will provide a combination of social-networking, community-building and collaboration technologies in what Chrysler called “an intuitive and scalable platform.”

Meyer has talked about forming the Customer Advisory Board for a few months. It is the latest marketing-related gambit by new management that has been shaking things up in every quadrant since Cerberus Capital Management bought Chrysler last summer.

On the marketing side, Meyer joined the company from Lexus last fall. A few months ago, Vice President of Communications Jason Vines left the company. On Super Bowl weekend in February, Chrysler launched a new advertising and sales-incentive plan it called New Day, under which it offers popular options at reduced prices on a number of vehicles. More initiatives are expected soon in the wake of the arrival of Peter Arnell, a New York–based branding guru, as Chrysler’s acting chief innovation officer this month.

To participate in the Customer Advisory Board, consumers will be invited to submit an application at ChryslerListens.com. A participant must be 18 years or older, a U.S. resident and hold a valid driver’s license.

Beginning yet this month, Chrysler will start the first phase of the initiative, a three- to four-week period during which the company plans to introduce the members to the process and the company.

Once introduced, Chrysler will begin the ongoing dialogue with the Customer Advisory Board members by “engaging the community with live, facilitated sessions where they may view media, respond to polls and engage with other members,” the company said. “There will also be discussion sections that allow members to discuss a variety of topics on their own time during a four-week period.”

Examples of likely topics are the environment, safety, quality and technology. Other features include what Chrysler called “activities to stimulate member creativity” and polls for quick feedback on topics. In addition, members may create their own profiles and connect with each other through the message center.

“The Passenger platform will help Chrysler spark innovation and satisfy a shared desire for meaningful change through ongoing collaboration with its customers," said Justin Cooper, Passenger’s co-founder. “Involving customers in the process promotes active participation and those customers who feel more informed have the ability to share more favorable opinions about Chrysler with their peers, the truest form of advocacy.”

Organic, an Omnicom company, remains Chrysler LLC’s interactive agency of record for all digital communication, including the design, development and ongoing maintenance of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brand sites, ChryslerListens.com and the Customer Advisory Board.

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