Maverick Chrysler Generates Interest in Gas Price Cards
May 15, 2008
By Dale Buss
More than a week after Chrysler announced its Let's Refuel America incentive program, no other major OEM has imitated Chrysler with its own program to price-protect consumers against gasoline over $2.99 a gallon. But Chrysler executives say they don't mind going it alone -- because many of their customers are going with them.Early indications are that the announcement of the incentive program, and significant resulting publicity, have boosted purchase consideration of Chrysler's brands very little. Edmunds.com reported a two percent increase for the best-performing of its brands, the Chrysler marque, based on visits to the New Vehicle Detail Pages (NVDP) for the company's products on Edmunds.com. However, a handful of specific vehicles fared considerably better.
"Overall," said David Tompkins, executive director of industry solutions for Santa Monica, Calif.-based Edmunds.com, "it's not doing much for them."
Yet, consumers at least are demonstrating great awareness of and interest in the campaign, according to Chrysler's own measures.
Traffic on Chrysler's web site jumped by about 25 percent on the day after the unveiling of Let's Refuel America and has climbed another 10 percent this week. "Natural" (unpaid) search traffic online is up about 15 percent. And clusters of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers in Houston, St. Louis, New Orleans and other markets are reporting increases in traffic on their web sites of up to 20 percent and 15 to 20 percent of showroom visitors either being aware of or specifically asking salespeople about Let's Refuel America.
"So far," Deborah Meyer, Chrysler's chief marketing officer, told AutoObserver, "we're encouraged by the results."
The $3 Line
After one week of the campaign, consideration of Chrysler vehicles certainly is mixed, Dr. Tompkins reported. Consideration as measured by NVDP visits was up 25 percent for Jeep Compass, 14 percent for Chrysler Aspen, 11 percent for Dodge Caliber, nine percent for Jeep Patriot and nine percent for Dodge Avenger.
All of these vehicles, Dr. Tompkins noted, "are in segments where consumers are likely to be MPG-focused" anyway, including small cars and small SUVs.
Nevertheless, a couple of larger Chrysler vehicles also posted significant increases in NVDP visits after one week of the gas-price incentive. The Chrysler 300 was up 23 percent by this measure, Tompkins said, while Dodge Grand Caravan had increased by 11 percent.
Consideration for other Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler vehicles was down. And while consideration for the Chrysler brand was up two percent, NVDP visits for the Jeep and Dodge brands overall actually were flat.
"Chrysler has been the nameplate I've heard most in the ads," Tompkins explained, "so it may take time for the 'umbrella' effect to kick in for Dodge and Jeep."
Tompkins credited the logic behind Chrysler's new initiative. "We've found that $3 [a gallon] seems to be the tipping point for consumers with gas prices," he said. "As it goes above $3, nationally, people are making bigger changes in what vehicles they're shopping for. Theoretically, the [price protection at] $2.99 should be helping with that."
Striking a Chord
However, Tompkins noted, consumers who are well off - or those who simply must purchase relatively fuel-inefficient vehicles for business or personal reasons - "don't care that much about gas prices to begin with. So we're finding the increased interest from this program mainly among people who do car about gas prices."
Meyer said that Chrysler's various soundings on consumer interest generated by "Let's Refuel America" have "indicated that we did, in fact, hit a chord with consumers and with automotive intenders. All of our research and discussion with consumers and dealers ahead of time told us that this was the main issue on consumers' minds."
She professed no concern about the lack of copycats among her competitors; only Suzuki has followed suit. "I'm OK with that," Meyer said. "Our mission is to listen to our customers and respond as quickly and nimbly as possible to make sure we're serving their needs."
Neither did Meyer seem bothered by accusations by environmentalists that Chrysler's new incentive program was ecologically irresponsible. Concerns about such criticism were one reason, she said, that Chrysler specifically excluded its very consumptive, high-performance models from the program.
"We don't see people coming in and using [Let's Refuel America] as an excuse to guzzle gas," Meyer said.
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