Piehole

Last week, Chevrolet announced their “strategic” plan to market its new Corvette Stingray to Porsche buyers as well as buyers of other high-end European automobiles such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. This begs the question: do they understand the delineation between the domestic and the European car buyer?

General Motors’ Chevrolet is claiming there is a substitute for Porsche – the all-new 2014 Corvette Stringray, which will hit showrooms in the fall. In the meantime, Chevrolet is employing a yearlong marketing strategy to launch their new convertible. The first phase occurred last fall and included posting four videos on YouTube in addition to camouflaging a version of the sports car in the Gran Turismo 5 video game. Chevrolet continued to drive interest by unveiling the Stingray at the Detroit Auto Show on January 13 and handing the keys to a torch-red Stingray to Super Bowl XLVII MVP, Joe Flacco, in New Orleans. The final phase will begin this fall as advertisements are placed in high-profile sports programs and theaters.

While both Corvette and Porsche are celebrating their 60^th anniversaries this year, their buyer demographic couldn’t be further apart. According to Advertising Age, the average Corvette owner is 55 years old versus the average Porsche owner who is 48 years old. But what they aren’t considering is how these individuals differ in what is important to them and their general approach to life.

The Porsche brand possesses a timeless style and a strong sense of refinement with underlying standards for power and performance while the Corvette represents a symbol of American power and success. European car manufacturers have carefully crafted an experience that sets the standard for their audience at every communication touch point, from direct mail, to print ads, to digital assets to the showroom and salesperson experience. The Porsche buyer has already “made it” and doesn’t have anything to prove. The Corvette buyer wants to impress.

Chevrolet is completely missing the mark if they truly believe that the European up-market auto-phile will have the slightest interest in a domestic sports car like the Stingray. The attention to design detail, authenticity and craft are second to none in European auto brands. GM will never be a European car so why are they trying crack a nut that just isn’t crackable?

An All-American at Stanford University in 2000 and a current center for the Washington Wizards, Jason Collins is the first openly gay NBA player. His announcement, made last week via Sports Illustrated has sparked an outpouring of news reports, commentary from talking heads, even a phone call from President Obama. He is not the first homosexual athlete but the first to make a statement of his sexuality while still being tied to a professional team. While our society has made strides in recent decades to achieve equality, civil rights, and curb gender and racial discrimination, our nation was not unaffected by this announcement.

Rewind less than a month ago to April 17^th. Sport’s Illustrated conducted an interview with Brittney Griner, a womens college basketball player at Baylor University. She was the only collegiate player invited to play on the 2012 Olympic team and as she moves to the WNBA this year will likely be both instrumental and invaluable. In the interview, Griner announced she was gay. The story was released, a few people responded…and life moved on. The sport, the statement, even the source remained the same, but the reactions between the two couldn’t have been more different. The amount of interest from the media and from the general public in Collins’ admission makes it clear that a professional male athlete being gay IS a big deal.

Homosexual perceptions are altered in the male sports realm seemingly due to the level of influence connected to professional athletics. Sports conform to the gender roles of males, which haven’t been as easy to bend. When girls or women are associated with masculine stereotypes in the sports world, they have more freedom and acceptance, as the label “tom boy” holds a more acceptable connotation than that of a “sissy”. Young boys look up to sports heroes for gender security and the epitome of masculinity. A boy who participates on high-powered athletic teams may be spared uncertainty and questions regarding their sexuality. So maybe it is a big deal when a man who seems to embody many foundational masculine traits announces he is gay. As a figure of both influence amongst his peers and the youth, Collins could be a voice of inspiration unheard before.