Buick Sheds its Image as a Brand for the Elderly

New products help automaker reduce average buyer age by 6 years

General Motors Co.'s Buick brand did something over the past five years that no other automaker did in the U.S.: It lowered the average age of its customer.

In an industry that from 2007 to 2011 saw its average customer age grow by three years to 51, Buick's average customer's age fell from 62 to 59, according to market researcher R.L. Polk. & Co.

"They've changed their product portfolio, they're discounting the Lucerne — and the Regal has done quite well and they're targeting it toward a younger customer," said Tom Libby, a senior automotive analyst for Polk. Still, Buick has the second-highest average customer age, behind Lincoln. "Also the Verano was just introduced and is targeted toward a younger customer," Libby noted.

Buick no longer wants to be known for gray-haired drivers in mundane sedans. The brand's own marketing research shows an even more dramatic fall than Polk's numbers — from age 65 to 59 over five years. And that age continues to fall.

Buick executives and analysts say the brand is reaching younger and new-to-GM customers through the compact Verano sedan that launched in December (the average customer age is 57, but is trending down) and the Regal, including its GS performance model. A Regal GS customer on average is 43 years old, according to Buick.

More new products are on the way that could help drive that average age even lower. A turbo Verano with an optional manual transmission will be available for the 2013 model year, and Buick's all-new 2013 Encore crossover hits dealer lots early next year. Libby said Buick will win customers with the Encore, as the compact crossover segment "tends to appeal to a younger demographic in general."

But more importantly, some at Buick and GM say, is that 41 percent of Buick buyers are new to the brand.

Chris Dawkins, 31, of Southfield is young and new to Buick.

"I don't look at Buick as an older person's brand any longer," said Dawkins, who last week leased a white-diamond 2012 Regal GS for four years, trading in a 2010 Dodge Challenger R/T.

Dawkins, a human resources manager, husband and father of two, said he loves the Regal GS for its European looks and its manual transmission. "The Regal just caught my attention," he said. "The regular version Regal is pretty nice, but when I saw the GS, it really drew me in."

But it was actually the Verano and its commercial featuring alternative rock band the Neon Trees that caught his eye. Initially, he and his wife, Amber Dawkins, 31, went to a Buick dealership shopping for a new car for her. Instead, he got one and she's still debating options.

Fleet retooled for appeal

Buick sales were up 14.3 percent in 2011, though sales remain down from pre-recession levels.

The brand's first-quarter sales were off by 16.5 percent from the same period in 2011. But Buick is without the Lucerne, which ended production with the 2011 model year; it is reducing fleet sales; and its incentives are lower than a year ago, Buick spokesman Nick Richards said. Buick retail sales for March were up 6 percent.

Dealers such as Sam Slaughter, owner of Sellers Buick GMC Inc. in Farmington Hills, where Dawkins leased his new Buick, said they are seeing different Buick customers today.

"In the past, Buicks were pretty much for older people and people who didn't really care about performance," Slaughter said. "We see people trading in BMWs and Acuras, which we've never seen before."

Buick also is working to reach new customers through culinary Discovery Tours, including one that wrapped in February. During the tour, Buick visited 10 cities, inviting 1,000 people in each to test-drive Buicks, participate in a wine-pairing lesson and watch a cooking demonstration led by a celebrity chef. The average age attending the tour was 45 with an average household income of $100,000-plus.

Those surveyed after the tours said their favorable opinion of Buick more than doubled and their consideration of Buick products nearly doubled, said Nick Richards, a Buick spokesman.

Bringing in new buyers

Lowering the customer age for Buick, and for Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln brand, is critical, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for TrueCar.com

"The buyers are pretty loyal; however, they're aging and they're not going to be around forever," he said. "So you've got to figure out at some point how to bring in new customers."

Toprak said Buick began attracting a younger crowd with the now out-of-production Rendezvous crossover, which at one point had a waiting list of buyers in Los Angeles.

Across the industry, buyers 40 and younger are less loyal than generations before, which means it may be easier to get them to try a brand, Toprak said. "It's also harder to keep them in the brand, which means the product really needs to live up to the expectations, and you've got to follow up."

Buick expects the Encore, for example, to fare especially well with two groups of buyers: 25- to 30-year-olds and empty-nesters, perhaps in their early 50s, said Lloyd Biermann, a Buick marketing manager.

General Motors Co. North American President Mark Reuss said he's not as concerned about demographics, as long as he's getting new people into vehicles through programs such as Experience Buick, a new 24-month lease program. The zero-down lease program with extras launched in mid-March.

"That's a huge deal for us," Reuss said during an interview at the New York International Auto Show this month. "So it's service, it's OnStar, it's all that, and so we're going to bring in some people that may have not tried the car before."

Buick will continue to tout the new lease program through a new television ad featuring actor Ving Rhames, which is set to debut today. It also hired 7-foot-1 basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal as a pitchman for an ad showing the space in the LaCrosse — plus its 36 miles per gallon highway fuel economy with eAssist technology

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120423/AUTO0103/204230342#ixzz1tHolpsSe