Holden banks on SUV future

Reeling from the worst sales results in its modern history, Holden is turning to its Acadia, Equinox, Trailblazer, Tourer and Trax SUVs and its Australian heritage for salvation.

But it admits a lot of people aren’t that aware it sells SUVs or recognise the models in the range.

That’s why a marketing campaign dubbed ‘This is how we SUV’ debuted last Sunday night promoting all five Holden SUVs. Follow-up promotions will focus on specific models in the next few weeks.

With no big new model launches in 2019 this campaign is chewing up millions of dollars in marketing money and is Holden’s biggest spend.

“We have seen the decline of the passenger vehicle market over the last few years globally and seen the SUV segment start to grow,” said Holden chairman and managing director Dave Buttner at a media briefing this week.

We have to make sure our customers… are aware of the portfolio of [SUV] products that we have.

“The key thing is to create awareness – what does Holden sell; that leads to consideration, which in turn leads to enquiry at the dealership.”

Buttner said Holden was one of the most recognisable brands in Australia, in sharp contrast to its SUV nameplates.

“When you start drilling down for unprompted model line awareness, it’s nowhere near where it needs to be.

“It’s quite understandable because Acadia is a new nameplate, Equinox is a new nameplate; Tourer, Trailblazer, are all new nameplates in the Australia marketplace.

“This is where the market has moved and this is where we need to play to ensure future potential customers understand our range,” Buttner stated.

Holden’s new television commercials continue the irreverent edge evident in recent campaigns for the Colorado dual-cab ute and Acadia. They reflect an attempt by Holden to exploit its traditional position as “Australia’s own” car brand.

“Underpinning the campaign will be our values: how we act; how we are typically Aussie; how we challenge convention; give everything a crack… We stand for something and persevere until we got what we want; values that we know are shared in Australia and New Zealand,” said Buttner.

“It is a new approach that leverages our history and is one that we believe will shift the dial of awareness on our current portfolio.”

Holden has set itself the task of growing its SUV sales share from 27 to 35 per cent of its total volume in 2019.

That’s still under market-wide penetration of 43 per cent for SUVs, which have now out-stripped passenger cars as the number one sales segment.

Holden is also seeking a stable overall sales total in 2019 after crashing 32 per cent in 2018 following the closure of its Elizabeth assembly plant in late 2017. It is taking some heart from recent sales results, however, and grew its overall share by one per cent in the final quarter of 2018 compared to the third quarter.

Buttner said he believed Holden’s sales dive had bottomed out.

“It’s still early days, but it was a positive sign for people inside Holden and the dealer network to get that one per cent growth in Q4 over Q3 last year.

“This year we want steady state. We are not shooting for the stars. We want to land the product, get the brand health positive again, get everybody’s mind right and make sure we are selling the portfolio of products we have right now,” the Holden boss stated.