Marketing in the News -Chevy

 

                While I was looking for an article that would be interesting to me I found an article titled, "No bids on Chevy's first NFT, even though it came with a free Corvette Z06." I don't know a ton about NFTs but this was still the first time I had seen a major brand incorporate NFTs into one of their products. I thought this was interesting as it seems that Chevrolet is trying to gain more traction with a younger, more tech savvy audience.

                Chevrolet partnered up with DonorsChoose, an educational charity organization to hold an auction bidding for Chevrolet's first NFT. The person who bid the highest on this NFT would also receive Chevrolet's new Corvette Z06 in a "minted green" color, the only one of its kind. Chevrolet only accepted bids in Ethereum with the starting bid at 236 ETH, or around $238,000. The auction was a complete bust, it was open for 4 days and received zero bids. The host of the auction, SuperRare, reopened it for another day, but once again the NFT received zero bids. 

               

 The value proposition for Chevrolet is "We're more than a car company. We're a company that cares". Chevrolet is under General Motors and is a very well known car manufacturer. Chevrolet's main target audience is 30-45 year olds and they offer cars from a wide price range. They offer quality cars and are a well respected brand. 

                Chevrolet is attempting to break into the NFT marketplace. A spokesperson from Chevrolet, Trevor Thompson, said that their flop with the auction was educational and that they are going to continue to try to implement technology to benefit their customers. This is the first step for Chevrolet as they seem intent on using NFTs as a marketing strategy to reach a younger audience. With an awful start, Chevrolet may be wary moving into this market and will have to proceed cautiously as to not get embarrassed again. 

                The challenge that Chevrolet is facing is how to properly reach a younger audience. This will be exceedingly difficult for them as they are mostly known for their trucks and many people between the ages of 16-30 have no need for a truck. This seems to be the first car company that is getting invested into NFTs so they have a head start on the other companies. 

                    This is a very unique approach for Chevrolet. There are many other ways to get a younger audience intrigued in their product but they chose a very different route. Not many companies would use an auction, where their product is an add on, to bridge the gap between their younger and older consumers. I believe that this marketing approach was bad. Chevrolet doesn't have a good understanding of NFT's and it showed. They are trying to mix two completely different target audiences. One being mostly older truck owners, and the other being younger tech savvy people who might not even own a car. The buyer's are just too different and NFTs are still a niche segment of the younger generation. 

                If I was the brand manager tasked with bringing younger people into Chevrolet I would have taken a much more mild approach. I think it will take time and so I would have started with ads targeting younger people, then moving to car/truck designs that look a little more flashy and newer. Using social media would have been a huge requirement for this as younger people are constantly on social media and look to it for advice on what to buy or what is considered "cool". 

                One thing that I learned from this article is that it is extremely difficult to acquire a new audience when you have an already established brand. It requires many changes that your old audience might dislike and can be very risky.  

The Verge article: https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/4/23194242/chevy-corvette-nft-auction-no-bids

Chevrolet website:https://www.chevrolet.com/