Car companies worldwide have had a terrible track record creating cars that attract hip, young buyers. Despite all their best efforts to cater to the cool cats, the 18-24 demographic prefers to defy categorization.
But now it seems car companies have a new, more vexing problem. The 18-24 crowd doesn’t want cars at all.
General Motors knows all too well about its aging demographics and has turned to a creative new marketing firm to have a shot at bringing down the age of their average buyer. The firm is called Scratch and is part of MTV (owned by Viacom). Ross Martin, 37, is executive VP of Scratch and says 20-somethings really don’t even want a car.
“They think of a car as a giant bummer,” Martin tells the New York Times. “Think about your dashboard. It’s filled with nothing but bad news.”
Research showed 60% of 18-24 year-old drivers would choose Internet access over owning a car. To the Autoblog staff, that’s like asking them to choose between air and water. And if your dashboard is all bad news, you’re doing it wrong!
The New York Times story is full of tidbits about how GM and MTV are chasing the cool crowd, like how they’re trying to “General Motors with the same insights that made MTV reality shows like ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘Teen Mom’ breakout hits.” Hmmm. Yeah, that oughta make recent college grads want to buy a Volt.
Whatdya think? MTV still got enough cool cred to help transform the old gray General?
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