- Posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Tiger Woods and Buick
By Jim Bunnell
General Manager, Buick-Pontiac-GMC
Recently, it was reported by some media that Buick is “ending its contract” or “rethinking” its association with Tiger Woods. That’s not true — but it does make for sensational headlines. I’m writing to set the record straight.
Tiger is a strong spokesperson for Buick, and it’s precisely because of his strength as a celebrity that we want to broaden his role within GM. Tiger continues to be an invaluable partner to Buick and to General Motors. He will continue to be associated with the Buick brand in the traditional sense, but we’ll also use him in other areas such as OnStar. And if there was any doubt about that, the OnStar advertisement we showed the media yesterday had Tiger standing next to one of our new crossover vehicles. Yep, you guessed it, it was a Buick — the exciting new Enclave.
The fact there is so much attention being paid to Tiger and his relationship with GM illustrates his value as a partner for our products and services. We wish Tiger the best as a new dad, and continue to value his membership in the GM family. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding.
6 Comments
Jeff Scurry
Unless Tiger knows something about designing cars…
jg
Dear Mr. Bunnell,
Can you confirm the report in Car and Driver that the Velite is on its way? I’ve been waiting for 3 years to drive that Buick and I know I’m not alone/
getalifeagain
He’s an excellent role model.
Barry
I never understood this relationship from the beginning. Does my grandpa buy a Buick because Tiger is the pitchman? Because the demographics of those who follow Tiger are not Buick customers nor are they ever going to be Buick customers. So, where’s the ROI? What is the benefit of associating a golfer with an auto brand? If anything, Cadillac is probably the only GM brand that is really plausible for Tiger.
Famous pitch people for autos is very overrated and I would guess that if it came right down to it, GM or anyone else couldn’t quantify the hard benefits. Do I like Tiger? Sure. Do I care what a golfer or rapper or talk show host drive? Hardly. Would I like to try out the golf clubs he uses? Sure. Maybe buy his line of Nike golf clothing? Maybe. Cars? Ha. BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda don’t hawk cars using pitchmen very often. I would suspect it would even be viewed as cheesy. It’s about engineering exceellence, product elegance, the environment, safety or whatever. They use focused understated excellence as part of their pitch.
Grandpa’s Buick looks no more attractive with Tiger in it. Even more so since I know a celebrity making close to $80 million annually doesn’t drive the same car as grandpa regardless of what the ads say.
Why don’t you cancel that contract and use the savings to lower the price of your cars? Or for more R&D for green technologies?
JohnP
Barry’s concept of Buick’s place in the market is the old, traditional “doctor’s car” that Buick had been known as in the 50’s, even though my working class grandfather always drove them for as long as I could remember. I applaud Buick for attempting to change their image to more accurately reflect what they build and offer. The Grand Nationals didn’t quite do it. Certainly wit ha new baby on board Tiger will need the extra room of the Enclave over the Ranier. Now he just needs a Buick for fun on which he can drop the top
Truckerjim
Glad to hear you are broadening his role at GM. He may prove more effective in other divisions. Some of those Buick commercials are getting a little old.
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