False Advertising or Bad Marketing???
Nov 9th, 2010 by derekli
Today I bring to you a problem I have with Chevy and its marketing tactics. As most of you have probably heard, there’s a new car on the street coming soon called the Volt, which is a self-proclaimed and highly marketed electric vehicle (EV). That’s what Chevrolet has been shouting out to everyone before. The company has been actively promoting their new vehicle as the turning point to emission free vehicle innovation, saying it is an “one-of-a-kind, all-electrically driven vehicle.” Now, the truth has gradually surfaced with Chevy admitting that the Volt has both a electric motor AND a gasoline one. That means its a HYBRID, NOT a EV. Hope that wasn’t too hard to follow (maybe it is for Chevy but not us intelligent consumers). Even the company itself is changing its marketing strategy with their newest ad (below) saying the car can go “up to 40 miles before it uses any gas at all.”
So, I am just dumbfounded right now to justify whether or not it was false advertising before or just bad marketing. There’s no point in telling a lie to sell a few more cars because once the consumer gets one on their hands, they’ll find out, since they have to pump gas in so the car doesn’t die after the battery runs out. Maybe I’m just being harsh but I expect a large company like Chevy to live up to what they tell their customers or else it will just steer them away from the Volt or any other car in their lineup in the long run. The perceived value of the Volt being zero emissions and great for the environment is going to go downhill from here.
That’s all for today, write to you all next week!
