Saturn asks you to "Rethink American"

An article in Business Week talks bout how Saturn's new BMW-like ads fell flat with buyers, causing GM to retool the Saturn campaign to stress the basics.

Someone interested in buying a Saturn is intrigued with their hasssle-free buying experience and friendly service. With that in mind, Saturn's new ad agency decided stressing the basics was the best approach and launched Saturns's "Rethink American" campaign.

The keystone to Saturn's success still lies with their network of dealers but decided to mimic the successes of other retailers.

For example, not unlike Toyota and their Scion brand, Saturn staffed chat rooms with experts to answer questions from potential buyers. They also convinced dealers to allow showroom visitors to test drive a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord along side the new Aura. In addition, just as Apple has used Genius Bar's in their brick and mortar stores, Saturn has also installed birch-wood bars in showrooms where those interested in Saturn's model line up can ask and get questions answered.

With the new "Rethink" campaign and comparison test drives, Saturn's web traffic is up 50%, to about 1.5 million visitors a month. Saturn expects to sell 260,000 cars this year, up a little from last year.