Buick Must Lower Its Average Buyer Age - Currently 70

Brian Sweeney, Buick-GMC’s new chief has a new purpose in (professional) life: to dramatically reshape the Buick brand image.

That is because the current average age of a Buick sedan buyer is 70, a figure well above the present U.S. average car buyer’s age, which is 52, according to Craig Bierley, the company’s product marketing director. To be clear, "younger" doesn't mean people in their 20s, says Bierley. Younger, he says, means people in their 40s and 50s.

However, things have started to change: for example over 33% of the 2010 LaCrosse buyers are 55 or younger, according to Bierley, a huge increase over the 10% figure for the previous generation.

"Buick's an older person's vehicle," says Brian Sweeney, describing the brand’s image. "What can we do to reverse that?"

Sweeney, a 42-year-old sales & marketing executive at General Motors Co., became general manger of Buick-GMC on December 17.

To achieve the goal of attracting younger buyers the brand plans to develop more dynamic, high-tech vehicles. Sweeney is counting on the Regal sedan, a reworked Opel Insignia due to be launched in the spring.

Furthermore, Buick’s vehicles are to be presented to potential customers. The marketing offensive started with the 2010 LaCrosse, which was displayed at various art fairs, wine festivals and coffe shops. It seems the campaign was pretty successful, as the Regal will follow the same “experiential marketing” pathway.

Sweeney is the third executive in charge of Buick-GMC in a month’s period. His predecessor, Michael Richards, a former Ford Motor Co. executive only spent eight days at GM. The brand’s former head was Susan Docherty, appointed in June 2008, who is now in charge of GM’s U.S. sales & marketing department.

We hope the goal is achieved promptly, as the average life span in America is presently 78.