Chrysler wins the battle, but what about the war?

Buying a car is a complex process. If you doubt this, go back and read the posts from the three tortured weeks I spent looking for a new car last year.

A lot of factors influence people's decisions, including advertising. First and foremost, you have to be 'on the list.' In automotive advertising parlance this is called consideration. It was the first step in my process where I chose which brands I was willing to spend my time researching.

For that reason a lot of automotive marketing professionals think the true measure of a car commercial's effectiveness is whether or not it increases consideration for the advertised brand. Using that measuring stick, it appears Chrysler and Wieden and Kennedy knocked it out of the park last week.

Now comes the hard part for Chrysler; converting consideration into sales. Unless the 200 is significantly better than the Sebring it replaced, I doubt that's going to happen in a category that includes the Camry, Accord, Fusion, Sonata and Malibu.

I think I'll take one for a test drive to see if their investment in this nameplate was a smart one.