The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon transports a baby carnotaurus in 'Jurassic World Dominion."
The story of what Stellantis and its forebears have accomplished with the Jeep brand is one of the most remarkable elevations of any marque in recent automotive history. Only lately has Jeep been identified with imaginative, high-quality, near-luxury products, yet it has ascended to a perch at or near the very top of strong vehicle-brand identities over the last decade or so.
Each new foray attempted by Jeep in the marketing arena tends to succeed as the brand adds authentic values to its initial architecture based on a love of the outdoors and of patriotism, and that’s why its newest advertising campaign bears watching. Jeep lashed itself to the new movie, Jurassic World Dominion, with both product placement of the gas-powered Jeep Wrangler in the hit film and with new TV advertisements that feature the upcoming Wrangler 4xe all-electric vehicle.
“This partnership is focused on relevance, authenticity, and meaning, which is how we’ve approached things for my 14 years” as chief marketing officer of Fiat Chrysler, now part of Paris-based Stellantis, Olivier Francois told journalists recently.
The new Jeep-Jurassic partnership is relevant. “One lasting impression counts for millions of impressions, which is why creativity is key,” Francois said. “Viewers will see Wrangler in the movie, which is fantastic visbility. And while that’s nice to have, it isn’t the name of the game. The name of the game is relevance, and what I love about this partnership is the cultural relevance. It keeps the brand on the global cultural mouth.”
Authenticity? “The Jeep is a real character and a current one in the Jurassic film,” Olivier said. “It makes sense for everyone. It’s not false. It doesn’t smell like marketing. Jeep is part of the narrative.”
And in terms of meaning, he said, “What does this [partnership] say about Jeep? The first thing it says is about adventure. That’s at the core of the brand, and this commercial shows Wrangler 4xe is charged for any adventure, literally and metaphorically.”
So Jeep continues to build on a legacy that began as an America-first brand for outdoor lovers. And consider a new piece of evidence that it remains effectively associated with patriotism: Jeep ranked No. 1 for the brand that best embodies the value of “patriotism” in Brand Keys’ recent 20th annual survey of American brands. Not only did Jeep lead Walmart at No. 2, Disney, Ford, Amazon and Coca-Cola, but at No. 1, Jeep ranked exactly where it did in 2002, while none of the other top companies have had anything like a consistent showing.
Jeep’s accomplishment continues to build on itself, but ironically perhaps, it’s largely the doing of two auto executives from Europe who came in and rebuilt Chrysler from the ground up beginning in 2008. The late Sergio Marchionne, an accountant from Canada who was heading Fiat, accepted the corpse of Chrysler from U.S. taxpayers with a determination to rebuild the company into what once again would be a formidable member of the traditional Detroit Three. And he was joined by Francois, a Frenchman who had been Marchionne’s right hand.
When Fiat inherited Chrysler and its several brands, the cupboard was pretty bare in terms of strong and exciting products. Jeep had its Grand Cherokee, Wrangler and some smaller models but was considered a fringe brand. Chrysler had the minivan and a few bad cars, ditto for Dodge, which also had the Ram pickup-truck franchise under its umbrella.
So, with little to boast about by way of products and not much capital to work with at the beginning, Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne and Francois had to lead the company’s revival with brands and effective marketing and count on product design, features, desirability and quality to catch up at some point.
And that’s exactly what they did, with Francois’s series of memorable Super Bowl commercials — beginning with the iconic “Born of Fire” spot starring Eminem and the “Imported from Detroit” slogan — achieving the first significant traction for their efforts during the ad’s Big Game showing in 2011.
A handful of Jeep advertisements have been among the company’s Super Bowl hits over the last decade or so, and Francois has broadened the brand’s appeal in other ways as well. At the same time, per plan, the variety of offerings in Jeep’s lineup, the level of appointments and amenities in the vehicles, and the product quality have all caught up to the rest of the market and exceeded it in some ways.
