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Sean Morrison

Dr. Sherry Gache

ENC 3250

February 1, 2022

How Chevrolet uses Marketing to Target a New Generation

Since 2016, the Chevrolet brand by General Motors has made insightful adjustments to

their marketing strategies in order to appeal to a new generation of prospective car owners. The

aim of this study is to examine the ways that Chevrolet has used their Discover the Unexpected

campaign in recent years to bring in younger customers and change their public perception

among these groups. The reason that Chevrolet has made this advertising campaign is that

according to Forbes, generation z, the one after millennials has different values and looks for

brands that align with those values in a way that makes them somewhat difficult for established

American car brands to market themselves toward.

One of the ways that Chevrolet was able to use their existing marketing resources to re-

establish themselves for a younger customer base was to launch the Discover the

Unexpected(DTU) campaign, which first launched in 2016. This advertising campaign utilized

Chevrolet’s existing partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association(NNPA) to

create a project that sought to show that Chevrolet was in touch with current social issues by

offering scholarships, internship opportunities, and other benefits to participating journalism,

media, and visual arts students from historically black colleges and universities(HBCU). This

was a particularly insightful way of leveraging an existing relationship with NNPA, which

generally focuses on print news, and having them use print to advertise this campaign to older

customers, while also maintaining a strong social media presence for younger customers. The
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purpose of this whole campaign ties back into Forbes analysis of generation z car buyers, they

tend to look for brands that they feel align with their personal values, as for them it is not enough

that Chevrolet is a reliable American car brand, they need to know that Chevrolet has a relatable

investment in social issues. This strategy also works in helping Chevrolet to bring in a new

generation of customers by establishing their reputation with this audience, by showing that

Chevrolet is in touch with current social issues they are able to create a dedicated base of

potential customers that might not have otherwise considered buying from them. This aspect is

important for a car brand like Chevrolet due to the fact that most people only purchase a car a

few times in their life, this is why it’s important for Chevrolet to create a new dedicated base

from millennials and generation z. This strategy also plays into a trend that some have noticed in

generation z, which is that they have high brand loyalty when they find a brand that resonates

with their personal values and beliefs, by realizing that this can be key for taking control of the

new market of car buyers Chevrolet made a smart move in maintaining their place in the

automotive industry.
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Another key aspect of the Discover the Unexpected program that has helped Chevrolet

connect with a younger audience is the integration with social media and influencer celebrities.

This marketing campaign was supported by a series of public events showcasing the work from

the selected students that share inspirational stories from within the African American

community. At these events, selected students are encouraged to network and interact with

various industry professionals that can set them up for a future career working for either

Chevrolet or the NNPA. Also encouraged at these events is social media posting and networking,

which serves a double purpose of spreading the DTU campaign across these students’ social

feeds, as well as helping them network with other professionals. This works well as a way of

allowing Chevrolet to get a better grasp of how to more effectively advertise through social

media from the actual users that they’re looking to make into their customer base. By focusing so

much on social media, Chevrolet not only gets to create goodwill among their desired customers,

they also get to use this program to somewhat organically foster a social media presence that will
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allow them to reach a generation of potential customers that might not have otherwise considered

a Chevrolet vehicle. The DTU program also enlisted the help of some celebrities and influencers

that attended HBCUs, such as DJ Envy, to promote their scholarship and internship offers on

radio and in print. This has allowed the program to bring in an audience from many types of

media, and funnel them towards Chevrolet’s brand.

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The solutions that Chevrolet found as a brand for bringing in younger customers and

changing their public perception have been to use their DTU campaign to reach out to younger

customers, integrate social media into their approach by having the participants in DTU post on

social media about their experience, as well as having the goal of the DTU program be to post

stories to social media about inspirational stories from the African American community. These

solutions work towards their goal of creating a new customer base from generation z and

millenials by appealing to these groups’ values and feelings about social issues in order to show

that Chevrolet is in touch with what these groups believe is important. These solutions also work

off of some trends that have been observed about generation z, where they exhibit greater brand

loyalty to companies that resonate with their personal beliefs and values. This is an important

strategy for established brands such as Chevrolet, that to some members of the younger

generations might come off as old fashioned or out of touch due to them not valuing the aspects

of Chevrolet’s brand that they focused on in the past, like being American-made or having a

particular unique aesthetic. Instead, by leveraging their existing resources in the NNPA,

Chevrolet was able to create a advertising campaign that showed their willingness to stay in

touch with important social issues along with their ability to cultivate a meaningful social media

presence, both of these being key areas that they needed to excel in if they want to create a new

generation of Chevrolet customers.

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References

Bhasin, H. (2018, March 6). Marketing strategy of Chevrolet - Chevrolet Marketing

Strategy. Marketing91. Retrieved February 2, 2022, from

https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-of-chevrolet/

Chevrolet and NNPA host 2019 discover the unexpected closing ceremony with Fonzworth

Bentley and DJ Envy. media.gm.com. (2019, August 4). Retrieved February 2, 2022, from

https://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/

us/en/2019/aug/0806-nnpa.html

Jankowski, P. (2019, September 27). How Chevy is winning with gen-Z and millennials.

Forbes. Retrieved February 2, 2022, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/pauljankowski/2019/09/27/how-chevy-is-winning-with-gen-

z-and-millennials/?sh=3f91bff32bee

NNPA interns. NNPA Chevrolet Discover the Unexpected. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2,

2022, from https://www.nnpa.org/chevydtu/