Halo vehicle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A halo vehicle, or halo model, is a automotive industry marketing term for an automobile/car or other motor vehicle, designed and marketed to showcase the talents, resources and engineering technology of the manufacturer, to promote a brand, or promote sales of other vehicles within a marque or group of related companies — in other word, to cast a halo effect — creating positive associations related especially to the brand's more pedestrian offerings.
Examples of cars intended to draw a halo effect around their respective brands include the Chevrolet Corvette, Dodge Viper, Ford GT, Honda NSX (Acura NSX in North America and Hong Kong) and Pontiac GTO Another example would be the short lived Eagle badged Eagle Talon, as it saw the most success in sales out of of the rest sold in the line up, beating out it's Plymouth counterpart, and any other car sold by Eagle. But, Eagle failed to make an impact in it's own right, leading to its demise in 1998, after only 10 years of production. [1][2] Similarly, the Bugatti Veyron serves as a halo car for Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG), parent company of Bugatti.[3]
In a 2006 USA Today article, General Motors Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz called halo cars "shock therapy" for a brand."[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Chris Woodyard (2006-08-30). "Automakers hope love for car equals love for brand". USA TODAY. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
- ^ "U.S. car makers try to repeat green halo of Prius". Reuters, Apr 8, 2008, Karey Wutkowski.
- ^ "Million-Dollar Baby:World's Most Expensive Car". Wall Street Journal, Stephen Power, December 14, 2005.
- Halo Car definition, from Double-Tongued Dictionary
- Auto Blog - Halo Car definition and listing
