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Everybody wants to be a cat in Aristocats and a German in the car world:

Both wishes perfectly reasonable. 

This draw my attention because at first I didn’t detect any “German accent”. A reason to believe must make the benefit more believable (in this case - being German as a reason to believe that the car is very good) . So what do you do if the reason to believe is not believable?

Oddly enough, I did some research and after checking the website (which at that moment had no mention of any Germanity) I did see the car from a different angle and I realised it’s the Opel Insignia, launched 2 years ago in Europe. So it is actually German.

But this wouldn’t matter if the consumer wouldn’t believe it is German.

All my confusion collapsed (that means I’m confused at a slightly different level) when I saw two commercials – one for Nissan Qashqai and one for Suzuki claiming “European tuned” in the copy. Tried to find them, but guess they’re too average for somebody to upload them on youtube.

The conclusion? Since a couple of American marketers are going overboard to claim European (or German where possible) roots, it probably means consumers are really thrilled about European cars. Maybe this is happening because the European cars are regarded as more sensible. And there are a couple of brands that show character & sportivity. A “halo” effect. And maybe the claim is not acting as a reason to believe, but as a trigger of interest, getting attention for further reading or helping shortlist that car.

Update: since drafting this post, Buick launched a series of TV commercials that drive more and more the German attribute:

And it helps getting more specific – like in the below “Autobahn” ad: