• by Karl Greenberg , July 9, 2013

Tim Mahoney has been Chevrolet's CMO and global Chevrolet and global GM marketing operations leader since April. That's a big change from his former role as top U.S. marketing executive at Volkswagen. For one thing, he’s at the helm of GM’s effort to establish Chevrolet, like Cadillac, as a global brand. As he looks to extending both Chevrolet vehicles and the “Find New Roads” message worldwide, he took time to sit down in New York with Marketing Daily and talk about the job. 

Q: You've been at Chevrolet for a few months. Big change?

A: I think the brand is incredibly well-positioned and that's the appealing part of it. Having worked with two brands that really walk the talk globally -- Porsche and VW -- it was an opportunity to take some of those experiences and bring them here in terms of best practices and building global structure. I was amazed, when I started to look at  the opportunity, at how big Chevrolet really is. This year, we are looking at four million to five million global units -- of which over 60%, maybe 70%, are outside the U.S. We support 70-plus nameplates. That profile would be radically different if you wound the clock back maybe five or six years. 

Q: What practices can you transfer from VW to Chevrolet?

A: A lot of the fundamentals are the same. When I first started in the business, someone told me: "If you can think in black and white, you can think in color." The basics are the same: who’s the customer? How do you want to position the brand? Where do you want to play? So as I have moved, those skills have followed me. The difference is it's massively complex here; it's a big organization where we have to zero in on what priorities will make a difference for the brand. 

Q: You came at the right time to take Chevy global.

A: I did, and I tend to have a good eye for brands with potential. I'm willing to take risks. I joined Porsche, a sports car brand, when they were getting ready to launch an SUV [Cayenne]; that was not a move without risk. I joined in '99, with Boxster having just come out the year before. I followed Joel [Ewanick] in there, which was interesting. Joel was ahead of me. He launched the Boxster for them. I came a year later. 

Q: What's the global picture right now as you see it, in terms of opportunities? Brazil is big for Chevrolet...

A: Brazil is one of the strongest markets we have. It's our second-largest market. Since we are a little bit of a latecomer to China, it's neck-and-neck and probably China will surpass it. Our core global vehicles are Cruze, Spark, Sonic, Malibu and Colorado [mid-size pickup]. If you take the top 10 markets -- including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, India, and China -- those countries are about 83% of our global volume. If you take the top 20 of our 75 models, that's also 83% of volume. The top global nameplate is Cruze, which is right at three-quarters of a million units. 

Q: How is "Find New Roads" working as a global brand position?

A: It's about optimism, hope and possibilities. The beauty of it is, those messages ring true as you globalize the brand. And "Find New Roads" is not only a campaign tagline, it also feeds into product development. It has been incredibly strong in every market, in most that [tagline] doesn't change, except where there are legal reasons -- in France it's "Discover New Roads," for example. The idea -- as [SVP Global Chevrolet] Alan Batey puts it -- is "glocal" -- an idea that's relevant around the world but executed locally.