Q&A: Coda Chief Marketer Kerri Martin

Coda Automotive chief marketing officer Kerri Martin knows the principals of her new lead agency, Goodness Manufacturing, from working with them on BMW’s Mini Cooper brand when she ran marketing at Mini and they were executives at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Beyond their car experience, however, she admired their cause-related work, especially for the American Legacy Foundation’s “Truth” campaign. Why? Because Coda’s marketing will seek to create a broader movement toward mass adoption of all-electric cars in the U.S. as well as introduce the Coda brand.

In an interview with Adweek senior reporter Andrew McMains, Martin discussed her agency selection process, the challenges of launching an all-electric car in America and why she loves brands such as Zappos, Virgin and American Girl.

Adweek: How are the challenges of launching Coda similar to those you faced in bringing the Mini to the U.S. in 2002?
Martin: One of the key similarities is we’re a brand new brand. Mini did have a history, [but it] had extremely low awareness in the U.S. market. The other analogy is [that] at the time, Mini was the smallest car on the American road. So, [we needed] the ability to change the psyche to talk about the benefits of small. [We face] a very similar challenge in the electric car category, in selling and marketing the benefits of all-electric.

Obviously, you don’t have a huge budget here. Is that also similar in that you have to be smarter in how you spend your dollars?
You always have to be smart these days in how you spend your dollars — and incredibly creative. The landscape has changed a lot since March 2002 [when the Mini launched in the U.S.]. Digital and social [media] channels have become such a big part of the media landscape today and how you leverage those tools. We were pioneers at Mini with digital and social in many ways. Now they’re common practice. But it’s really going to be important in the launching of the all-electric car era.

What proportion of your budget will go toward digital?
I’m not really comfortable talking about budgets, but I can say it will be one of our key pillars of our strategy, for sure. Another one is experiential [efforts] because this is so new. The technology is new and we know that there are some key barriers to the adoption of the all-electric car. So, we feel one of the greatest ways to educate is through experiential [events].

How important will social media be to a successful launch?
It is one way to create a movement and that is really, really critical. Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of the all-electric car era. If you look to the recent campaigns from Obama, he very much used social media and digital as a key strategy for generating the movement to get him elected. There are some lessons to be learned there for the all-electric car movement.

Are there any other electric car marketers that you admire in terms of what they’ve done?
The marketers that I actually admire most — many of them are outside of the automotive category. And I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from looking outside the automotive category. My favorite brands are ones that really look at the entire 360-degree brand experience. Every consumer touch point is important to them. Brands like American Girl, Virgin and Zappos come to mind. When you really dissect them, they really look at every single touch point to the consumer. They’re probably some of the more customer-centric brands that are out there.

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