How to Market the Hellcat

Persuasive Campaign for a Hellcat Background If you want a fast car, yes, you could buy Tesla—but you wouldn’t be getting everything that goes with a fast car. You wouldn’t be getting the sound. You wouldn’t be getting the motor revving, driving your neighbors crazy every time you hit the gas pedal and hold with the stick in neutral just so you can hear the growl of a nice big V8 under the hood. A Tesla is not going to do that.

A Tesla is an electric car. Yes, Tesla’s have instant torque—but they also tend to blow up on impact and burn their drivers to death. Golf cart bombs should not be lumped into the category of fast cars. A car runs on gas. A Tesla runs on batteries. This distinction is important.

If you want a fast car, a real fast car—a car that has muscle and isn’t ashamed to show it, there’s really only one car to get: the Dodge Challenger Hellcat. The Hellcat gets 700 horsepower. That is raw power ready to launch you from 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds. It comes in an automatic transmission or with a manual, but there’s really only one way to drive the Hellcat—and that is to get it with a manual transmission.

When you are shifting from third gear into fourth and you’re already at 60 mph, you will understand why. Yes, 700 hp may seem like too much, but the Hellcat is a hefty machine weighing some 4,500 pounds. It’s not a BMW M3. It’s not a compact car. It’s a monster beast unleashed from the furnaces of Dodge’s inferno. It was meant to be large and in charge. Those 700 horses are exactly what are needed to muscle that machine around.

And the Hellcat is all muscle. As far as all Hellcat owners are concerned, it is the only muscle car that matters. Your tires will spin, your car will slip, and you will fear for your life when driving it. But that is the whole point. This car gets 700 horsepower: it is not supposed to be a picnic. What Is Going Well in the Campaign The Hellcat helped to transform the Dodge brand.

Phelan (2016) states that “the supercharged Hellcat V-8s have become an icon for the whole Dodge brand, starring in raucous commercials and posters on teenagers’ walls in a way not seen since the original Charger lifted Dodge from suburban bland to outlaw chic 50 years ago.” Most people assumed it would be undrivable but all popular opinion has pointed just the opposite: it is a very drivable car. People love it. The campaign to get people to buy the Hellcat was going great.

It was the top of the line muscle car coming in at $60k—lower than a high-priced Tesla or a BMW M5, with a better growl than the EV and a better interior than the German sports car. The Hellcat was the meanest machine on the market—until its older brother arrived: the Dodge Demon. It boasted 800-1000 horsepower and was not even street legal. It was a track car only. Still, it overshadowed the Hellcat. It made the Hellcat seem like a kitty.

The Demon let the world know who was boss. Hellcat prices across the board began to fall. What started off as a $60k machine could now be had used with only a few thousand miles on it for $45k. Before the Demon came along to make Dodge seem even more insane than it was when all it had to offer the world was the Hellcat, the Hellcat was the world’s muscle car idol.

It looked great with its retro 1970s muscle car exterior and under the hood was the 8 cylinder 392 engine with a supercharger. It had big thick tires to help give it the kind of grip it needed. It was fast. It was rock solid. It was big. It was mean. Everyone wanted one. The pictures and images that poured across the Internet care websites and social media added to the effect Dodge was going for.

YouTube videos appeared of guys getting their Hellcat, making it their daily driver, taking it to the track, and taking it for spins down the highway. People loved their Hellcats so much they built their own private rooms in their houses for them—i.e. special garages with special bays to keep them nice and tidy. The Hellcat campaign was assisted by online sites like MotorTrend, AutoTrader, and TopSpeed. These sites and several others have posted many different articles showcasing the qualities of the Hellcat.

Many YouTubers have assisted in praising the Hellcat and have posted videos of races in Mexico between the Hellcat and Mustang GTs, 5.0s, Corvettes, Camaros, and so on. The social media sphere has helped give the Hellcat a great deal of visibility. It has allowed it to stand out from other car products on the road and to showcase what really makes it special. The Hellcat has developed a big following among fast car fans.

That is because nothing really comes close to challenging it in terms of horsepower at the price for which it can be purchased. The only problem going forward that the Hellcat is likely to encounter is the number of street racing incidents that have occurred. One popular YouTuber Paul Powell who named his channel FamilyCruisin was recently arrested for posting numerous street race videos of himself and his children in the car (Fabbre, 2018). He has been charged with child endangerment and all the videos on his channel have been removed.

He helped to popularize the Hellcat for many people and his arrest shows that this care does not come without its risks. Though it is street legal it is a car that carries a lot of temptation. But that is consistent with its name. If you are going to own a Hellcat you have to be aware of the risks that come with it and you have to be mindful about not breaking the law.

The kind of negative attention that FamilyCrusin’s arrest has brought to the Hellcat is bad for the brand. A lot of people enjoyed that channel and many YouTubers have expressed concern for the car community social media posters. Hellcat’s campaign had been enjoying a lot of quality press since it was released in 2015. In the first year alone, sales were up 8% year over year, as Phelan (2016) notes. Suggestions for Improvement The Dodge Demon has stolen some of the Hellcat’s thunder.

The arrest of FamilyCruisin has also brought negative attention to the brand. However, both of these can be fixed and the campaign improved. First, the Demon is not street legal and everyone knows that. It cannot be the daily driver. The Hellcat can. Second, street racing is illegal, and everyone knows that. People who post videos of themselves breaking the law are asking to be arrested. Dodge doesn’t have to do anything with either one of these issues to get the Hellcat looking good again.

All it has to do is continue to put out positive images of the retro car, boasting its engine capacity, and scoring high marks with consumers. Tesla is a car company that is in crisis mode. Its handles stick, its back bumpers fall off, its autopilot fails, and its cars burst into flames (Lambert, 2018; Orlove, 2018; Torchinsky, 2018). The Hellcat has none of these issues. It has been a love-fest for consumers ever since its release in 2015.

As far as social media goes, there is not much the company can do about YouTubers who insist on acting and driving recklessly in their Hellcats and posting videos to their YouTube channels. The car obviously was not made for that.

It was made to be a throw-back to the old muscle car era, and Dodge has succeeded in making a car that makes people go “wow!” For that reason, all Dodge has to do to improve its campaign is continue to produce ads that show the muscle car in all its glory—going fast on the track and looking great on the road. One way to improve its image, however, would be to get the car in more TV shows and films.

The James Bond franchise would be a great way to get the Hellcat some excellent positive exposure. The Fast and the Furious franchise is another great opportunity, as it routinely features muscle cars. Indeed, Dodge has already linked up with filmmakers to work on just that. The latest Fate of the Furious featured a wide-body Hellcat in its trailer, as Car and Driver reported (Fink, 2016).

This kind of positive advertising is just what the Hellcat needs to keep its reputation going strong and to cement its iconic imagery in the minds of consumers. Dodge has not had.