Situation
Grand Vehicle Works Holdings LLC (GVW) hired McPhilimy Associates to market the launch of Autocar, the first new truck company to enter the refuse management industry in decades.

GVW, a holding company with subsidiaries in truck and recreational vehicle manufacturing, purchased the Xpeditor line of garbage trucks from Volvo Trucks North America, Inc.  At the same time, GVW also purchased the historic Autocar name and established it as a new company that would oversee all the manufacturing of the Xpeditor.

With no staff and no marketing department, GVW contracted McPhilimy Associates to serve as Autocar’s marketing department just two weeks before the purchase.  Working with a limited budget, McPhilimy Associates drove all marketing activities for the fledgling manufacturer.

Solution
McPhilimy Associates created the following objectives as part of a communications plan, including public relations, marketing, and special event coordination, to introduce Autocar to a new marketplace and alleviate concerns about one of the industry’s most trusted vehicles.

• Determine the Xpeditor’s strengths and weaknesses
• Determine the industry’s perception of the Autocar name
• Support the development of a nationwide dealer network
• Develop relationships with key trade media while generating coverage
• Modernize Autocar’s image

McPhilimy Associates executed the campaign by implementing the following tactics:

• Researching Autocar’s brand perception by conducting one-on-one interviews with members of the refuse management industry

• Distributing press releases communicating Autocar’s history, business strategies, and plans for the Xpeditor

• Organizing and executing dealer signing ceremonies

• Training Autocar executives for media interviews

• Creating Autocar’s trade show materials from scratch

• Updating Autocar’s logo

• Developing a new brochure and product spec sheets

Results
Due to McPhilimy Associates’ innovative public relations and marketing campaign, Autocar has experienced a successful introduction into the refuse industry.  And, Autocar has an ever-expanding nationwide dealer network.  Waste News, a trade publication for the waste management industry, published an article highlighting the Autocar dealer network, just one example of the hundreds of clips in local, national, trade and Web-based publications McPhilimy Associates generated on behalf of Autocar.