Buick at a Crossroads: Building Brand Momentum In the summer of 2014, Molly Peck, US marketing director for Buick, had been given responsibility for leading marketing initiatives for the brand. Her boss, Tony DiSalle, and the Buick team had improved the product, created a lineup that was more relevant for today's consumers, improved service, and effectively reengaged the North American market. The product was strong and service was stellar. As Peck thought about this success, she was impressed by the turnaround that the brand team had accomplished. As a 20-year General Motors (GM) veteran who had previously led Chevrolet's advertising team, Peck now had to determine the strategic direction that would build on the current momentum and close the gap with competitors. With significant improvements in product, service, messaging, and the overall consumer experience, Peck was under pressure to identify the right marketing lever to pull to improve brand image, and, more immediately, specify the strategy against which Buick should execute its next advertising campaign. Peck's team was running out of time to convert the brand essence statement into a creative brief so that the advertising agency, digital agency, PR agency, and so on, could create new messages with which to communicate with consumers. Should the team stick with the strategic direction that helped fuel Buick's successful turnaround? Should it focus on changing that direction, or on doing something entirely different? The Highly Competitive US Automobile Industry In 2014, GM and its four brands-Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac-were part of a US auto industry that produced nearly 20 million vehicles in North America. The auto industry was a significant part of the US economy, representing close to 4% of GDP and employing nearly 800,000 people. The major US companies competing for billions of dollars of revenue included GM, Fiat Chrysler (Fiat bought Chrysler during the Great Recession in 2009), and Ford. These US automakers, which were based in Detroit, Michigan, were known as the Big Three prior to the Great Recession. After Fiat bought Chrysler, the United States was left with Ford and GM as the dominant US-based automotive manufacturers (see Figure 1 for Big Three unit sales by division and Exhibit 1 for North American market share)