Cherokee Name 11th-Hour Decision, Marketer Says

AUBURN HILLS, MI – The decision to use the Cherokee name for Jeep’s Liberty replacement was a last-minute call, one of the brand’s top marketers tells WardsAuto.

“I could say maybe two months ago, a month and a half ago,” Jim Morrison, director-Jeep product marketing, says of the decision’s timing, which didn’t come until a month before the auto maker released official photos of the SUV. “That was funny, because the auto journalists thought we were keeping (the name) from them.

“But no, we were still having the internal debate and actually still listening to some of the feedback you guys had as to what to call it before we made the final decision.”

Morrison, on hand for a Jeep backgrounder at Chrysler’s headquarters here, keeps close to the vest the strategy behind resurrecting Cherokee and not going forward with Liberty, saying Jeep CEO Mike Manley will detail the auto maker’s thinking at next week’s New York auto show when the SUV officially debuts.

“We had a healthy debate here at Jeep, but I don’t want to steal his thunder,” Morrison says.

Global recognition did play a role, he says, as Chrysler-Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne looks to expand Jeep’s footprint outside North America. The current Liberty is sold as the Cherokee in some overseas markets.

“It works nice to have the same Jeep across the world, for sure. There’s so much passion with the Cherokee name and recognition, it made a lot of sense.”

Morrison says the Jeep team has been monitoring comments from customers about the controversial design of the new Cherokee, which has much softer edges than its boxy predecessor.

“They haven’t seen everything yet, so we’re kind of holding the whole portfolio until next week,” he says. Photo leaks of the new model on the Internet prompted Chrysler to release pictures ahead of the Cherokee’s auto show debut, the executive adds.

“At the end of the day, when the world sees the car in the right light, a lot of things will make sense.”

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