This special, expanded edition of Under the Pentastar, for the week Nov. 2-6, covers the rollout of the Chrysler Group LLC 2010-2014 Business Plan by CEO Sergio Marchionne and the company’s top executives at a meeting with investors and media on Nov. 4.

The ceremony, which will last about an hour and begin at 11 a.m., will honor current and veteran members of the United States and Canadian armed forces. The event, presented by UAW Local 412’s Veterans Committee, is open to all employees and contractors.

Veterans Committee Chairman Wayne Smith will emcee the event that will include a presentation of colors by the Air National Guard Color Guard from Selfridge Air National Guard Base and the national anthems of the United States and Canada by the Avondale (Auburn Hills) High School Choir.

This year, U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Keith Edwards, Command Chief of the 127th Wing from Selfridge, will discuss his unit’s mission in the Middle East theater of operations. Scott Garberding, Head of Manufacturing/World Class Manufacturing Ad Interim, also will speak.

The Veterans Committee also has teamed up with the Warren (Mich.) Goodfellows to collect toys for needy children this Christmas. A collection box will be at this event and later placed near employee entrances for donations of new, unwrapped toys.

Compared with September, October sales rose from 7,068 to 7,535 units, which represents an increase of 7 percent and a decrease of 22 percent from October 2008.

Sales success was led by the Jeep® Patriot, Jeep Compass, Jeep Wrangler, Chrysler Town & Country, and Dodge Avenger, all of which achieved the highest monthly sales for the year.

The Dodge Journey continues to be the No. 1 selling crossover vehicle in the market with sales of more than double its nearest competitor. Meanwhile, the Dodge Ram and Dodge Dakota continue to be the hottest-selling trucks in the Mexican market with year-to-date market share of 27.5 percent.

“With nearly 70 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is a true global icon that has provided consumers a real sense of freedom and adventure from the very beginning,” Mike Manley, President and CEO—Jeep Brand, said. “The new Jeep campaign reinforces this idea, with a fresh new look, feel and attitude. We believe there is a little bit of Jeep inside everyone. Deep down, to some degree, everyone wants to seize every moment and live life to the fullest. This campaign gets to the core of those emotions, effectively communicating that unique ‘Jeep spirit.’”

The new campaign introduces the Jeep brand’s new tagline—“I live. I ride. I am. Jeep.”—which reflects the “Jeep philosophy” of living life on one’s own terms. To showcase that new attitude, the print creative features white backgrounds, suggesting openness and conveying the idea of freedom. The television creative uses nontraditional imagery to communicate how Jeep vehicles can take consumers from everyday life to something more extraordinary.

“Our strategy with the new campaign is to embrace our loyal core enthusiasts, while igniting the Jeep spirit and passion for adventure in a broader audience,” Manley said.

Phase One
The goal of the first phase of the new Jeep campaign, created by Southfield, Mich.-based GlobalHue, is to educate consumers by generating awareness and interest in the “Jeep philosophy” for living, while re-establishing the brand with a new look, feel and attitude. The first phase of the new campaign introduces the tagline, “I live. I ride. I am. Jeep.” The creative focuses on the unique visual appeal of the brand’s vehicles by capturing them in unexpected ways, to create mystery and intrigue.

Phase Two
In the second phase, the focus will shift to consumers, in addition to vehicles. The campaign will further establish the consumer/brand connection via lifestyle engagement, appeal to a broad spectrum of the buying public and spark an interest in ownership. The Jeep tagline will become more personal, highlighting the “I am” part of the new tagline, “I live. I ride. I am. Jeep.”

Phase Three
The third phase of the campaign will continue with the overall look and feel established in the previous phases, but will deliver a retail focused message and clear “call to action” that will be conveyed through dealer advertising and sales events. The tagline will once again evolve to support the campaign’s retail promise: “I live. I ride. I buy. Jeep.”

Nontraditional Advertising
In addition to traditional television and print advertising, Jeep is also extending its presence into very nontraditional Jeep venues: subways and train stations.

“The subway is the ultimate anti-Jeep experience,” Manley said. “It’s crowded. It’s stifling. It’s routine. It’s everything that Jeep is not. So why do it? Because it’s perfect. It will allow passengers to covet the freedom that Jeep vehicles deliver. Plus, the subway gives us a captive audience. One that is ethnically, culturally and economically diverse. It offers an extensive number of impressions, not bound by time of the day. And it provides a platform for a tailored message.”

The unique Jeep subway and train domination will allow consumers to see the full brand campaign come to life. Beginning on Nov. 2 in New York’s Penn Station, more than half a million daily commuters are being immersed in the new look and feel of the brand through a variety of creative elements including rotunda banners, “wrapped” stairs and floor graphics.

In addition to Penn Station, the Jeep ads also will take over the Grand Central Station and Times Square Shuttle, which will feature interior and exterior train wraps with messaging that captures elements of the Jeep lifestyle.

The PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) Train, connecting commuters between New York and New Jersey, will include multiple executions, such as signage and an impactful video of the Jeep Wrangler that will be projected onto the subway tunnel wall. The 15-second video will be visible to passengers as they ride the train.

The campaign will also include digital billboards in Times Square on the NASDAQ and Reuters buildings at 43rd Street and Broadway and 43rd Street and 7th Avenue, respectively.

Interactive banner advertising and billboards will also be key elements in the campaign. Mirroring the look and feel of the print ads, the billboards will have headlines such as, “Jeep. Making Mondays feel more like Fridays,” and “Jeep. Always taking the long way,” some of which will be translated into Spanish.

Interactive banner advertising will be featured on homepage takeovers on Yahoo and MSN on Nov. 11. Additional homepage takeovers on AOL will follow on Nov. 15 and 18.

As the campaign progresses, the Jeep brand will expand its messaging to appear on busses and in cinema.

TV Spots
In the first phase of the campaign, the television spots focus on communicating the overall brand positioning, the “Jeep philosophy” for living. As the campaign evolves, the commercials will focus on individual vehicles and the connection to consumers. Two 30-second spots will launch the new campaign and re-establish the brand with a new look and feel.

“Clocks,” the first spot in the new campaign, is a study of clocks in various settings, both interior and exterior. As the spot moves from frame to frame, the voiceover says, “Knowing that every day I have a choice to make, between watching the clock, and occasionally my back, or I can greedily, rightfully seize every ticking moment and never give one of them back.” The spot concludes with the camera taking the viewer through a spatial void to find a Jeep Wrangler, punctuated by the tagline, “I live. I ride. I am. Jeep.”

“Clocks” debuted Oct. 30 during “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” and then rolled out to prime time network shows such as CBS’s “Ghost Whisperer,” “Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Late Show with Craig Ferguson;” ABC’s “20/20;” NBC’s “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien;” and Fox’s “House.” The new spot then aired during Game 3 of the World Series.

The Dealer Advertising Associations (DAA) also are supporting the new campaign with media in their local markets. Later in the fourth quarter, a 30-second spot will also appear in more than 2,000 theaters on more than 30,000 screens.

“Reality” will be the second spot in the campaign that will air later in the month. The spot opens on various televisions as the channels are being changed showing different programming. The voiceover says, “Knowing reality isn’t captured by a hidden camera. It doesn’t come in episodes either. You see, I don’t live to live through anyone … ever. So while everyone waits to see the ‘next best’ this or ‘unbelievable’ that, here’s the reality: there is no rerun, when you are living in the now. So while you tune in, I’ll be somewhere getting out.” The spot closes with a unique view of the Jeep Liberty, again with the tagline, “I live. I ride. I am. Jeep.”

Additional television executions focusing on various Jeep nameplates will launch in December.

Print Ads
The first phase of the all-new Jeep print campaign reinforces the television spots with headlines that reflect the new “Jeep Philosophy” of living, using unique views of the vehicles, highlighted on a clean, white background. Headline examples include, “Working toward a goal that doesn’t work against my life,” “Trading 40 hrs. for 40 mph,” “Following my own lead,” “Not reading every e-mail,” or ”Knowing that a tie doesn’t have to tie me down.” All print ads also include the new Jeep tagline, “I live. I ride. I am. Jeep.”

The print ads debuted on Oct. 30 in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times, and appeared in all three papers again on Nov. 4. During the week of Nov. 2, the new print ads can be seen in weekly magazines such as People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, ESPN and Sporting News.

Select print ads will also be translated into Spanish.

PHD continues as the Jeep brand’s media buying agency, while Organic provides interactive support.

Dealership Material
Jeep dealers will also have available to them a variety of materials that communicate the brand’s new positioning and mirror the look and feel of the national campaign. In their tool box, dealers will have newspaper and point-of-sale templates that can be tailored with an appropriate retail message or to promote a sales event. Select television advertising will also be produced in a 23/7-second format so dealers can add a retail tag.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s criticism of Toyota’s statement is the latest hit to the automaker’s reputation from what will be the largest safety recall in its history, the paper said. NHTSA said Toyota inaccurately suggested in a press release this week that the agency had concluded “that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured,” the agency said in a statement, the News said.

Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons said the company hadn’t meant to mislead anyone, the paper said. “It was never our intention to mislead or provide inaccurate information. Toyota agrees with NHTSA’s position that the removal of the floor mats is an interim measure and that further vehicle-based action is required,” Lyons said in the story. “We are in the process of developing vehicle-based remedies to help avoid the potential for an unsecured or incompatible floor mat to trap the accelerator pedal.” (The Detroit News)

GM surprised German officials and labor unions this week by backing out of plans to sell Opel to Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International and Russian bank Sberbank, the paper said. The German government had committed 4.5 billion euros ($6.68 billion) to help finance the deal, which would have left GM with a minority stake in the struggling company, the Free Press said.

GM instead, buoyed by better-than-expected progress in its turnaround, wants to keep Opel and restructure the company itself, which will probably include cutting around 10,000 jobs, the paper said. On Thursday, Henderson said GM will seek financial assistance from European governments, such as Germany, to pay for the estimated $4.5-billion restructuring effort, the article noted. In addition, he said Opel will be able to pay for part of its restructuring, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)

Henderson declined to list the areas in which GM is outperforming but said the company would provide details in its third-quarter earnings report later this month, the trade paper said. “I’m not going to get into whether we’re generating cash or not generating cash, but I would certainly say the situation is more stable than what the outlook was even just two months ago,” Henderson said during a media briefing, the Automotive News said.

Prior to filing for U.S. bankruptcy protection in June, GM presented a viability plan to the government, the paper said. The plan assumed GM would have a 19.5 percent share in 2009, with that share stabilizing in the 18.4 to 18.9 percent range in subsequent years. That would come on the back of four core brands—Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC—rather than eight brands, the story said. (Automotive News)

“We had a settlement last night,” Surendra Singh, senior vice president for human resources at Rico Auto Industries Ltd., said today, the news service reported. “Within a day or two, we’ll be able to achieve 100 percent production.”

More than 2,000 workers at the Rico plant, which makes transmission parts for vehicles and is located outside India’s capital, began the strike on Sept. 21 after the company suspended some of their colleagues citing indiscipline, Reuters said. Singh said the firm would make up for the lost production by increasing plant capacity utilization, the story said. (Reuters/Automotive News)

The levies of as much as 99 percent on $3.2 billion of Chinese exports are “discriminatory,” the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said and the story reported. The penalties were announced in a preliminary decision by the U.S. Commerce Department yesterday, Bloomberg said.

The disputes may test relations between the United States and the biggest foreign buyer of its debt ahead of Obama’s visit on Nov. 16, the news service said. The two nations, with $409 billion of trade between them, have swapped complaints about steel, poultry and tires as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression spurred countries to protect jobs, the story said. (Bloomberg)

Part of this is because GM expects some laid-off workers to be called back to work as production ramps up and part of it is because the company is going to permanently let go workers on layoff status, the Free Press said. “We don’t have any plans to have a broad attrition plan… I am reticent to do it because that would be basically … using it as a sledgehammer,” he told reporters. “That’s not what we need. What we really need to do is get our production up and running.”

He added that an attrition program might be targeted at specific facilities, the paper said. Between 6,000 to 7,000 hourly workers are on permanent or temporary layoff status, he told reporters, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)