IRVINE, Calif. -

If a shopper steps on a dealer’s lot and is confident and educated about the car-buying process, there are likely to be fewer obstacles that the salesperson must overcome in discussing a potential purchase with the consumer.

With a confident shopper who is knowledgeable about car-buying, the dealer can devote his conversation with the customer more strictly to what that shopper is looking for in a car, instead of having to spend time quelling a fear the consumer may have about car shopping.

Creating this kind of scenario is just one of the goals Kelley Blue Book president Jared Rowe emphasized to Auto Remarketing as the company launches its first-ever national TV advertising campaign today.

“We’re looking to create more buyer-ready consumers for dealers,” Rowe told Auto Remarketing on Friday.

The company rolled radio commercials early this year, and now it is broadening its inaugural consumer marketing campaign with TV advertising. KBB is also revealing the “first official modernization” of its seal logo.

In anticipation of this launch, Rowe talked with Auto Remarketing late last week about how this campaign can help dealers, KBB’s goals and more.

KBB says there will likely an audience of 189 million people who see the 30- and 60-second spots, which will air on a slew of programming venues. Those include the 2012 Summer Olympics on DirecTV and such channels as CNN, Fox News, ESPN, MTV, TNT, History, Comedy Central and the Food Network, the company said. This is part of a comprehensive media buy that will go into the fourth quarter.

“The new TV campaign is a natural evolution in communicating our industry leadership position, and it is representative of Kelley Blue Book’s new relentless approach to integrated consumer marketing efforts,” Rowe said.

“With our new TV ads, we are aggressively targeting new-car shoppers ages 18–49 with a substantial media buy, aimed at showcasing all of the helpful new-car shopping and research information we have available at KBB.com,” he added. “Kelley Blue Book is an iconic brand name with a longstanding reputation built on decades of providing objective and reliable vehicle valuations and vital car-shopping insights to consumers, dealers, finance and insurance companies and government agencies.”

When asked why KBB is targeting consumers from age 18 to 49, Rowe emphasized that this age group is the deepest pool of car shoppers.

“That’s where the car-buyers are,” he said. “Fish where the fish are.”

And Kelley Blue Book is aiming to steer this school of shoppers, among others, to swim towards the site.

KBB’s goals, as they pertain to the company’s partners (including dealers and others), are to drive more traffic to the website — thus netting more potential leads and customers — educate consumers and to promote car-buying confidence among shoppers.

With regards to the latter points, there are some barriers that exist in the car-buying conversation at the dealership. And as Rowe mentioned, “what we’re trying to do is remove some of that for our partners.”

Moving along, Rowe also talked about another key aspect of the campaign.

While KBB is already well-known as a household name throughout the country, these efforts are designed to educate consumers about all the comprehensive offerings the site has available — for instance, emphasizing the elements of Kbb.com beyond providing trade-in values.

Rowe emphasized the investment the company has made in making itself a more comprehensive site for new- and used-vehicle shopping.

In fact, KBB’s statement announcing the campaign says its “far-reaching media buy is aimed at evolving brand perceptions with the message that Kbb.com, the pioneer in and authority in vehicle valuations, also is a leading new-car resource offering shoppers the comprehensive tools they need to make a smart purchase decision.”

As far as the details of the actual commercial itself, the TV campaign is titled “Projection” and includes 3D Projection Mapping technology. It stresses the aforementioned message in its tagline, “everything you need to make a smart new-car decision.”

The ad is centered on three shopping tools at consumers’ disposal, including the following:

—Fair Purchase Price: Using transactional data updated each week, this shows consumers what others in their area paid for the same specific make and model.

—5-Year Cost-to-Own: This tool offers consumers a look at what they can expect as far as expenses during a five-year vehicle ownership period. Among those expenses are out-of-pocket costs like insurance, maintenance and gas.

—Consumer and Expert Reviews and Ratings: Consumers can check out KBB’s collection of reviews and ratings from their peers, while also reading expert reviews and ratings from the site’s editorial staff.

And lastly, KBB has included the first-ever official update of the company’s logo as part of its inaugural consumer marketing campaign

KBB leaned on studies done via research teams that gained insight on consumer opinions about the current KBB seal and newer logo concepts.

“Additionally, the team focused on updating the constituent parts of the seal to support the company’s role in authenticating new kinds of information, products and services beyond pricing, in an effort to carry Kelley Blue Book far into the future,” the company said.

Rowe added: “As we worked through the process of evolving the logo, it was critical that we maintained elements of the iconic seal and ribbon that had strong equity and connotations of quality, authority, approval and trust. It also was important to choose a design that resonated with consumers and supported the growth and extension of our products over time.

“This is just the first step in re-imagining Kelley Blue Book, starting with a new modernized and contemporized logo design that brings a fresh and innovative feel to the company overall,” he concluded.