HIGH NOON FOR GM?

As Yogi Berra once said, "It's déjà vu all over again."

So GM is now coming out with a new marketing campaign – again. This time, under certain conditions, they’ll take your car back within sixty days if you’re not satisfied. And it’s actually not a bad idea.

But I’m not sure it’s enough, by itself, to get enough people into the showrooms…enough people to save GM, anyway. It has to be part of a larger thrust. People have to want GM cars first.

Several years ago, I was sitting in a meeting with top executives of a major-league sports team that had been losing for a long time, and had been having trouble drawing decent crowds. I watched with a sense of bemusement as they animatedly debated - and kept asking my opinion about - which "marketing" approach would fill their seats, which "promotions" would work, which "message" would work, etc.

After watching for a few minutes, I finally said, "Guys, this is all ##!**&&*!!! It's not marketing or promotions or giveaways that put fannies in the seats. It's a winning team! Instead of wasting all this money on marketing schemes, go out and get yourself some good players! And you'll be amazed at how quickly the seats fill up!"

Moral of the story? The "New GM" marketing "strategies" will no doubt be slick, and somewhat emotional. But they will fail again, unless the "New GM" executives teach themselves this mantra: IT’S NOT ABOUT THE PROMOTIONS. IT'S ABOUT THE PRODUCT!

When I was a young guy, in the seventies, my pride and joy was the Chevy Camaro convertible in which I drove around town…green, with the black that I had painted on top of the hood and on the rear end. Man, that was one cool car! (Didn’t hurt with the teenaged girls, either!)

Now GM has brought back the Camaro. I’ve seen a couple. And they’re gorgeous! Sleek and mean, like the seventies models, with a big front hood and grill that scream “Don’t mess with me, sucker!”

There’s only one problem that I can see. In an era when gas has been over $4 a gallon, and when increasing numbers of people are going “hybrid,” this is a muscle car. Let’s face it – If you’re going to bring back the Camaro, it should be as a muscle car. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have an engine available for those of us who want the looks of a muscle car, without the gas bills. All Camaro models – even the six-cylinder – get 16-17 mpg around town. To be fair, the highway mpg figures are in the mid-twenties; most of us, however, spend more time tooling around town than we do on the highway.

Note to the "New GM:" Ads and promotions are not going to buy you a hell of a lot of time, especially considering the cynicism of the American public when it comes to your cars and your management. Instead, realize that, for most of us, the real showroom is on the road, not in your dealerships. Realize that your best marketing tools are the cars you build…not the promotions you build around them. Build more cars that make us turn our heads as they pass by (as the Camaro does). Build cars – even “muscle cars” – that get better mileage. And build cars that will last as long – and as reliably - as Toyotas and Hondas.

Then we'll buy them.

And then you'll have "fannies in the seats!"

Steve Winston
President, WINSTON COMMUNICATIONS
(954) 575-4089
steve@winstoncommunications.com
www.winstoncommunications.com