Jumpstart Automotive Group

Today’s marketers are faced with myriad, daunting challenges: The economy and erosion of consumer confidence, escalating costs, increasing market segmentation, channel complexity, C suite pressure, the exponential fragmentation of media. Each of these are real issues that must be successfully resolved but they’re all secondary to the primacy of message. Unless the marketer has a message of interest or relevance to some defined audience, how, where, or when that message gets delivered is of precious little import.

Bob Lutz Vice-Chairman at General Motors, is facing the world’s most difficult marketing challenge. He must immediately begin to increase sales and market share of Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC branded products. The company is on the line. I wasn’t always a fan of General Motors but I find myself desperately rooting for them to succeed. Our country needs a strong auto industry and a strong manufacturing base. It’s hard to imagine either without a vibrant, successful General Motors.

The good news for Bob and the folks at GM is that they have their best-ever product available for purchase in dealerships today. They have leading edge technology and they have the best product pipeline in their history. What they don’t have is sufficient consumer consideration. Not enough people have Chevy or Cadillac on their shopping lists. Why? For the past thirty years, they haven’t had a sustainable, credible message and only recently have they made the commitment to building world-class products.

Before Bob and his new leadership team start evaluating their agencies’ strategic, creative, and media performance and capabilities they have one essential mission. They must clearly define what Chevy stands for, what makes Chevy different, better, more desirable than Ford, Toyota, or other competitors. They have to define who Chevy is and what type of people they want to attract. Clearly they’ve demonstrated that they can’t be all things to all people. He has to define why Chevy deserves consumer consideration.

Today, too many people don’t know what Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, or GMC stand for and they don’t know why they should give them consideration when shopping for their next new car. The brands have simply lost relevance through years of neglect, misguided brand leadership, and undifferentiated, poor quality products. Until the employees at General Motors and their agencies can tell millions of hopeful consumers an honest and compelling story, they should save their marketing and incentive money.

In the July 27th issue of BusinessWeek, Jon Fine defined the key point pitch perfect. “Marketing is a business in which the best story that’s most aggressively deployed wins.” Bob, get the story right. Your success depends on the power and clarity of your message.