GM still singing the blue

In an update to my post from yesterday GM has decided to thankfully stay with the blue background for its logo. Smart decision i'd say.

Here's the post from Marketing News.

All in all Mr. Henderson seems to be making sense, my only problem came with this line

The new company will focus on three top priorities, customers, cars and culture, Henderson said

Okay.......either that is the dumbest statement ever or that just goes to show you why this company is in such trouble. They didn't even know that "Cars" or "Customers" should have been a top priority!!!!! It took a trip to bankruptcy to make this obvious????

GM to turn tides from Blue to Green?

Let me start by saying this isn't confirmed, nor does it sound like its anywhere near officially occuring for GM, but according to Marketing News a source has told them that GM is considering switching the blue background of their logo to green.

Firstly, I think this is a bad idea because I don't see GM being able to back up this change, which would in essence symbolize the movement to a greener, more efficient car company. There is a scene in the hilarious tv sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when Dennis attempts to become an environmentalist by showing up at a dump in a cashmere sweater and Range Rover to help people recycle products that have been thrown away. He is immediately called out by the environmentalists as a part-time enviro and ridiculed.

That is how I see that GM experiment working. Everyone would see right through the plan and they would be further ridiculed for trying to talk the talk without walking the walk.

Now, that being said, if GM were to switch their logo to green and then immediately back it up by putting the Volt and other seemingly green cars on the market then I think they would stand a better chance of pulling it off.

Check out It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia if you haven't already, definately better than another GM blog post from yours truly.

When people have had enough of your antics

Yes, this is yet another post on General Motors. I can't help it, I read Jaffe Juice or watch Jaffe TV and he makes nothing but logical points about the mess that they are in and I can't help but blog about it myself.

However, this blog post is about how with the internet people now have the power to knock companies down a couple of pegs. It's an obvious statement and anyone that knows the power of social media and the internet realizes how disastrous one person with a vendetta can be to your brand. Unfortunately GM has many haters, which leads to things such as this:



This is not what GM was hoping for following their Chapter 1 television ad and the launching of the "Reinvention" website. They have also taken strides to be very prevalent throughout social media (including their head commenting on my blog), but no matter how hard you work the internet balancing the playing field. GM has spent millions and millions of dollars on their latest campaign and whoever started this website probably spent a couple of hundred. In terms of which has more impact, it may even be the GM Retardation site.

Unfortunate for GM but a humbling lesson that many marketers know.

What's your motivation to buy GM.....Ever?

I am a GM owner. I bought a Chevy, partly because my Dzedo worked for them practically his whole life, and partly because I got a good deal.

Why would I ever buy a GM again? Why would anyone buy a GM?

They have one of the toughest tracks back to significance ahead of them. The people that buy their cars "bailed" them out 6 months ago, now they are bankrupt. Thats left a rather bitter taste in their mouth I'd say.

They probably have the worst vision of any car company ever, partly because they are locked in to certain things by their unions, and i'm guessing a huge part is poor management. Why have they not changed their course of action? Stop selling trucks, suvs, high gas-guzzling vehicles! Okay maybe not all of them, but start focusing on what people want now, anticipate the future. Smaller, economical, greener. Easy buzzwords and it doesn't take a genius to recognize that. So what does GM do? They flash around the Chevy Volt, an electric car that has style and looks groundbreaking. And they flash it some more, then a little more, and finally a little more. Where is the Volt???? Make it a priority to get that car on the road! Can you imagine the impact/goodwill you would get by being that first major car company to roll out an electric vehicle? Nope, they will just continue to tease and annoy their customers with it.

Everybody is getting frustrated by this GM saga and the ridiculous deal the unions have been able to manage over the years is completely absurd and coming to the forefront nowadays. Isn't it time the union members go to their leaders and say...."Uh, i'd like to keep my job why don't we roll back salaries to a reasonable level?" Never going to happen I realize.

Joseph Jaffe also made a similar post ranting about GM's timing of their new commercial (commerical can be viewed by clicking the link) and got some serious response from GMs guys pretty quickly, although the GM posters were taking it much much much to personally. Makes for good reading though. I think Christopher Barger (GMs director of Social Media) made the right decision in inviting Jaffe to join Fritz on Thursday, but at the same time he came off as an arrogant dick.

This is the kind of attitude that wanes a lot of my motivation to buy GM again, they think they are ENTITLED to us buying cars from them because they are a large employer and have been around for so long, whereas they should be working their asses off to prove to us why we should support such an obvious collasal failure. Maybe this is their starting point though.

The automotive industry needs an advertising bailout

If you have seen one car commecial, you have seen them all. They all blend in to one soupy monotonous mash of person announcing that this "amazing car" gets you so many miles to the gallon, handles like a gem, and is as quiet as their empty showrooms. Well news to car companies, your not fooling anyone and you are all saying the exact same thing. So why would you continue to waste so much money on basically promoting the exact same car as your competition. Here's a crazy idea:

a) Design a car that is different from your competitors, get crazy with the look of a car
b) Have something in the car that differentiates you from every other car company out there and is actually of use to someone (just spitballing but apple is a pretty hip company maybe you can make an arrangement like Nike did with the ipod shoes)
c) Market the crap out of your unique offering (this is pretty much the first lesson in any marketing class)

It baffles me that car companies haven't been able to come up with something like this. As much as I don't really like Scion, at least they are thinking slightly outside the box and not trying to be everything to everyone. GM, Ford, and Chrysler seem to be mailing it in like a lot of the union workers that are on the line.

It also seems like none of these poor advertisements are available on YouTube which is definately a great way to help not drive traffic virally. Good thing they have now gotten to the point where they are appealing for national pride "Over half of these quality Pontiac products are made right here in Canada including......"

Well that did it, i'm sold. I'll buy a car for my country. And full disclosure, I own a GM product currently that I bought brand new 4 years ago and can say that it is not really the "quality" that a lot of these commercials tell me it is. My family has always owned GM so we are pretty loyal, but I can tell you this much, the loyalty ends after this car is done.