And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor...Bob!

Bob Lutz is back this afternoon with an unabashed commercial for GM vehicles. In a piece appropriately title, "Awareness is Everything," Lutz reports GM's summer successes: record sales months for some Buick, Cadillac and Saab models; Buick up 8,000 vehicles over last year, Cobalt outselling Corolla.  Nice results.

But Lutz doesn't stop there.  He does what he's been doing since he started blogging: putting a spin on the marketing message that changes it from "same old, same old" to something more realistically idiomatic:

So, our numbers are encouraging but, unfortunately, our awareness levels don’t match them.  [snip]

[Recently...] people looked at the new Buick Lucerne, for example, and were blown away by it.  It even made them look differently at LaCrosse, which was parked next to it.  The general reaction was, “THESE are Buicks?  When can I get one?”

That’s what we want to hear, and that’s what we need to be doing more of — we need to get more people to know more of our products. Take Buick, for example. It’s one of the industry’s most reliable brands in terms of quality, but who knows that? It is finally getting exciting new products, but who knows that?

This is the Vice-Chairman of GM saying, "well, we're doin' good, but, so what?" Not spinning the numbers to make it sound like "we've turned the corner." No, he's saying, "we need to talk these cars up, people, because they're being well received." 

I've written before about how I think Lutz's blogging is intended for both internal and external audiences.  Here's another example of what I meant; a leader showing his people he believes in the product and setting an example of how to get people speaking about that product with confidence.  When companies are not doing well, employees often get very shy about telling their friends and families to come in and buy.  I've seen it in the apparel business; over the years, people I've known have actually been ashamed to tell others where they've work because they didn't want to be associated with the products.

Here's Lutz saying:

The challenge is to get that story out there. And word of mouth (or word of blog) can do as much if not more than any TV commercial, magazine ad or golf tournament sponsorship. We still need to do all those things, but we need to be doing more. We have to put the word out ourselves—that’s what I’m telling my people to do, and that’s what I’m doing right here right now. So if this comes off like a total GM commercial, it is. And there’s good reason for it to be.

Like I've said before, this guy's a smart cookie.

Comments

[Jason Yip]

I wonder if Bob has read Purple Cow. This sounds very familiar.

[Tom]

Very interesting question, Jason! Of course, I'd venture to say the 70+ year old Lutz has been a designer/marketer for more years than Seth's been alive!

[fouro]

Ditto on Lutz's bona fides, Tom.

Jason, the sad fact, I'd venture to say, is that perhaps 10% of US executives could have *written* Purple Cow, Lutz obviously included. The thing that precluded them from doing so was the headwind of prevailing corporate culture multiplied by the consequences of bucking it. The product of that equation is obvious: suspicion or banishment. Both options consign them, and many others, back to the hamster wheel.

Just in case you're interested (and Tom knows I'm a Lutz fan since I toiled for M-B USA back in the mid-90s), I've written some on the travails Lutz faced turning Chrysler around back then, here.

[Travis Ayres]

Actually Bob Lutz is lying to us. He says, "We sold blah blah many more units than we did last year!" - when last year he wasn't profitable. Then he goes on to say, "We sell more than BMW here, and Toyota here!" - BMW and Toyota both make money on EACH VEHICLE they sell, they don't eat money on each one, like GM does on some products. OOPS BOB. If you sell three cars a year, and you make more than BMW and Toyota combined, I'd invest in your company. However, if you sell more than they do, and you're on the road to bankruptcy? Get my point?

What Bob is really doing, is lying to us unabashedly, but he's spinning it so most people can't see it - he highlights the 'good', but doesn't tell the 'truth'. Read his Blog Comments. Most people honestly can't seem to see it.

[Tom]

You make a valid point about profitability per sale, Travis. But that's not the point Lutz was trying to make. He says, "we're on the road to recovery because our products are improving and customers are voting for them with purchases." That's not a lie, it's true.

Eventually, however, they better change that pattern. Because losing money on each unit, but making it up in volume, is definitely not a viable long-term strategy!

Thanks for stopping by.