In a broadcast to dealers, GM marketing maven Mark LaNeve has reassured Saturn store owners that The General has no plans to send the brand to the firing squad. In fact– no. That’s it. “General Motors’s US sales chief has played down speculation the automaker will axe Saturn,” just-auto [sub] reports, “hinting instead a new business model for the ‘no-haggle’ brand would be developed.” And that would be…? “We have a very successful consumer brand with Saturn,” LaNeve lied. “We need to find the right business model.” What’s the rush? After all, “GM is focused on clearing 2007 and 2008 model year vehicles from showrooms by the end of the year.” LaNeve reiterated that point several times, telling dealers GM would like to add more discounts on 2009 vehicles– but they’ve got to sell the remaining 2008 cars and trucks first. (Doh!) “We need to sell to generate cash. We will be aggressive [on incentives],” he added. “Please, sell like crazy.”
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I am sorry, did you say “GM is focused on clearing the 2007 models”, wow, they have “new” vehicles they haven’t sold since some time in 2007? At some point, why don’t they just say “Here take it, give it a good home, we will throw in a cute puppy to make it worthwhile.”
What is the depreciation on a 2007 when you drive it off the lot?
how to stop Americans from smoking…put LaNeve in charge of marketing cigarettes.
how to stop Americans from smoking…put LaNeve in charge of marketing cigarettes.
+1. That’s so true it’s scary.
People dump on Rick Wagoner, and rightly so, but the actual product planning and marketing of North American vehicles is La Neve’s job, and he’s patently awful at it.
It takes a lot to make Mark Fields look smart and capable, but La Neve does it.
So GM still has no definite turnaround plan but at least they’re starting to kick around some ideas. Maybe they’ll drop a brand. Maybe not.
Looks like we’re still waiting for that “sense of urgency” that Maryanne Keller found missing from GM’s management more than three years (and $50 billion) ago.
They did have that sense of urgency, Cicero, but it went away the second the bailout was approved. GM and Chrysler didn’t know if they’d make it to January. With Obama at the helm, however, they know they can just keep waving “3 million jobs” at him and basically keep getting blank checks until there’s another bubble to ride.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200812231645DOWJONESDJONLINE000437_FORTUNE5.htm
These guys at GM are going to be busy over the holiday period. Mostly they’re “working Treasury” according to Rick Wagoner, so that GMAC can provide GM the money it needs to pay its suppliers come the new year.
“Please, sell like crazy.”
Boy, that motivational speech sure is going to make a difference. Previously the dealers had no idea that selling more cars would be a great thing to do.
Freaking idiots running GM. Argh.
Step one – stop using the term “business model.”
The “business model” for Saturn is the same as every other car maker: you build cars and try to sell them for more than they cost to manufacture. A cohesive marketing plan and product strategy is not a “business model,” though I guess they would be a good start for once. Throwing around a lot of misused business school terms confuses the troops and makes them sound like they know what they are talking about… which is more important to career growth at GM than any actual results, apparently.
“Looks like we’re still waiting for that “sense of urgency” that Maryanne Keller found missing from GM’s management more than three years (and $50 billion) ago.”
Nothing urgent, the Federal Government has them covered.
How does selling cars with even MORE incentives actually help them? As near as I can tell, that just further cements the fact that an American will never buy an American car unless it comes with cash on the hood.
<em“We have a very successful consumer brand with Saturn,” LaNeve lied.
If it was a “successful consumer brand” why are they looking for a new business model?
Too bad but, GM wasted any opportunity to make Saturn a winner. Now it must go just like Olds.
Change over to Opel since they design most saturns anyway, and make this GM’s Euro-import brand.
I didn’t get the picture.
Ah well, it’s all insanity anyway. Carry on!
Saturn has already tried selling Opels and it was a big failure. The Aura and Astra are among GM’s poorest selling cars.
They were better off selling the SL1s.
I say make Saturn a GM clearance lot for all GM brands – one price – no haggle and they even give you back rubs when you are filling out the documents.
“Please, sell like crazy.”
It’s appropriate. After all, GM produced cars like it’s crazy.
hitguy: “What is the depreciation on a 2007 when you drive it off the lot?”
Like yachts, if you have to ask, then you can’t afford it.
The horror. Memo to GM….Toyota and Honda are successful because they make good cars that they KNOW will sell before they build them. ToMoCo and Honda marketing people pretty much know the market, and tell the production people how many cars they believe will sell. The production people make a plan to make that many cars, and not one car more. Because they are not often wrong, they can sell the cars at a profitable price. OK, so they didn’t see 2008 coming, and ToMoCo is having the Toyota-thon of Toyota-thons to clear off the 2008’s. But usually, they are pretty much spot-on, which is why the loss they post this year will be their first in 57 years.
If GM is essentially competing against itself by still trying to sell cars from TWO MODEL YEARS ago, how can they still be building cars? Plants should stay idle until the 07’s and 08’s are sold, donated or crushed….
Actually, I have first-hand experience at the pie in the sky predictions of big-three marketers and demand forecasts. When they launched the Freestyle and 500 (before they became the Taurus and Taurus X) I was working for a supplier, and during a negotiating meeting, the buyer, with a straight look on his face, told me they expected to sell 305K of that platform. Not for the whole run, 305k per year. After laughing in his face, I told him they would be lucky to sell 145k, and that we needed an additional $15 per unit (we made the front engine cradles) to amortize our fixed cost investment over the 145k units they were more likely to sell. We never got the price increase, they never sold more than 145k units, our company lost its arse on the deal.
Business models, indeed. Here’s one for you, Detroit 3. Figure out what the market wants. Build that many and no more. Build them well. That will help residuals, and your suppliers, and lead to repeat customers who can buy your new vehicles because they will be able to sell their used vehicles.
@jaje
Y’know, that’s not a bad idea… Putting aside the backrubs, of course!
If Saturn were to become the GM clearance center, selling nothing but the previous year’s unsold units, it certainly wouldn’t be lacking in inventory.
Well they could start with their 411 day supply of Astras to start.
Which they seem to be doing locally: on all Astra’s invoiced before May 31st my dealer is offering incentives plus Red Tag that drops the price from 18,000 to 13,990. How many must be left from seven months ago out of that 14 day supply?
I meant 411 day supply. Site won’t give me permission to edit the comment….
Astra disaster.
The Astra doesn’t sell because it’s wildly overpriced. It’s just that simple.
It might be a great car, but it doesn’t matter.