Back to this morning’s wildly exaggerated rumors of GM’s resurrection, via today’s USA Today. After Wagoner has his Annie solo, Sharon Silke Carty (I ordered one of those for my wife for Valentine’s Day!) offers a prescription for GM’s Return to Greatness. The fact that the list doesn’t come from Wagoner is, perhaps, the most irrefutable evidence of the CEO’s incompetence ever not documented (if you know what I mean). Top of the list, in bold and all: More federal loans. Need I say any more? I thought not. But just for SAG: More customers. “‘We’re hearing that people are paying attention to us,’ says Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of North American sales and marketing. ‘It’s a great opportunity.'” Yup, it’s Marketing Mark up on that cross with Rick. Dealers hoping for salvation would be best advised to look elsewhere. To wit: this, under the helpful topic “More coastal support.”
“We suffer on the perceptual gap because a lot of the media is on the coasts, and we don’t do as well in those markets,” LaNeve says. “So if we could start penetrating Washington D.C., New York, L.A. with cars, that’s going to help with the perceptual gap. The key influencers are going to pick up on the fact that we’re introducing great products.”
That’s at least in part why Wagoner is happy another new customer introduced himself recently. A New York banker told Wagoner he’d traded in his Lexus for a Buick Enclave.
“I gather heretofore there weren’t many Buicks or American cars in his neighborhood,” Wagoner says.
Adds LaNeve, “If you can put one Buick into a Lexus neighborhood, that’s worth every ad I run in a whole year.”
Or not.
Does the Aveo have a perception gap?
Yep, every time I get stuck with one at the rental counter, I perceive the gap between “let’s get us a foreign small car to help us with CAFE” and “you mean this piece of crap still only gets high 20s”?
GM is a completely broken business model. There’s very few customers who have any faith in the company, the management don’t know where to take the business and it’s lost a lot of goodwill from potential customers by taking bailout dollars.
So, Mr LaNeve’s answer? Take more bailout dollars! Yeah, that’ll endear us to the public.
Really and truly, I’ve given up on GM. There’s no mystery as to whether they’ll survive or not. Ford still has a fighting chance. GM and Chrysler? Well, you be the judge.
P.S. “Sharon Silke Carty (I ordered one of those for my wife for Valentine’s Day!)” I take it your wife doesn’t read TTAC much….? :O)
If GM could turn around, they would have done it by now. Look at Ford. What does Ford have that GM doesn’t? (Besides one guy with a bit of common sense)
Sunny days ahead, huh? Well, it is winter in Michigan, and after 120 days of overcast gloom, it’s about that time people start going a bit loopy.
It’s just too bad that a company cannot survive on hopes and dreams alone.
Winners never whine.
‘We’re hearing that people are paying attention to us,’ says Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of North American sales and marketing.
Yes Mark, people are certainly paying attention to GM lately. But the idea of there being no such thing as bad publicity may work for Paris Hilton; it doesn’t work for car manufacturers.
What “people” are hearing is that GM is on its knees, begging for taxpayer bailout money as its only hope of escaping Tango Uniform status. That message hardly inspires car buyers to go running to their local GM dealer to buy a car. I’d say that it’s far more likely that it scares the hell out of prospective customers and causes them to avoid any GM product as if it were leprosy.
Now I don’t have any evidence of this — oh, except for GM’s catastrophic and ever-worsening sales numbers every month since it unveiled its begging bowl.
We suffer on the perceptual gap because a lot of the media is on the coasts, and we don’t do as well in those markets
Do you think it’s perhaps because a) coastal markets have more money and aren’t as likely buy the cheapest metal available, b) aren’t as likely to be swayed by your pathetic jingoism or c) aren’t truck buyers, and thusly aren’t going to buy one of the few products that GM has been consistently competitive on.
Mark: if Hyundai—you know, Hyundai of the Pony, Excel and Stellar—can turn around customer perceptions, why can’t you? Could it be that Hyundai took ownership of the perception issue and addressed it with quality products at a competitive price accompanied by a serious warranty commitment, where GMNA under your direction proceeded with business as usual and whined about unfair the media was?
Or is it because you suck at your job while your Hyundai equivalent does not?
Psarhjinian has nailed it in regards to looking to Hyundai for the model to folllow. Of course Hyundai had the advantage of only having to change the perception of 5 cars and 2 SUV’s for one brand instead of the clusterfrak that is GM’s brand disaster and badge engineering nightmare.
While it’s true that GM finally does have some competitive vehicles, as a percentage of their total offering it’s a tiny fraction and the overriding perception is still one of poor design and quality because the majority of their offering is still not yet up to snuff. At least Hyundai could show a 14% improvement with each of their 7 models they upgraded and once the Sonata, Santa Fe, Tiburon and Accent were updated they were already half way there.
I’d like to see GM survive their much needed bankruptcy so they can focus their efforts on a managable number of brands and products and continue what they’ve started with the Malibu, CTS, Enclave, etc. but that will take a sea change in their management and culture that I’m afraid most likely won’t take place.
We suffer on the perceptual gap because a lot of the media is on the coasts, and we don’t do as well in those markets
psarhjinian-I’ll add “don’t have thousands of virtually unopposed small town dealers dominating their individually small/cumulatively significant markets” to your list.
Sitting here in MI, I perceive the information in JDP VDS, CR and TD pretty clearly.
I perceive GM’s average score is below the industry average-don’t even begin to compare it to the industry leaders (save the whining about indivdual high scores for a given model, thanks. Same for singular examples of the competitors, this is about overall performance).
Just trying to pin down any particular GM model that is above average in both design and reliability is a tiring. Double bonus points if it is in a category you are considering.
Thus, many buyers-ready for it-perceive that it will be easier just to go to a place where just about every model is well designed and very reliable (if not perfect).
Bunter
Mark- Dead on, the change in Hyundai’s and Ford’s reliability scores in the last 5 years underlies what a bunch of lazy whiners these clowns are.
It can be done.
They haven’t done it.
Regards,
Bunter
What if I don’t WANT to be penetrated? What happened to consent, man?
I nominate argentla for Comment of the Month.
You’ll be getting the bill from my plastic surgeon for repairing the burns from coffee shooting out my nose.
“Hey barkeep, who’s leg do you have to hump to get a dry martini around here?”
I guess we’re a “Lexus neighborhood”, on the coast, I suppose. My next door neighbor, who has a Mercedes SL, a BMW 3 series, and an Escalade (to pull the boat) got a Buick Enclave for 3 weeks as a loaner for the ‘Slade.
He thought it was “pretty nice for a GM car”, but since it couldn’t easily tow his boat, he didn’t see how it would work for him. And his wife thought it was bloated as a daily driver. Also, he hates the treatment at the servicing dealer.
Nice try, GM, but not quite…but there’s 93 more houses in my development – you never know!
Perception is reality, a four digit repair bill (back when four digits was good money) gave this once college kid a buttload of perception.
hold the sauce, RTG is my gig bud.
oh what a load of crap. There’s no penetration problem. GM just dosen’t design it’s good upscale cars (oh wait, it’s just the CTS) to appeal in genteel neighborhoods. I see CTS’s everywhere in NY, there are two new ones on my block alone in Queens, which is a decidedly lower-mid to middle class place. If they’re hard to find in really upscale neighborhoods maybe that’s because the Cadillac design language is without restraint and kind of flashy.
As to the rest of the GM brands, why would anyone with money to spend and time to research buy one? What, exactly, is Buick offering, with it’s crap FWD drivetrains and too-obvious badge engineering, that can compete with an entry Audi or even a VW? Nothing. GM has chased these customers away from Saab (a past yuppie favorite) and has nothing on the market to entice them back.
‘We’re hearing that people are paying attention to us,’ says Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of North American sales and marketing.
No shit… you have your hand in our pockets stealing our money now.
A private enterprise is using extortion (the IRS and the threat of tax violations) to “earn” revenue for a failed business model. I am not even a customer of your products, yet I still have to pay MY money to you. I am seriously pissed off.
GM lost me in the 1970’s. I have seen nothing since that has changed my mind one bit. Swirling around the toilet towards bankruptcy doesn’t help, of course, but it’s entirely consistent with what I’ve expected from the succession of fools who have run the company — into the ground.
@ thoots: Wasn’t your heart warmed by the completely authentic story of the woman at DTW who told ‘The Rick’ Wagoner that she gave up on an Acura MDX for a GMC Acadia? How about a little bit? How about you thought about it, before walking away while laughing!
Perception gap? uh, try product gap.
Almost 5 years ago we went minivan shopping, and the Chevy Uplander wasn’t allowed to, uh, penetrate the garage.
“If Hyundai—you know, Hyundai of the Pony, Excel and Stellar—can turn around customer perceptions, why can’t you[GM]?”
Well, Hyundai most likely gets less slack because they were new to U.S. shores. Compare to GM, who had been in the car business for decades:
Hyundai’s U.S. journey started out building crappy little cars. But once the Excel begat Accent and Elantra, Hyundai improved their products, and the 10/10K warranty to help ease consumer perception. Not every Hyundai car has been a success, but more often than not they hit their target. And the Excel is now fading into history; Hyundai’s reputation now has never been higher, even if the Genesis had never been introduced!
Consider people who used to make fun of Hyundai in the bad old days; they might consider one.
GM’s perception gap wasn’t built in a day. It was literally DECADES in the making, and even the best PR can’t undo it quickly. Hell, even if GM’s product portfolio was flawless, it couldn’t erase the perception gap in one swoop!
Consider the legions of customers who were burned during the less scrupulous years; most will NEVER even consider any GM product.
Besides, some of those early Hyundai’s really were stellar…(couldn’t help myself)
Adds LaNeve, “If you can put one Buick into a Lexus neighborhood, that’s worth every ad I run in a whole year.”
I live on the Left Coast. If I buy a Buick, will LaNeve pay me his entire annual advertising budget?
After all, it’s worth it.
It is ironic that GM’s spokesman would complain about the left and west coasts of the US for having bad media. They also have most of the population and wealth in the Country. As long as GM is going to have an un-countable plethora of badge engineered models, they will keep sliding deeper into oblivion. It is easy for me to see that each of their foreign competitors have strong niches in all of the categories GM is represented in. So let’s say large sedans, they go against Avalon and Lexus (now add genesis). In small cars they go against honda and toyota. In sporty cars it might be Audi, BMW. etc. If GM would pick their battle and fight a few of these competitors in an area they are strong say Chevy trucks, malibu mid size and certainly large cars from caddy, they could finally put the up-dating and advertising that has been so diluted in recent times, on a few succesful brands. To make the same cars under different banners, is one of the prime reasons they are where they are today.