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Ford is a wonderful marketing story – following years and years of big car stasis and poor management it has begun down a colorful new road. The cars have gotten smaller, management has its eyes on the horizon and in a country where borrowing is rampant, it gets props for not taking the government cheese. Cool technology, too.
G.M. has made smart decisions, but still feels like a company run by old dudes with dandruff on their suit collars. Most businesses can sell off flagging assets and brands, get smaller, refinance, wave the flag and make a comeback. Sorry to sound disrespectful because I want G.M. to win, but the company doesn’t feel particularly contrite or forward thinking, the Chevy Volt aside.
Chrysler, on the other hand, still struggling and playing tortoise to Ford and G.M.’s hare, is an interesting company to watch. America loves an underdog…just watch the World Series or Super Bowl some time. And America loves European styling and design. Chrysler is the former and has a chance at the latter. It has gone quiet for a while in the area of new product development while working hard to design some exciting new cars. Good move. While Ford’s new small cars will have big American grills and other old style embellishments, I’m hoping Chrysler will be creating some Fiat-like smaller cars that people on the street can’t keep their eyes off. Were I Chrysler, I’d design hot looking, efficient cars that appeal to women: a French looking car, then an Italian car, perhaps a German-styled car. Women love style. This is a design approach whose time has come. It never would have flown decades ago, but it will today. Tortoise shell glasses anyone? Peace!
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Tags: Car wars, chevy volt, Chrysler, european styling, fiat, ford, gm, whats the idea, whatstheidea
“Chrysler looks beyond BBDO for advertising” is the headline on Ad Age Digital this morning. BBDO has always done great work for Jeep, but Jeep was an iconic brand with a branding idea. The Chrysler brand doesn’t really have an idea. Ford doesn’t have a powerful branding idea. And certainly GM doesn’t. But GM doesn’t really need one because short of GMC trucks, you won’t find a car with a GM name on it. Volkswagen had an idea but let it slip away to the point where when the market was ready for the idea (small, efficient, eco-conscious), they weren’t there. Had they been, they might now be on their way to a defensible position as the world’s largest car company. Even Hummer has an idea.
When you possess a branding idea — also called a brand strategy — product design and innovation become easy. When you don’t, you change vendors, partners, ad agencies, and management. And that’s not much of an idea. Peace!
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Tags: ad age digital, bbdo, Chrysler, ford, gm, GMC, Hummer, Jeep, volkswagen, whats the idea, whatstheidea
Being a brand and marketing planner is exciting because in order to be good you need to be a futurist. I often rail against rearview mirror planners who only look to the past to develop product and brand strategies. Certainly you need to understand the past to formulate hypotheses about the future, but watching film of swimming and understanding its mechanics is not like jumping into the water for the first time. You may feel better prepared but it is still scary.
So why is brand planning fun? Because predicting the future, though hairy, can be lucrative and change the marketing world. Steve Jobs comes to mind.
Here’s an exercise in predicting the future: Car dealerships across the U.S. are closing. Many Ford dealers have shuttered their doors and the wave of Chrysler and GM closings is almost upon us. In 12 months time drive down the highway in your town, where all the fast food restaurants are, and you’ll see abandoned care dealerships aplenty. The economy is awful, but should be showing signs of life by then. What business or business category will move into those fallow real estate sites? If you had Zuckerberg money, what would you build? Peace!
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Tags: Brand Planning, car dealership closings, Chrysler, ford, future, futurist, gm, marketing planning, steve jobs, whats the idea, whatstheidea, zuckerberg
Here’s a conundrum. If you had to go out today and buy an American car would you feel differently standing on a GM or Chrysler lot than a Ford lot? Ford, during all this economic tumult, has been standing on its own two feet. Sure it has crazy debt, lots of bad contracts, and big dusty trucks sitting on the back of the property, but it is still standing on its own two feet.
GM and Chrysler, on the other hand, are being propped up by the government; each chewing on billions and billions of taxpayer dollars, hoping to stay afloat.
So here’s the conundrum, do you want to buy a car from a company – Ford – that has demonstrated a modicum of fiscal responsibility? A company with enough foresight to hold off the insolvency dogs? Or do you want to reward companies that could not see what was right in front of their faces…companies demonstrating horrible management skills? Remember though, in the latter companies (GM and Chrysler) you are part owner. Your tax dollars are keeping them alive. If Henry Ford were alive…
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Tags: Chrysler, ford, gm, henry ford, whats the idea, whatstheidea
A few weeks ago I issued a challenge that would reward one of Detroit’s Big 3 auto makers with all $25 billion in requested bailout funds. There was to be only one winner and that winner had to demonstrate it “got it” by presenting a plan forward to profitability. The challenge required each company show vision and commitment to smart design, resulting in vast improvements to natural resource consumption and reduced emissions.
What Detroit came back with was a bigger hat (to put money in), lots of cuts, lots of sales (buh-bye Hummer, Saturn and Saab,) agreements to renegotiate with the UAW, plant closings and a lot of other below-the-line, cost-cutting initiatives. Oh yeah, they all said – probably in the last paragraph of the leave-behind – they “would accelerate their timetables to make more fuel efficient vehicles." RUKiddingME?
Had GM come back with a plan in which they decided to keep scaled back versions of Cadillac, Saturn and GMC only, had Chryslercommitted $8B to research and development of electric cars and charging devices, had Ford suggested buying Tata Motors, we may have had a horserace or a winner.
What we got were cost-cutting solutions. Solutions to win the hearts of congress. No future-forward ideas. Nada. No winner!
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Tags: Cadillac, Chrysler, ford, gm, Hummer, Saab, saturn, UAW, whatstheidea, “Detroit bailout challenge, “whats the idea”, ” Big 3
pic by Reuters
I would love to have heard what went on in Washington yesterday as the heads of GM, Ford, Chrysler and the UAW sat in a room with congressional leaders asking for $25 billion in loans. The meeting lasted an hour and a half. After introductions, posturing and pictures, I’m sure the real meeting lasted less than an hour – not enough time to do anything. What a waste of plane fare.
The car guys were pleading their cases, no doubt, as to how the economy will be further hurt if the Big 3 are allowed to go out of business. Rather, they should have been explaining what they are going to do in real terms, not theory, to turn their product lines around.
Here’s my idea: the government should offer the loan to the car company that comes back with the best plan to change the way they do business and build cars. Winner takes all. Ask for all proposals by January 1st and let’s see what happens.
And could we get a few of auto geezers out of the room? Have you ever seen such a geeze-fest? Peace!
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Tags: "Detroit bailout challenge", auto geezers, Chrysler, ford, gm, marketing blogs, UAW, whats the idea, whatstheidea
Thomas Friedman wrote today how the next American administration should focus on E.T. (energy technology.) Economic incentives should be created for companies investing in energy R&D and manufacturing in the U.S. Companies buying energy saving technologies should get tax credits. New limits should be established for utilities to create improved clean power generation. And the president’s inaugural parade should be on foot and/or in cars getting 30 MPG to signal our commitment. E.T., according to Friedman, should be the new IT. Great points all.
But who is to lead the charge? The Sharp Corporation is already betting on the future by investing in solar panel manufacturing technology in Japan. They are the largest manufacturer on the planet. Sharp should announce a U.S. manufacturing arm and break ground right away. They should then spend a good deal of their ad budget promoting leadership in solar power. This leadership that will elevate Sharp from a low tier 1 TV manufacturer and create new luster for the brand. And it will do so in a meaningful and important category. Leadership is needed in E.T. If not Sharp, who? How about GM or Ford?
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Tags: E.T., energy, ford, gm, marketing blogs, sharp corporation, solar energy, solar panels, thomas friedman, whats the idea, whatstheidea
There’s talk in the automotive world of Toyota Motor Company spinning off the Prius brand. The Prius brand would stand alone in the U.S. market only and sell at Toyota dealerships, similar to the youth brand Scion. All cars in the line would be hybrids, with mini and maxi models in development.
Not smart. The Scion brand made sense because of the different sensibility of the youth market – those unlikely to drive a Toyota. But owners of the current Prius are not so disinclined toward Toyota. They bought the Prius because it was a Toyota. Prius is addinggreat value to the Toyota brand and every day demonstrates Toyota’s branding promise “Moving Forward.”
GM, Ford and Chrysler are beginning to smarten up and catch up (read Chevy Volt) and as underdogs they will begin to gain momentum and cut into Toyota’s leadership. Toyota is strong now and will remain so by staying focused. A line extension in this market will divert management, potentially move the brand backward, and hurt their eminence.
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Tags: Chrysler, ford, general motors, marketing, prius, scion, toyota, whats the idea, whatstheidea
The moving forward strategy for Yahoo has been something I’ve pondered the last couple of years as Yahoo the portal, start-page, search engine company has been losing steam. In a post a few months ago, I noted Yahoo should invest its money in the best online beat writers out there and make Yahoo the premiere content source on the web. Get the best sports writer, fashion writer, political analyst, etc. and using the language of the web and bloggers, turn Yahoo into the “first” read of the Web. In thinking this way I ceded search to Google, but I have always been a “content is king” guy.
Jerry Yang today announced his intent to not go quietly in the area of search, introducing Buzz which will improve Yahoo’s search capability and the richness of its results. This is a fight, and a focus, they should have had a couple of years ago. Yahoo is still all over the place. Ford makes cars and trucks and can’t get out of its own way. Imagine a company that has 3 or 4 missions.
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Tags: ford, Jerry Yang, whats the idea, yahoo
One of the reasons U.S. Airways has had such a rocky time over the years is because of all its purchases and mergers. In order to strengthen itself, U.S. Airways allied with various other carriers with different regional and national strengths, but those multiple mergers proved its downfall. It was always hard to manage all of the different planes in the combined company.
When new airline carriers start from scratch they purchase one, maybe two types of plane. The parts work for all the planes, the maintenance for all planes is the same, engines come from one manufacturer, training for pilots is simplified, and there is less complexity in the day-to-day management. It is a very efficient way to run an airline. U.S. Airways, on the other hand, was the maestro of a cacophony planes, maintenance operations, equipment, and people trained in the various aspects of this patched together airline. Not efficient.
Ford Motor Company has made a decision to manufacture one of its car models — the Fiesta — the exact same way in every country around the world. That’s efficient. For the most part this is how Toyota does it and Honda does it. With efficiency as job one, I’m betting Ford and the Fiesta, in particular, will begin a comeback.
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Tags: fiesta, ford, honda, toyota, u.s. airways, whatstheidea
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