Marketers Grapple With Brand-Bashing ''Badvocates''

GM, American Airlines and others try to win over critics on the Web.

Forbes, October 23, 2009 — During General Motors' financial meltdown this year, politicians, corporate executives and journalists piled on to gripe about the auto-maker's business. Most of the chatter was expected, admits Christopher Preuss, GM's vice president of communications. What surprised company execs was the number of bloggers and social media hounds who chimed in to grouse about the car-maker and its vehicles.

GM Exec Extols Virtues Of Social Media

MediaPost Publications, October 21, 2009 — Social media has been the most effective tool for consumers in the market for a car or truck and the best vehicle for GM in terms of transparency and accountability, Chris Preuss, VP communications, told a roundtable in New York on Tuesday.

GM's Appointment of Lutz Shows No Respect for Marketing†

Without a Story, Carmaker's Advertising Isn't Going to Cut It

Advertising Age, July 27, 2009 — General Motors' new advertising and marketing czar is Bob Lutz, who until April of this year headed global product development. According to CEO Fritz Henderson: "Bob's responsibilities beyond creative design will include brands, marketing, advertising and communications." (I can visualize Bob at his first meeting with one of GM's agencies: "I'm not a marketing expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.")

Has respect for marketing fallen so low that the most difficult job in the profession (getting GM out of the ditch) can be given to someone with so little experience in marketing?

A Muscle Car to the Rescue for General Motors

.M.’s new Camaro, a throwback to another era, is creating a buzz in otherwise quiet showrooms

New York Times, July 10, 2009 — Believe it or not, General Motors has a hit car on its hands.Amid the gloom of bankruptcy and a miserable market for new vehicles, G.M.’s new Chevrolet Camaro muscle car is winning over consumers looking for a little excitement in a bland landscape of look-alike sedans and watered-down sport utilities.

G.M. sold 9,300 Camaros during the month of June — more than either its entire Buick or Cadillac divisions could muster on their own.

New Ad Introduces Consumers to 'New GM'†

Spot Part of Multimedia Campaign That Aims For Transparency Amid Bankruptcy

Advertising Age, June 1, 2009 — General Motors plans to break a new ad Wednesday to explain the "new GM" to the American public, executives familiar with the matter said.

The automaker already posted the 60-second spot online, including on YouTube and Facebook, shortly after it filed for bankruptcy protection this morning.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1543292789?bctid=24931063001

What GM Can Learn from IBM

The automaker's future may depend as much on selling a service as a product, a lesson that helped save IBM from extinction two decades ago

BusinessWeek, February 26, 2009 — Disappointingly for anyone with hopes for the future of General Motors (GM), the restructuring plan submitted by the automaker to the U.S. Treasury on Feb. 17 offers little in the way of a long-term comeback strategy. It's all about cost-cutting, federal financing, and making gas engines more efficient.

What more should we expect? The typical fate of corporate behemoths that flounder is either death or permanent eclipse, and perhaps GM's fate will be no different. Still, the recent past offers one rare exception that GM would do well to emulate.

Gerstner's IBM Reinvention

A Painful Departure for G.M. Brands

General Motors’ expansive lineup was once its primary weapon, but it plans to cut four brands, including Saturn and the long-lived Pontiac division

New York Times, February 18, 2009 — The brand that was once hailed as an important part of the future of General Motors now will be part of its past.

G.M. said Tuesday that it would phase out its Saturn brand by 2012. It does not plan to develop any more new vehicles for Saturn, which began 19 years ago as an effort to attract owners of small Japanese cars.

G.M. also said it was considering its options for the Pontiac division. The Pontiac name, part of the car business since 1932, could remain on some models, but may no longer be a separate division. G.M. said Pontiac would be a “focused brand” with fewer models.

Automakers Report Worst January Sales in Almost 50 Years†

Monthly Totals in U.S. Fall Below Those in China for First Time

Advertising Age, February 4, 2009 — DETROIT (AdAge.com) — The last time the auto industry sold roughly 669,000 vehicles in the U.S. in January, as it did this year, was in 1963, when Chubby Checker ruled the music charts and Michael Jordan was born. Adding to that bad news, China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in monthly sales, said Mike DiGiovanni, executive director-global market analysis at General Motors Corp. He said about 790,000 units were sold in China last month.

In ‘Trust Me,’ a Fake Agency Really Promotes

A Fake Ad Agency and Real Products

New York Times, January 21, 2009 — Beginning on Monday, the TNT cable channel hopes to add Rothman Greene & Mohr to those ranks as it introduces a weekly series, “Trust Me,” about a Chicago agency that competes against nonfictional firms like Leo Burnett and DDB. In another realistic wrinkle, actual products are being written into the scripts of episodes — including some, like the Dove line of hair care products sold by Unilever, that are also sponsors of the series.

With Saturn, G.M. Failed a Makeover

New York Times, December 4, 2008 — General At least G.M. knows how difficult the challenge will be.

A quarter-century ago, G.M. started Project Saturn with the same goals. And it worked, for a time. Saturn owners, including many who traded in their Hondas and Toyotas to own the first models in 1990, became cheerleaders for the division’s customer-friendly approach, while the United Automobile Workers union gave up many of its traditional restrictions to help Saturn succeed.

Motors has promised Congress that it can recreate itself as a different kind of car company — smaller, with a more cooperative relationship with its union, and a lineup of fuel-efficient cars to compete with the best of the foreign brands