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November 20, 2008
Hubris, Blindness, and Marketing. Oh, And GM's Demise.
Joe Jaffe's Jaffe Juice posting today got me to laugh. He railed about many things automotive, but I was really amused by the venom for the Cadillac commerical staring Kate Walsh. For me, there is a real lesson for brand managers and marketers who are trying to understand the movements of markets in the dynamic world we live in.
Few times in business do you actually get to watch a company driving itself into the abyss while screaming its presumed virtues. The utterly ridiculous Kate Walsh commercial is frankly only one of the Cadillac commercials that seem (to many of us) to be aimed at inner-city drug kingpins, dominant pimps, people whose sole mission it is to destroy the earth, and women who apparently like the feel of a ... .
Modernista!, a highly skilled agency with plenty of knowledge about alternate media, had the assignment to breath life into a dying brand. That they did, albeit perhaps in a way that many of us find odd. The 30-second spot was prominent (but not exclusive) to their efforts. And in fact, they found the market niche that existed.
But because a niche exists, doesn't mean that smart managers in companies like GM should cater to it. Instead of pouring energy into the Cadillac CTS, if they had figured how to build and market the Volt, there might be people lining up to "save GM" in its time of need, (Amazing how helpful the market can be when it's on your side.) Instead, many of us look at the gas-guzzling CTS, see their over-the-top ads, and say "what a perfect target to kick right now."
GM needed to jettison brands (still does!) -- not hold onto them in their death-throes. Thanks in part to advertising, GM made it to November 2008. But in the end, a blend of hubris, blindness, and insular thinking have taken GM to the brink, and left most of us thinking we'd like to be the finger that pushes them over the edge. Anyone with the most minimal knowledge of social media has been able to feel the brand revulsion ages ago. Perhaps an even greater agency effort could have helped GM's clueless brand managers to read the writing on the 'Net.
P.S. Ford, Chrysler...don't even begin to get me started.... ;-)
Posted by jcioban at November 20, 2008 7:18 PM
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