Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

It amazes me to see so much action in the financial news regarding car companies. Now Ford wants to offload Jaguar and Land Rover in the interest of generating the revenue that will find more solid financial footing. That's all good, but I don't hear much out of domestic automotive companies about reality. To be more exact, customer-centric reality. If you're going to play in the auto business for the long-term, you need to cop to the reality that customers will want (and do want) more fuel options. They might not use their cars as much. And they will be more conscious about driving SUVs. My 12-year old daughter calls SUVs "seal killers" because she heard that we need to ruin the seal's habitat to get more oil from it.

I know that's an innocent point of view. But she's four years away from driving, and probably six or seven years away from purchasing a car. Customer values are formed early and often in my experience. And I don't think the auto business, regardless of its M&A activity, understands that yet.