Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

GM certainly needed to rebrand after entering bankruptcy and receiving billions of taxpayer dollars. The question is whether the company can create enough goodwill to alleviate consumers' fear about buying a GM car. The ad utilizes imagery befitting an election season political commercial. It begins with a mea culpa, sort of, and ends with a joke that's probably lost on many viewers. In between is a bunch of nonsense about recognizing mistakes, striving for efficiency and optimization, and trumpeting the uninspired decision to keep GMC, Buick, Cadillac, and Chevy.

Shortly after the spot was posted on YouTube, someone created a spoof ad as a response. It can be found below.

GM certainly made it easy to mock the ad. Rather than apologizing for needing a bailout and blaming the company's failure on having too many brands and not competing on cost with foreign car makers, GM should have admitted it clung to legacy brands too long, assumed gas prices would stay low enough forever to encourage SUV ownership, and ignored the under-30 market that migrated to the import market.

That's the message consumers need to hear, and GM's own words in this ad and their actions in keeping these four brands says otherwise. Who cares about the imagery and music when the message is so far off base? Each video has an accompanying website to expand on the ad. GM's Re:invention site is colorful and interactive, but it fails to address the fundamental problems with the company. The spoof site (please don't write letters, I didn't come up with the name) mirrors the real one, and maintains the tone of the fake ad (some content may be offensive to some readers).

To end on a positive note, I couldn't be happier that GM abandoned Saturn and it was picked up by Roger Penske. He has the experience and knowledge to take such a promising brand and unleash its potential.