Sunday, March 29, 2009
GM's Saturn, Apparently Doomed, Still Pitching Hard
I was watching the NCAA tournament yesterday and it seemed like at almost every commercial break I would see an advertisement projecting the Saturn car brand's new outlook on the car industry. I did not know that GM was looking to get rid of this brand prior to reading this article, but it seems a bit odd to me that all of this effort is being put into a sinking ship. If GM really feels that Saturn is a bad asset then while you do need to ensure that the recognition of the brand name is there and that people want to buy that type of car you still need to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money. The ads didn't seem very enticing to me and I can't speak for others, but it is probably a similar sentiment felt by those who saw the same commercials. Dumping money into this failing brand may be helpful in selling it off, but I don't see how Saturn will generate any significant long-term revenue boost to GM and especially with the type of advertisements that are being put out there for display. GM will most likely be getting more money from President Obama and maybe they will be able to reorganize their efforts in a more productive manner.
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4 comments:
First of all, GM is trying to increase the value of this brand in case it does decide to sell off Saturn.
Second, GM has a million and a half different strategies. Selling Saturn is just one of them. As a brand, Saturn has performed alright for GM and they have been pouring money into Saturn for a couple years now.
Bear in mind that it takes years for a car to make it from blueprints to dealerships. The re-branding that Saturn is currently undergoing started a long time ago. For a couple years, Saturn was a low quality, low cost car line. Some used to say that Saturn stood for Sorry About That Unusual Rattling Noise.
Finally, Saturn has been performing fairly well for GM. At a time when the company is trying to expand its market-share of low-cost, fuel efficient cars, Saturn's brand fits the bill.
Considering that GM plans to stop making any cars under the brand after two years its only option appears to be selling it off to some other company. In order to make the brand appealing to the public like you mentioned, they need to market the cars in a different way and illustrate how they may be better than the typical car being sold on the market. The current ad campaign does not accomplish this goal and it fails to capitalize on a market that is relatively nonexistent with electric powered cars. With the way the company is headed its heads up on its competition is not doing any justice to the potential it could have it marketed properly.
There is no evidence to suggest that this ad campaign has failed. I'm not quite sure where you're getting that idea. They just aired the commercials, in a market such as the car market, results do not come immediate.
Also, you bring up the idea of electric powered cars. Electric cars are a fringe product right now and could not provide the revenue to help pull GM out of the red.
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