GM has an new swing coach, if you will.
Bob Lutz, a 77 year-old “car guy” turned image czar, will try to be the one to guide GM, and maybe all, auto manufacturers out of their doldrums of creating and approving advertising that absolutely does nothing to make you want to buy a car.
I’m guessing he must be one of the last direct marketing people left around Detroit, otherwise they would let him retire and enjoy the few years he has left.
GM’s advertising, PR and internal communications are said to be in tatters, which means they suck, in my neck of the woods.
Here’s a good start to an old problem: “That … commercial tested very well, which is not the same as saying it’s an effective ad.”
Finally, somebody above the janitor who knows that a silly-ass ad doesn’t sell. The day they started to let ad people design their marketing campaigns is the day they started to lose sales.
Advertising should have a goal. That goal shouldn’t be to entertain the general public or to “brand” GM to the untargeted masses.
“I think you will very quickly see a drastic change in the tone and content of our advertising. And if you don’t, it will mean that I have failed.”
If he doesn’t “design” their sales pieces with the end user in mind, he’s wasting his time and would be better off retiring and playing golf.
Here’s today’s key takeaway for all leaders, C-level or not:
Just because it tests well with some focus group doesn’t mean it will be an effective ad, training program, process of some kind, etc.
Effective has many meanings and I can’t possibly be targeted enough here to help everyone, but think of it this way:
Will Farrell movies make more than they cost to make. But that doesn’t mean I want to be in one, produce one or invest in one.
If it looks like a fool, smells like a fool and sounds like a fool, then it’s a fool.
It doesn’t matter if you think it’s Academy Award winning, it doesn’t matter if nobody cares enough to tell you the truth, it doesn’t matter if nobody you know is smart enough to tell the difference between Dances With Wolves and Waterworld.
Sorry Kevin.
A fool is still a fool.
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