doesn't get it
General Motors recently announced the death of the Hummer. Both the announcement and the death were accidents.
This should not surprise many marketing people, who have watched General Motors torpedo itself with a series of brand extensions and brand proliferations that leave GM being just what it says: general. It stands for everything, which means it stands for nothing.
What ever was the difference, for example, between a Buick and an Oldsmobile? Better yet, why did General Motors choose to put Ransom Olds's name in the car's name, dooming it to its death? What is a Pontiac? What is the difference between GMC and Chevrolet trucks and SUVs? And why are there so many?
And with all those trucks and SUVs, why did Chevrolet acquire Hummer, and proceed to turn it into something more like a Chevy?
And why did Chevrolet brand its pickups with the Chevy brand in the first place, thus creating a brand that reached from dirt-cheap and dirty pickups to Corvettes and Cadillacs? (That GM realized this mistake is suggested by its creation of the GMC brand, giving it two lines of trucks and SUVs, in part because the Chevy truck brand tarnished Chevrolet's car brand.)
The Hummer's death blow was splattered across billboards nationwide last month: the introduction of a remarkably affordable Hummer. This, unbeknownst to GM, represents a contradiction in branding terms, and renders the Hummer brand almost meaningless -- except to those who equate the brand with an arrogant indifference to the planet's finite supply of oil and gas, and the Middle Easterners who control most of it.
The allure of the Hummer rests on its relative exclusivity; it appeals to a particular younger man who might have purchased a Porsche, perhaps used, but wanted to make a bolder statement: "I own the road, and can afford a car that takes up most of one." (Undoubtedly, deeper Freudian impulses are at work in a Hummer purchase, too.)
Now, that's no longer the statement a Hummer makes. Now, it's a far more affordable vehicle, built along a Chevrolet platform, that drinks gas rather than guzzles it. Well, that's great -- but too many other SUVs already make that claim, some of them already siblings in Chevy's dysfunctional family. In its death throes, Hummer will siphon off some sales from these other GM vehicles, then disappear, taking former GM customers away with it.
General Motors' problems are everywhere; branding will solve just one of them. The obvious solution -- shrinking the brand portfolio, as it started to do with Oldsmobile -- is harder than it appears, because of GM's rigid agreements with dealer franchises nationwide. And healthcare costs, a burden of all American companies, automatically tack on $2,100 to the price of the average GM vehicle.
But like Ford, General Motors long ago seemed to decide that its brand was so powerful that every brand it introduced would be, too, and that real branding --defining the back story and key point of difference of each sub-brand, and staying relentlessly on that message -- need not concern them.
The result is a mess, and the introduction of the new Hummer suggests General Motors still does not get it. This matters to anyone reading this, because our automotive industry drives much of our economy. We learned this years ago when the federal government stepped in to save Chrysler. Perhaps Ford and General Motors feel there is a safety net under them, too -- an Automotive Welfare program that ensures they do not really need to work that hard, or think that long, about the real meaning and value of branding.
Twenty-four out of twenty-five American business ignore branding. In some industries -- arbitration, law, and vocational education, to name just three -- the very idea of a brand is absurd. "We are not Coca-Cola," the executives of these businesses contend, and go off to concentrate on matters they consider more important.
But they miss the fundamental point. You do not choose to have a brand. You have one. Perhaps you think of it as your reputation, but it is a brand; it comprises everything your name evokes in your market.
The question is, are you going to seize that brand, manage it, nurture it, and realize its extraordinary potential -- as Yahoo!, for example, has done -- or are you going to allow it to seize you?
Carpe brand.
Seize your brand.
Excerpted from The Invisible Touch by Harry Beckwith (Copyright 2000, Warner Books)
The Lighter Side
Harry's very
interesting week:
Highlights -- delivering the closing remarks at the Golf Hall of Fame induction in St. Augustine, Florida; learning he's featured in The Guru Guide to Marketing; starting his four years on Stanford University's Athletic Board amidst the worst football season ever; prepping for a day-long presentation in Caracas, Venezuela; leaning that he's the favorite author of 2006 Tony Award-winning actor (The Jersey Boys) John Lloyd Young; and the arrival of an invitation to participate in the Renaissance Weekend, a by-invitation gathering of worldwide leaders in business, the arts, politics and other walks of life.
Highlights of the
Hall of Fame speech:
How Scottish Presbyterianism explains golf; the role in golf's invention of The Marquis de Sade; why bad in tennis is called "love" but great in golf is merely called "par"; insight on whether there are golf courses in heaven (answer: of course not!); and what the Scottish wisely invented right after inventing golf. (And thanks to the PGA Tour for this highly visible chance to vent -- on the greatest game.)
Find out how to get a newsletter for your own company.
 | ||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Harry Beckwith is the best-selling author of Selling
the Invisible, which has been named one of the top
ten business books of all time, with over 675,000
copies sold in 20 translations. He is also author of
The Invisible Touch and What Clients Love, which
have sold over 275,000 copies in 20 translations. He has been a keynote speaker for 14 Fortune 200 annual sales meetings and the National Speakers' Association convention, and has |
|
made presentations in Europe, South America and Asia. He is
cited regularly in national media including CNN,
The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Entrepreneur,
Crain's New York Business and numerous
American, European and Asian newspapers. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Harry resides in Minneapolis with his wife Christine Clifford Beckwith. He is the father of six children. |
|
| ||||
| ||||
Logos Success Stories Project Gallery Request an Evaluation Contact Us
E-mail questions and comments for Harry Beckwith to invisble@bitstream.net.