Comes from reading this article in AdAge ... Why Should GM Give Marketing Any Respect? by Jack Trout ...
Bob Lutz quoted as saying (in a BusinessWeek interview) ...
"To spend $200 million on manufacturing, we have to get board approval with top management involved from an early stage. Yet we spend billions on marketing and delegate that to too many people at the lowest levels. It's insanity."
('course ... I'm not sure if there are that many mucky-muck Board level guys that got any more on the ball than some lowly media guy ... like DMG)
Friday, July 31, 2009
Cash for Clunkers goes ... Clunk.
Not the numbers ...
Noone can argue with the success of the idea ... getting $3500 to $4500 in tax break incentives if you trade your beatup gas guzzler for new fuel efficient model ... your choice.
And noone can argue with results ... so much demand on the program that the Government subsidized tax break for turning in your clunker is at capacity!
Lets face it ... there is huge pent up demand for new vehicles right now ... and in a ragged economy, you just gave me the BEST reason to go buy ... a GREAT deal.
And CLUNK! ... it's over and done in 5 days?! The Gov has run out of money to support the incentive (as had been warned - based on above).
Leading to a somewhat inconvenient truth? ...
Whatever the US Auto Industry woes ... people will still buy the cars.
The whole bailout business and chastisement of the Domestic Car makers was born in a failed economic system ... NOT the fact that they build crappy cars or were run by thick-headed carpetbaggers. A 15-year old notion. That may have been a problem ...back then ... but not necessaruily now.
Put the right incentive in front of the consuming public at this critical time in the economic recovery, on good vehicles ... and see what you can do? Spur sales.
Only problem is, as usual, the Gov is ill-prepared and lacking in foresight to follow through on the program.
Possibly leaving some dealers in the lurch, waiting to be reimbursed on deals they have sent up to NHTSA for approval on the Cash For Clunkers money ... while the Gov adjourns for a nice summertime hiatus.
"Joe Serra, owner of the 21-dealer Serra Automotive Group in Grand Blanc, said the system for submitting deals didn't work.
'Their capacity to accept the applications is not adequate," Serra said. "Dealers are spending all day trying to submit the applications. ... I have not spoken to one dealer that has received approval, and or has been funded, for even a single transaction.' " - freep.com
And leaving many more potential buyers in the lurch who surely didn't expect the whole thing to be done in less than a week.Cash-for-clunker deals frozen-Freep.com
"The chaos began after auto dealers warned the government Thursday it was losing track of how many trades had been made."
In a sudden upsurge of sales that has the Pace reports at +10 million units again in the U.S. (how far could that go under this kind of national incentive??), ... well ... sheesh ... how is it the Feds keep letting the air out of the balloon??
Recovery ...?
Clunk.
Noone can argue with the success of the idea ... getting $3500 to $4500 in tax break incentives if you trade your beatup gas guzzler for new fuel efficient model ... your choice.
And noone can argue with results ... so much demand on the program that the Government subsidized tax break for turning in your clunker is at capacity!
Lets face it ... there is huge pent up demand for new vehicles right now ... and in a ragged economy, you just gave me the BEST reason to go buy ... a GREAT deal.
And CLUNK! ... it's over and done in 5 days?! The Gov has run out of money to support the incentive (as had been warned - based on above).
Leading to a somewhat inconvenient truth? ...
Whatever the US Auto Industry woes ... people will still buy the cars.
The whole bailout business and chastisement of the Domestic Car makers was born in a failed economic system ... NOT the fact that they build crappy cars or were run by thick-headed carpetbaggers. A 15-year old notion. That may have been a problem ...back then ... but not necessaruily now.
Put the right incentive in front of the consuming public at this critical time in the economic recovery, on good vehicles ... and see what you can do? Spur sales.
Only problem is, as usual, the Gov is ill-prepared and lacking in foresight to follow through on the program.
Possibly leaving some dealers in the lurch, waiting to be reimbursed on deals they have sent up to NHTSA for approval on the Cash For Clunkers money ... while the Gov adjourns for a nice summertime hiatus.
"Joe Serra, owner of the 21-dealer Serra Automotive Group in Grand Blanc, said the system for submitting deals didn't work.
'Their capacity to accept the applications is not adequate," Serra said. "Dealers are spending all day trying to submit the applications. ... I have not spoken to one dealer that has received approval, and or has been funded, for even a single transaction.' " - freep.com
And leaving many more potential buyers in the lurch who surely didn't expect the whole thing to be done in less than a week.Cash-for-clunker deals frozen-Freep.com
"The chaos began after auto dealers warned the government Thursday it was losing track of how many trades had been made."
In a sudden upsurge of sales that has the Pace reports at +10 million units again in the U.S. (how far could that go under this kind of national incentive??), ... well ... sheesh ... how is it the Feds keep letting the air out of the balloon??
Recovery ...?
Clunk.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Micro-hoo Search Partnership ...
Can this be anything but GOOD for the industry ???
The answer, from where DMG sits, is obvious. Any competition to Google-iath is a GOOD THING.
Microsoft, Yahoo agree on long-sought search deal-AP
Not that Google's goose is cooked (even remotely - they are at least 65%-70% of all search at present)... but ...
BING - I think I hear the timer going off ...
****************************************
"Hey Google - I got my eye on you ...."
UPDATE: 7-30-09 Advertisers Fear Details, but Love Microsoft-Yahoo Deal - AdAge
The answer, from where DMG sits, is obvious. Any competition to Google-iath is a GOOD THING.
Microsoft, Yahoo agree on long-sought search deal-AP
Not that Google's goose is cooked (even remotely - they are at least 65%-70% of all search at present)... but ...
BING - I think I hear the timer going off ...
****************************************
"Hey Google - I got my eye on you ...."
UPDATE: 7-30-09 Advertisers Fear Details, but Love Microsoft-Yahoo Deal - AdAge
Monday, July 27, 2009
Over the Top(per)
The new Buick campaign got more than it's share of criticism a week ago when it broke with this spot ...
Agencies Gird for Rough Round of Meetings After Exec Trashes Their Work-AdAge
There is Gary Topolewski ... the spot's creator ... of course defending the work ...
"...saying it was aimed at "breaking stranglehold" on the perception of Buick as old and stuffy, and said he is willing to do whatever GM and Leo Burnett want. "If it doesn't quite meet what expectations are, we'll adjust accordingly," he told Crain's. "The idea was to gain attention for Buick, which I think it surely did."
But ... I don't know ... "gain attention" ??? ... well maybe ...
in a ... flamboyant(?), some might say even Diva-esque... sort of way? Maybe just the Ferndale-eze coming out in the spot ...
I think most people in our biz would have to say it played to the "inside the biz" a little too much ... particularly given current state of the Brand, the market, and Buick's uphill climb on the perception curve.
Topper has done better.
(Remembering this ... which by-the-way, Lutz was around for in the old Chrysler-Jeep days ...)
Agencies Gird for Rough Round of Meetings After Exec Trashes Their Work-AdAge
There is Gary Topolewski ... the spot's creator ... of course defending the work ...
"...saying it was aimed at "breaking stranglehold" on the perception of Buick as old and stuffy, and said he is willing to do whatever GM and Leo Burnett want. "If it doesn't quite meet what expectations are, we'll adjust accordingly," he told Crain's. "The idea was to gain attention for Buick, which I think it surely did."
But ... I don't know ... "gain attention" ??? ... well maybe ...
in a ... flamboyant(?), some might say even Diva-esque... sort of way? Maybe just the Ferndale-eze coming out in the spot ...
I think most people in our biz would have to say it played to the "inside the biz" a little too much ... particularly given current state of the Brand, the market, and Buick's uphill climb on the perception curve.
Topper has done better.
(Remembering this ... which by-the-way, Lutz was around for in the old Chrysler-Jeep days ...)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Friday Video
You may have caught up with this recent piece of viral video now circulating ... a charming (at least we think) bit of slice-of-life advertising by Olympus ...
Except, ... as I read some of the comments on YouTube ... came across this one ... a very observant and obviously engaged viewer ...
mundymanor(4 hours ago)
"Let me get this straight. He leaves his wife and child, turns gay, splits again, and then gets old with no family?
Oh goody.
Well, the idea is very clever and well done. The story line is depressing. Can't you do the same great work with a better story?"
Had to laugh ... wow ... reality is a bummer. And Olympus captures it all for posterity!
Except, ... as I read some of the comments on YouTube ... came across this one ... a very observant and obviously engaged viewer ...
mundymanor(4 hours ago)
"Let me get this straight. He leaves his wife and child, turns gay, splits again, and then gets old with no family?
Oh goody.
Well, the idea is very clever and well done. The story line is depressing. Can't you do the same great work with a better story?"
Had to laugh ... wow ... reality is a bummer. And Olympus captures it all for posterity!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Twitter-dee-dee ... twitter-dee-dumb ...
Julie is at it again as "guest genius" on FOX Business Reports ...
Jules likes to bang that drum of ... "talk with the customer" (duh)... She suggests, in the context of social-networking your way to success (in this video) that Twitter provides a "nice R&D component" to Brand communication ... and, Jules is a Tweeter herself. Not sure how that has or hasn't advanced her R&D, per se ...
But, in the social networking realm ... DMG was particularly enamored with a recent blog post on Jules' site (JulieaRoehm.com ... of course ... I mean shouldn't we all have our own self named website?)
In this post ...GM must overhaul marketing, Jules sited a recent article by another former Detroit Brand Marketeer, Mike Jackson (of former GM infamy) and defends his view that GM was brought down by "GM lifers". Of course Jules jumps on this and counts herself along with all those other "change agents" that were unjustly run out of their jobs by a deep abiding bureaucracy akin to the Death Star brigade.
But a "sometimes" commenter on this blog ... Roger Daltry (new boss, same as the old boss) ... comments on Jules blog and gives her dose of the "real deal".
"“Get rid of GM’s cancerous lifers”….the best thing they did was get rid of a cancer named Mike Jackson.
Finally Julie, when at DCX you, Jim, Jeff, et al were management….why didn’t you push for “the hard decisions necessary, at Chrysler or the other two Detroit OEMs to change the labor agreements, reduce capacity/shut down plants, reduce the dealer body so that they could be more competitive with Toyota and Honda instead of each other, and make vehicles that people really WANTED!”
Your mentor Schroer had the stripes as EVP Sales & Marketing….his answer: Celine Dion. Brilliant!"
No doubt about it ... the TRUTH ... hurts.
Jules likes to bang that drum of ... "talk with the customer" (duh)... She suggests, in the context of social-networking your way to success (in this video) that Twitter provides a "nice R&D component" to Brand communication ... and, Jules is a Tweeter herself. Not sure how that has or hasn't advanced her R&D, per se ...
But, in the social networking realm ... DMG was particularly enamored with a recent blog post on Jules' site (JulieaRoehm.com ... of course ... I mean shouldn't we all have our own self named website?)
In this post ...GM must overhaul marketing, Jules sited a recent article by another former Detroit Brand Marketeer, Mike Jackson (of former GM infamy) and defends his view that GM was brought down by "GM lifers". Of course Jules jumps on this and counts herself along with all those other "change agents" that were unjustly run out of their jobs by a deep abiding bureaucracy akin to the Death Star brigade.
But a "sometimes" commenter on this blog ... Roger Daltry (new boss, same as the old boss) ... comments on Jules blog and gives her dose of the "real deal".
"“Get rid of GM’s cancerous lifers”….the best thing they did was get rid of a cancer named Mike Jackson.
Finally Julie, when at DCX you, Jim, Jeff, et al were management….why didn’t you push for “the hard decisions necessary, at Chrysler or the other two Detroit OEMs to change the labor agreements, reduce capacity/shut down plants, reduce the dealer body so that they could be more competitive with Toyota and Honda instead of each other, and make vehicles that people really WANTED!”
Your mentor Schroer had the stripes as EVP Sales & Marketing….his answer: Celine Dion. Brilliant!"
No doubt about it ... the TRUTH ... hurts.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Primetime in Online.
Just to lend perspective ... (and keep things real)...
Over the past several months, much has been played out relative to Hulu's growing emergence as a portal to TV Entertainment programming online ... and a precursor to TV's ultimate demise.
So here it is by the numbers:
- Hulu is currently 4% of all primetime audience unique viewers
- all FEPs (full episode players, including Hulu, ABC.com, CBS.com, etc) is 10.4% of all primetime audience unique viewers
(note: based on aggregating all primetime uniques, TV + FEP = 250.8 mil P2+)
- Hulu is currently only 0.3% of all primetime content viewing impressions (TV + FEP combined)
- all FEPs (incl Hulu) is only 0.6% of all primetime content viewing (TV + FEP combined)
(note: based on aggregating all primetime gross viewers, TV + FEP = 121.6 bil viewed impressions P2+)
Obviously, total online viewing of all forms of video content continues to grow. But during this Upfront timeframe, when marketers want to smoke the drapes about gaining leverage with the Networks ... it helps to look at that sometimes underused term called scale.
What noone can say with certainty at this juncture is if there is truly any higher engagement through the FEP portal, than with traditional TV viewing. Hulu, of course, prices at a premium that gaps for just such an engagement lift over TV - they claim - based on IAG vett'd research.
What Hulu doesn't necessarily say, is that IAG research is only built on leading upper-tier primetime programs (Top 20)... and not based on all the other content posted there.
And, you can't buy program specific.
So .. thems (some of) the facts.
Not sayin' that Alex Baldwin won't somehow worm his way into your brain at some point. But what I am sayin' is ... (in case your media brain is a "cottage cheese-like mush") this is no Plan B ...
yet.
**********************
UPDATE: 7-15-09 What Sank Veoh and Joost? Too Much Cash Too Soon-AdAge
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Obama's "first pitch" strategy tonight ...
Let's hope it's more successful than his economic recovery strategy so far ...
Recasting GM.
The big buzz now is all about Bob Lutz. Will he be able to completely recast The New GM as it's CMO in charge of all things product, marketing, and sales related.
Some people seem destined for certain tasks - some, for tasks of great proportion.
Is Bob Lutz the Right Guy to Run GM's Marketing? - AdAge.
Clearly, it seems that Bob Lutz has found that destiny taking hold of him many times in his career - and so it now does once more.
It's true that Lutz has suddenly been given at least as much power to influence all aspects of the GM Brands as he had during the halcion Chrysler days when everything he touched there turned to profits and hot-sellers.
Which makes one wonder if the look inside GM marketing might also suddenly be recast with some of that old Chrysler "Dream Team" ...
More ... Lutz says drastic changes to come in GM’s ads - Automotive News
Some people seem destined for certain tasks - some, for tasks of great proportion.
Is Bob Lutz the Right Guy to Run GM's Marketing? - AdAge.
Clearly, it seems that Bob Lutz has found that destiny taking hold of him many times in his career - and so it now does once more.
It's true that Lutz has suddenly been given at least as much power to influence all aspects of the GM Brands as he had during the halcion Chrysler days when everything he touched there turned to profits and hot-sellers.
Which makes one wonder if the look inside GM marketing might also suddenly be recast with some of that old Chrysler "Dream Team" ...
More ... Lutz says drastic changes to come in GM’s ads - Automotive News
Monday, July 13, 2009
Upfront ...
... is officially "wtf" behind ...
(Here is my prediction though, for better or worse ... the deals will be struck and concluded in next 2 weeks. Reason? Because how else will all the backroom processing take place in enough time for advertisers to be on air by mid-September?
And ... despite all the pontificating to the contrary ... I don't care if you're Unilever, P&G, or the freakin' ANA hit parade ... NOBODY has a Plan B that effectively eliminates TV ... nobody.)
Marketers Claim They Can Wait Until Networks Drop Their Upfront Prices - AdAge
UPDATE: 7-16-09 Will Price Rollbacks by ABC, CBS, Fox Jump-start Stalled Upfront? _AdAge ... signs of life?
(Here is my prediction though, for better or worse ... the deals will be struck and concluded in next 2 weeks. Reason? Because how else will all the backroom processing take place in enough time for advertisers to be on air by mid-September?
And ... despite all the pontificating to the contrary ... I don't care if you're Unilever, P&G, or the freakin' ANA hit parade ... NOBODY has a Plan B that effectively eliminates TV ... nobody.)
Marketers Claim They Can Wait Until Networks Drop Their Upfront Prices - AdAge
UPDATE: 7-16-09 Will Price Rollbacks by ABC, CBS, Fox Jump-start Stalled Upfront? _AdAge ... signs of life?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
...and VOTE
For Brandon Inge, for a spot on the 2009 American League All-Star lineup ...here ... less than an hour left!! (3:17p)
UPDATE: 7-10-09 And the result is in ... Tigers' Brandon Inge wins vote for final All-Star spot-Freep.com
UPDATE: 7-10-09 And the result is in ... Tigers' Brandon Inge wins vote for final All-Star spot-Freep.com
Google wants to own your soul.
Google's announcement yesterday that they will launch into the OS business, competing head-to-head with Microsoft and Apple with an "open-source" system that is free ... and allows any user to modify the system ... is potentially momentous on several levels.
"Users have the freedom to change, improve or customize the software. And there's a community of users that can help fix something that breaks, instead of relying and paying for companies like Apple or Microsoft to ride to the rescue."
Take that Gates? How 'bout them apples GodJobs?
Google is very seductive.
But wait ... there is a murky side to all this. What? you say ... Not Google! Not a murky side ...!?
Well here it is ...
Google believes that "everything is going to migrate to the Web," says Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for the NPD Group, a market research firm. "So this, for them, is certainly a much longer-term play because frankly — in 2009 and 2010 — there are very few consumers who want to trust the Web."
And the kicker here is that by putting your eggs into the Web ... with open-source coding ... also places your data at some risk.
"Many corporations and educational institutions are uncomfortable because you're putting your intellectual property on somebody else's servers and Google maintains that they have rights to whatever is on their servers".
Because Google wants to own your soul. They want you ultimately to become dependant on them. And they will then make money off of your dependency by charging marketers to mine the data, profiling you in some algorithmic way and feed your thirst for information or entertainment with what they find to be suitable based on those algorithms. The ultimate Spyware, so-to-speak?
Google is very seductive. No question.
Of course, so is the Devil. And the devil, as we know ... is always in the details.
(Yikes - the plug could get pulled on this blog at any moment ... worse yet, you may be feeding the Google algorithims as we speak ... Blogger, you see, is a Google property!! Big brother is always watching ...)
"Users have the freedom to change, improve or customize the software. And there's a community of users that can help fix something that breaks, instead of relying and paying for companies like Apple or Microsoft to ride to the rescue."
Take that Gates? How 'bout them apples GodJobs?
Google is very seductive.
But wait ... there is a murky side to all this. What? you say ... Not Google! Not a murky side ...!?
Well here it is ...
Google believes that "everything is going to migrate to the Web," says Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for the NPD Group, a market research firm. "So this, for them, is certainly a much longer-term play because frankly — in 2009 and 2010 — there are very few consumers who want to trust the Web."
And the kicker here is that by putting your eggs into the Web ... with open-source coding ... also places your data at some risk.
"Many corporations and educational institutions are uncomfortable because you're putting your intellectual property on somebody else's servers and Google maintains that they have rights to whatever is on their servers".
Because Google wants to own your soul. They want you ultimately to become dependant on them. And they will then make money off of your dependency by charging marketers to mine the data, profiling you in some algorithmic way and feed your thirst for information or entertainment with what they find to be suitable based on those algorithms. The ultimate Spyware, so-to-speak?
Google is very seductive. No question.
Of course, so is the Devil. And the devil, as we know ... is always in the details.
(Yikes - the plug could get pulled on this blog at any moment ... worse yet, you may be feeding the Google algorithims as we speak ... Blogger, you see, is a Google property!! Big brother is always watching ...)
Caption this ...
"Geezuz Marty! ... we're out for a nice stroll ... in Idaho! ... that's why there's no service?!
(Sir Marty and his new wife seen this week at the Allen & Company summer media conference in Sun Valley - AdScam )
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