Innovative marketing tips that will blow your mind.

Manizesto



GM, when will you learn?

|
July 21, 2008

Anyone want to spend $132 on a tank of regular gas? How about getting 10 miles per gallon? No? Well, then, does the thought of a a $900/month car payment get you excited?

No again? Me neither.

Which is why the sales of Hummer, one of GM’s brands, have plummeted 54% in the last quarter and continue to decline, prompting speculation of GM drastically lowering Hummer production and R&D or even completely selling off Hummer brand.

The last thing General Motors needs to do right now is roll out with yet another expensive, gas-guzzling SUV, but that’s just what they did last week when they introduced the Hummer H3T, a truck-like version of the H3 with low gas mileage and a high sticker price. How unfortunate. How untimely. What a lack of foresight.

But can you blame them? They’ve been planning this model for more than a year and had already finalized all the production, pricing and logistics of this model way before gas prices went berserk. Why not at least launch it and try to get the investment back out?

Because:

  • No one wants to buy these right now, so sales will be hard to come by and probably stacked with incentives.
  • Continuing to peddle these types of vehicles just sends the message that GM doesn’t get how difficult high gas prices are, making their brand out of touch with consumers.
  • The company is already losing money with the brand, and introducing a vehicle that will be on the chopping block in a year won’t make things any better.
  • GM’s stock is taking a beating right now (the stock was at a 50 year low just a few weeks ago) and announcing this new product launch to investors doesn’t exactly create a sense of confidence.

    • This was a horrible idea. GM: what are you thinking?
    Original photo by Christine Comments