ISSUE 257 : Wednesday, August 5, 2009

My name is Harry Webber. I own GM, along with 185 million other citizen stakeholders. I recently decided to take an active interest in my investment. As a co-creator of one of the longest running ad campaigns in history, along with time served on "Quality Is Job 1" at WRG, I figured that defining Brand GM would be a good place to start.

Since I own the company, I do not feel bound by the traditional client agency restrictions. Hell, I am the client (as are many of you). So I've decided to take the account in-house, so to speak. Starting with the following premise, set forth some years ago by A.G. Lafley, then CEO of P&G, to wit: "We need to reinvent the way we market to consumers. We need a new model."

My GM needs a new model. Top down isn't working. One-to-many isn't working. One of my managers deciding that Buick is going up against Lexus isn't going to work with that old marketing model, either. The new GM needs a new marketing model. A model that is bottom up, not top down. So that is where I intend to start. At the bottom. With nothing but a Mac, the Internet, and the concept of "genius".

I have decided that "genius" is the product my GM is in business to sell. Because at General Motors, Genius Matters (http://GeniusMatters.com). What allows me to make such a statement? Because, as an owner I can. Once I've made the decision, I just have to set about the marketing task of making genius matter to the rest of my fellow GM citizen stakeholders -- all 185 million of them -- including Mr. Lutz, Mr. Henderson and President Obama.

Why am I so sure I/we can accomplish this objective? Well, for starters, who, (given the scope of the task and the stakes), would dare say in public that at the new GM, genius doesn't matter? I have no doubt that somewhere within the 185 million of us directly involved there is enough genius to make our company exceed all expectations.

My strategy is simple. Leverage the combined genius of 185 million American citizen stakeholders (taxpayers) to create and produce a car that each of them would be proud to own. Period. I don't need the approval of any executive, agency person, government official or dealer group to convince the people in my company that conceive, design, engineer, test, build and sell our cars that their individual genius matters. I just need to remind them of it by every means at my disposal. Because right now, none of my fellow 185 million stakeholders in GM (http://WeOwnGM.com) have any idea what GM stands for. Starting here. Starting now. GM stands for Genius that Matters.

The response I have gotten this past week from people within GM to http:GeniusMatters.com has given me ample reason to believe. Some of the stories they have told me about their co-workers and the change of heart rippling through the company are truly inspiring.

Now I will convey those stories to my fellow stakeholders the best way I can. Let GM throw our money away on meaningless ads that get ignored by millions. Somewhere in that company there are the people who will make a difference. Somewhere in that company is the genius that can make a difference. And once the public can actually believe that genius matters at GM, they will give the company's products a chance.

But first I have to convince Mr. Lutz that automotive designers have no idea about advertising. That a photograph doesn't motivate a test drive, a review does. He is already beginning to realize that Advertising doesn't work without the genius of amazing products. That is Mr. Lutz's genius. Let's see what he does with it.

Certainly, this is not about nameplate advertising/engineering. This is about confidence. Do the people running GM have any idea what is required to get our bleeding, battered, debt-ridden and disgraced company up off the barroom floor and back into the fight? Can they make us proud of our new company? Or will they scare us half to death? This is not about building better cars. This is not about building better advertising. This is about building a better company, a better culture, a better reason for being. What do Fritz Henderson and Bob Lutz stand for as men? Do they have the core values to pull this off?

This is a war. Are these guys our soldiers? Career death can come at them at any time. Do they have what it takes to lead their workforce into harm's way and emerge victorious? This is hard to do when the world no longer believes in you.

When we did "Quality Is Job 1" at WRG, Ford Motor Company was on the brink of disaster. Chairman Phillip Caldwell put his flag in the ground and stated to the world that Ford stood for one thing and one thing only. "Quality." And he brought in Dr. Deming to make statistical Quality Control the rule of the day. Mary Wells was smart enough to know that Ford advertising would not come from her ivory tower on 5th Avenue.

She sent us out to crawl around Ford plants all over the country. And sure enough, when that line foreman at the Cleveland engine plant told Laura Slutzky, "Around here, quality better be job one," that was it. We all knew it. Not some guy with a cool haircut. A guy with grease under his fingernails. That's who turned Ford Motor Company around.

Madison Avenue no longer has a Mary Wells Lawrence or a Helmut Krone (VW). All it has is Dave Lubars whining about Cannes. "Car guys" have always been the problem, not the solution in Detroit. Not so in Japan. Akio Toyoda, the new head of Toyota, wants to make cars that make people "happy."

The key word here is "people," not "customers," not "consumers." Those terms are meaningless. The only thing out there is the audience.

In Advertising Age last week, positioning guru Jack Trout laid out his master plan for GM. It was just more of the same. The audience doesn't care about "America's favorite American car" (Chevrolet), they care about their family's well-being. They don't care about "having to pay for prestige" (Buick), they care about their financial security. And "leading-edge automotive technology" (Cadillac)? Real people care more about personal growth and their development as an individual. As far as "rugged reliability" (GMC) goes, GMC makes TRUCKS for crying out loud. The audience cares more about their own fun and escape. If your product stands in the way of that by braking down on the road, your product is dead.

Until Mr. Lutz starts working with "people guys" instead of "car guys" he is doomed to keep doing the same thing over and over again, while hoping for a different result.

Perhaps they need to give the job to my buddy Tom DeSantos here in Hollywood. After all, his "Transformers" series has sold more Camaros than Campbell-Ewald.

Of course the big question is, will anybody from GM listen to some wiseass "outsider" with his own idea of what GM positioning should be based upon? As of August 3, according to Google Analytics, there were 14 visits to GeniusMatters.com from GM, spending an average of 2:58 seconds on the site. GM interactive agency Digitas visited the site 20 times and spent an average of 2:47 per visit. Also of interest is the 6 visits from Farmington, Michigan and Farmington Hills, where GM Chief Marketing Officer Bob Lutz holds real estate interests.

If GM has a better Idea, they need to get it out there. I did. (http://GeniusMatters.com) This is our company. (http://WeOwnGM.com) We need to start acting like it.