It's about the four brands, and GM ain't one of 'em


Karl Greenberg
MediaPost Publications

(August 9, 2010) Whether or not Joel Ewanick sustains his renown as an automotive rock star at his new post as VP marketing at General Motors, he's certainly a rolling stone, moving too fast to gather moss.

In his 60 or so working days at GM, he has moved Chevrolet to Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Cadillac to Fallon, given a new role to Campbell-Ewald, created a new marketing structure, and lined up the pins for major initiatives for all four brands this fall and into next year.

Oh, and he just moved into his new house in Birmingham, Mich. How does the guy find time to sleep?

Joel Ewanick

If one had to sum up Ewanick's overarching plan for GM, one might start by not uttering "GM." Just call it the parent company. Ewanick is clear on that point: from the consumer's perspective, GM means nothing. The brands are Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC. So whether you're talking ads, autos, or auto shows, it's about the brands and keeping them in their own spaces.

Ewanick lays it out for Marketing Daily.

Q: Something I've got to ask first: What the heck is Steve Rosenblum's new job? [Rosenblum had risen to be head of marketing for GMC and Buick, and was responsible for one of the longest-running marketing platforms at the company, GMC's "We Are Professional Grade." He recently had a brief stint as ad and sales promotion director at Chevrolet before he was shifted again.]

A: As you know, I'm a big believer in what we do in event marketing, and one of the things I did when I walked in was to take a hard look at what we are doing at auto shows. I wanted to make sure that we are going to address the various target audiences specifically. The problem is that people see it as a PR event first, and consumer event second. I want to reverse that.  I want people to feel they've walked into "Chevrolet Land," for example, where everything you touch, see, and feel is imbued with the sense of that brand.

Steve is, in my mind, the best guy in terms of understanding the customer to oversee this. So he is one of the very few people whom I am allowing to work on all four brands at the same time. It is very, very rare that we will have one person touching all four brands. He's going to be the eyes of the consumer for those experiences. It's an enormous investment for us.

We go through 60 shows a year, and I wanted him to focus in on making sure we do an awesome job for each brand in every one of those shows. And he is one of the few people who understand that there are significant differences between target consumers for Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

We are really dialing up what we are doing at the auto shows. You will see a lot of the impact of this -- real changes in the core brands -- in the first quarter. But you will start to see our presence at the L.A. auto show change dramatically. We are moving quickly.

Q: So it's going to be about brand differentiation? I'm assuming that's a big part of it.

A: Yes, that's right.

Q: What is the one job you must succeed at?

A: If I do nothing while I'm at GM other than build a discipline, channels — what I call "swim lanes" — and establish these four swim lanes for the four brands, where they understand who their target audience is, what their message is and what their brand stands for, I will have achieved my personal goal. Because if we can build that, it will last for decades. It seems obvious -- but it was not so obvious, and it is not so easy.

Q: Is General Motors a fifth brand?

A: No. I call it our parent company. I do it on purpose. General Motors is our parent company; they sell nothing. People don't buy General Motors. They have a relationship with Chevrolet, with Cadillac, GMC, and Buick. And at the end of the day, we have to remember that. It's subtle to call it our parent company instead of General Motors, but it's another way to tell people on our team that they need to think about it that way. The thing that's on my check when I get paid -- that's not it. What I should be worried about is the thing that's on my business card.

Q: You don't buy a Procter & Gamble.

A: That's a good analogy. We are a more considered purchase that you only buy once every four or five years, but it's a fair analogy.

Q: How is the "parent company" with this idea?

A: The focus toward the brands is supported all the way around. Listen, we used to have little GM emblems on every car. They are gone. About a month and a half ago, we started taking them off. Most of the 2010's, within the year, you won't see that any more. We are preaching discipline in these brands.

Q: I see that being easy for GMC, Buick, Cadillac. But isn't that going to be hard with Chevrolet? Creating a unified identity for a brand that has Corvette at one end, Silverado at the other, and cars between?

A: It's both the easiest and hardest thing to do. Easiest because Americans' relationship with Chevrolet is very deep. I have never worked with a brand that has such a strong connection with consumers as Chevy. And I say "Chevy" on purpose because people don't have nicknames for other auto brands.

Chevy has a soul other brands can only dream of having. But we have to be a little more succinct about what we are saying; we have to make the brand Chevrolet, not the models. I believe people buy brands first and then the product that meets their needs the best. However, the challenge is that since Chevrolet has such a broad spectrum of product, we have to make sure we put a lot of attention on the models to build awareness, particularly when you are launching new ones.

On the other hand, we have this great brand image to work off of. Our key competitor does not have that. You will see us do that -- not so much this fall, but into the first quarter next year, you will see it resonate much more.

Q: What do you think of past Chevrolet campaigns that have attempted to unify the brands?

A: There are three or four campaigns -- "Like a Rock," "American Revolution," "Heartbeat of America" -- It would be interesting to bring back elements of those in a cool and interesting way. "Heartbeat of America" in particular: that sentiment is right at the core. Will we use those exact words? I don't know yet.

But way back when we were looking for a theme line for Porsche [in the late 1990s, Ewanick was general manager of marketing for Porsche Cars North America] they had dropped 'There is no substitute." I remember the day [Jeff] Goodby said, "I could write you a new line, but I couldn't beat that line. Ever. Why don't you just use that one again?" We did.