You Had Me At 100

 

Chevy worked overtime to produce a lot of buzz for the estimated 230 miles/gallon for its Volt EREV, and I'm not sure anybody cared.  It wasn't as auspicious coming out party for the "new" GM.

It's too bad, because the Volt EREV (for Extended-Range Electric Vehicle) deserves the attention...and GM should get the credit.  From what I can tell, though, they botched the news in at least three ways:

1. Picking a dumb number.  What does 230 mean to anyone?  It's not a common or obvious threshold, and it's so many times greater than the mileage anybody would expect for a car to be practically incomprehensible.  Turns out no car has ever broken 100, so why not start there (nice round number that definitely feels like more than, say, 35), then throw in a couple dozen more for kicks.  Since the EPA hasn't certified the MPG number yet, is there a chance that it could be lower than 230?  The number almost begs to be qualified or made real-er, like by examining how many trees will be felled to produce electricity, yadda yadda
2. Promoting it poorly.  Ads of a "2" and "3" followed by a smiley-face electrical socket appeared on TV, along with the numbers "8-11."  It was supposed to go viral and start a conversation.  GM paid for all the requisite social media nonsense -- Facebook page, YouTube videos, whathaveyou -- only there was nothing to talk about except the marketing itself.  Imagine if the campaign had asked a question, like "where would you go if your car got 100 MPG?" or "why can't the rest of the world build a car that goes as far as ours do?"  Declare something that explicitly asks for an answer (ergo, starts a conversation)
3. Failing to encourage real participation.  So the car is coming out sometime in 2010 and will cost a rumored $40,000.  You think a lot of people are lining up to buy it?  GM wouldn't know, because its social media campaigns have no real participatory purpose.  Why couldn't it have used the announcement to start taking names, offering glimpses of the manufacturing process, and scheduling test drives?  How about addressing the financing issue, and introducing a plan now that would allow consumers to accrue some savings or discount benefit to then use when the car is for sale?  Link it to the environment, or changing commuting habits (if I recycle so-and-so, I save X on the Volt, for instance).  Give people real things to do, not just the fantasy nonsense of friending on Facebook

The biggest disappointment for me is three-tiered, in that as a consumer, American, and a marketer, I cannot fathom why GM is failing to tell me a story about where the company is going.  I understand that it got lots of money from the government, and that some ads promised "a new day," or whatever, but there's no obvious direction, narrative flow, or milestones to give its announcements any context or credibility.

Maybe nothing has really changed?  Whether heavy metal tail fins or 230 MPG EREVs, it's all about pushing new models to dealers, and letting them haggle prices.  Ford isn't doing much better, in that it announced last week that it was somehow linking up with electric utilities for electric cars.  What a cool basis for a new, interactive, meaningful relationship with its customers, but it instead chooses to host stupid vlogs for its Fiesta launch. 

What a bummer.  I was ready to believe otherwise.  And GM could have had me at 100.

Comments

[Jonathan]

Be careful...if you do the right arithmetic function, i think it releases a worm on your hard drive...

[lee]

ditto indeed. 'tell me a story' applies in marketing but in life and SO many other instances. consider the passing of 60 Minutes' Don Hewitt, and the many who cited his demand to "tell me a story" when producing pieces. you'll hear the same thing from jazz or blues musicians about soloing. any decent filmmaker and so on.

on another note, for the life of me, i'm lost on the "8-11." those 2 numbers make me think of 8 1/2 x 11 paper or maybe 8 minus 11 equals negative 3...sure that must be it. negative 3 is the number of GM executives divided by the zip code of detroit ... ahh forget it. :-P

[BIG Kahuna]

Here's my take: http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2009/08/gm-goes-puke-green/