Marketing suckage-ness

[fazool]

The recent thread about Saab got me to thinking:

I've been a "car guy" my whole life and worked as an auto industry engineer early in my career. I would say the seventies and eighties were the dark ages of the auto industry, especially in America. The biggest problem then was quality. Cars were made like crap and floundering companies had only themselves to blame. Foreign companies, especially Toyota and Honda devoured market share with customers who were sick and tired of quality problems. American car companies still haven't overcome the quality "black eye" they got then.

But now American car quality is up but they're still losing market share. Why? Well, because they simply don't make cars that people want. And when they do, they don't know how to sell it.

Just look at the Pontiac Aztec. Ugliest car ever made. It was cheaper to manufacture all those big sharp panels than curved hoods and fenders. It became a new corporate style. Even Cadillac took on the style. These cars are our Edsels. No one wants these abominations. Well Pontiac is gone but they is still a lot of ugly to scrub away.

And when they do make a good car, they have no idea how to sell it. Look at the Ford Escape. We know that when someone has a product to sell, they will tell us about the best and most desirable features. What does Ford tell us about? Sync. And they show a scene of a customer saying "call Hubby" and the Sync system pleasantly replying "calling Hubby". Yay. My twelve year old has been able to voice dial her cell phone for years. If that's all you have to tell me about, then you have nothing worth seeing.

Chrysler decided to show their cars in B&W gliding through their hometown of Detroit and and show off the "cool". Unfortunately no one explained to them that showing a car driving around a burnt-out ghetto isn't in the least bit cool and doesn't make anyone think "I want what they have!". They tried dressing it up for the holidays by showing a baptist style choir. That's wonderful and all but it's kind of massively narrowing the viewers' interest and what does it have to do with cars anyway?

Chevrolet is touting their craptastic Volt all-electric car. It has the worst human factors design in the controls. No one wants this and car companies don't understand WHY: No one cares if your car charges overnight and no one cares if you set up charging stations around the country. Not one person wants to be stranded for 8 hours while their battery charges. We use gas stations because we can "recharge" in 5 minutes and be on our way. When they make battery-swap stations, that instantly fill your "tank" then people might look twice at this.

Now, Saab....

An odd design and no advertising. Anywhere. Has anyone, ever seen a genuine Saab commercial? I never have. And they wonder why they have no customers.

Rampant stupidity is just one reason I left the auto industry.

[billofdurham]

Chevrolet is touting their craptastic Volt all-electric car. It has the worst human factors design in the controls. No one wants this and car companies don't understand WHY: No one cares if your car charges overnight and no one cares if you set up charging stations around the country. Not one person wants to be stranded for 8 hours while their battery charges. We use gas stations because we can "recharge" in 5 minutes and be on our way. When they make battery-swap stations, that instantly fill your "tank" then people might look twice at this.

The Nissan Leaf is our answer to the 'energy crisis/climate change' problem. All electric and touted as "Not just another car" by Nissan it was road tested by the motoring press on a run from London to Edinburgh. The shortest route is 404 miles but the Leaf couldn't use the shortest route as the journey had to be planned around recharging points. This extended the route by about 50 miles - not a huge difference. In a car powered by fossil fuels the journey would take 8 - 9 hours. The Leaf took 4 DAYS as it can only do about 100 miles per charge. The driver, at one stage, had to switch off the heater, radio and any other electrics he didn't need to reach his next charging point. It is not "Not just another car", it is "Not a car that is any good".

Throughout all the debates about electric cars no-one has ever answered the question, "How do we generate electricity to keep these things running?" I have a vague idea that we use ....... fossil fuels. There goes the climate change argument for electric cars.

Has anyone, ever seen a genuine Saab commercial?

Yes. Saab ran quite a good advertising campaign on UK television a few years back. However, they did tend to rely on satisfied users doing their advertising for them.

Bill.