Ewanick Has Big Plans For GM’s Marketing

“Consumers don’t buy General Motors. General Motors sells nothing.”

Those are the words of General Motors vice president of U.S. marketing Joel Ewanick, and they speak directly to the overall direction in which he is taking The General’s marketing department. Ewanick’s current focus is to build up the prestige and quality that lies within the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC brands instead of boasting that there’s a big sale every month to clear inventory.

“We’re moving sheet metal instead of telling our story. We’ve got to get back to telling our story. What do we want to tell people about Chevrolet?”

Ewanick’s plan is to have each GM brand tell a story of its own, establishing a clear-cut identity for each marque. He uses the example of him watching auto auctions on TV, explaining that TV auctions bring out an emotional connection for a specific brand of a vehicle.

“We’re going to remind you from time to time that we’re part of the fabric of society,” Ewanick said.

The first brand to undergo this change is Chevrolet. In the last 13 months, Chevrolet has gone through three marketing directors. The latest is Chris Perry, Ewanick’s right hand man at Hyundai. Ewanick is staying quiet on what his plans entail for Chevrolet, but expect the Camaro, Equinox and Chevrolet’s Chevy nicknane to be featured.

Ewanick also said that he will bring in new people to help get the message out:

“My boss, Mark Reuss, asked me to bring people into the organization that will challenge the way we look at things.”

That makes us wonder who else will join GM’s marketing team in the coming months.

The GM Authority Take

We would like to applaud Joel Ewanick for nailing the one thing that the GM Authority crew has been criticizing for quite some time. That one thing is the lack of brand identity.

If you walked up to someone and asked what Cadillac’s identity was, you might get different answers. Ask the same person what BMW represents as a brand and you’ll most likely hear something along the lines of “the ultimate driving machine”. It’s good to see someone within GM taking the reins of the marketing department. The question now is what will happen and will they succeed. Only time will tell…