In a lengthy rant on his site AutoExtremist, adman Peter DeLorenzo who has worked on Dodge, Pontiac et al, informs that GM’s new car czar Bob Lutz is just the man to fix the troubled automaker’s marketing solutions. Why? Because one time in the 80s the former Marine approved using an actor with shoulder length hair. That’s the kind of “outside the box” thinking they need — and maybe some cars that don’t suck?
And now, some key quotes:
— “[I]ndustry types are making the assumption that Lutz either doesn’t know how to do it or worse — doesn’t get it — and that GM’s marketing efforts are doomed to failure before they even get out of the gate.”
— “But there’s another dimension to Lutz that people forget about and that is that long before he was the preeminent product guru in this business he cut his teeth in marketing and advertising. He’s no stranger to that aspect of this business at all, and he definitely does have a feel for it.”
— “Besides having the distinct pleasure of presenting creative work through the haze of the cigar smoke generated by Lutz (and Lee Iacocca) in ad meetings, Bob was always tough and relentlessly focused.”
— “Tim (Newman, the first MTV Video Awards Best Director) and I came up with another rendition of the classic boy drives like a bat-out-of-hell, stops at diner, picks up hot waitress, and disappears on down the road story, and not only that, we cast it with very contemporary looking L.A.-based talent, including the male lead who had lengthy hair down to his shoulders.”
— “But Lutz can’t transform GM’s image alone, just as he couldn’t rejuvenate GM’s product portfolio alone.”
— “Don’t be surprised if he turns the current agency roster upside down and goes looking for new blood, too, because GM needed a new image yesterday, and any time wasted from here on out will be time they just cannot afford to squander.”
— “And besides, it’s only the future of the new General Motors Co. that’s riding on him getting it right.”
Read the entire rant, here.
More: “GM’s Bob Lutz Promises/Threatens Radical Marketing Makeover”