How to Save a Major Automobile Company

Neil Young paints the final part of this triptych. Instead of reinventing the wheel (pun intended), Detroit can use all of its current resources but start thinking in terms of components. Young proposes that carmakers should start opening the way for SCEV technology, Self-Charging Electric Vehicles. All of the infrastructure that currently builds complete cars could be used to build vehicles without the powertrain, thereby allowing these vehicles to be fitted as consumers choose, gas, electric or whatever.

This is simply a logical extension of looking for relevance in manufacturing a mass market product. Read it here: How to Save a Major Automobile Company.

A major lesson in all of this is how the decisions of a select few affected their companies’ bottom lines and the rest of the American economy. If the Toyotas of the world are taking the lead in making cars, that means Americans most likely aren’t building them. The stockholders, managers and immediate employees of major corporations are not the only ones affected by bad marketing decisions. The trickle-down affects everyone.

Good marketing ultimately is very simple. Consultants, salespeople, agencies and firms complicate things in the rush to prove their value, close deals and sign clients. But, whether you run a huge automobile manufacturer or your own start-up from your garage, remember that your end-user, your customer, is a living, breathing human being. If your product or service isn’t relevant or useful to them, it’s not useful. And the flip-side of that equation is that if you listen and take the steps to make sure that your product is relevant, you’ll succeed.

The next time you look at a product or an ad, ask yourself if it’s relevant to its target audience and if that ad is communicating that relevance. If you can remember an ad but you can’t remember its point or, worse yet, the brand, that’s a bad ad and that’s bad marketing.

Happy marketing!