Bad Car Dealerships
I was once sent out by one of the Detroit auto manufacturers to visit its 15 worst dealers as scored by the company’s customer satisfaction surveys. Over the course of a few weeks, my team saw things that still make my skin crawl.

Some Highlights:

• A dealership in PA that kept its service department door locked … even during business hours … and forced customers to write up their own repair orders. As a customer, your job was to diagnose the problem your car had and write it in the space provided. Then, put your keys and the repair order in an envelope and leave without ever having talked to somebody who might be able to figure out what that thumping sound by the front wheel was caused by.

• A service manager in TX who’s approach to service was based on a simple philosophy: “Customers are idiots.  You can’t ever make an idiot happy.”

• A dealership in a real big city that lost, on average, two cars a week. They just vanished. Then customers were given the choice of accepting a different car of equal or lesser value or “take us to court.”

• My favorite was a service department on the East Coast that had a very big, very muscular, very intimidating guy who stood by the door to the customer waiting area. His job, in the service manager’s words, was to “keep a lid on those people who get themselves all worked up because they have a problem with how long we’re taking or how much they have to pay.”

It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that none of those dealerships are around anymore.  

My Take on Customer Service
Those are worst-of-the-worst stories but I came away from the experience with a pretty fine-tuned antenna for how companies treat their customers. Like you, I have to get my car maintained and fixed, occasionally visit the doctor, go out to eat, buy stuff, etc. Even with all the attention that has been paid to customer service in recent years, I am always amazed to find pockets of service that are still based on assumptions that I am somehow the idiot in the mix.

Here’s a Quick and Obvious Online Example:
I recently had to buy an electronic gadget and went to a site where Google told me the lowest price was. I tried and tried to get my order entered. After clicking “Buy Now,” I found I had to go back to the product page, block, copy and paste the product name and SKU to insert it into the order. After about six screens, I pushed “Complete Order” and the reply was something like, “Order error."  "Please re-order and submit again.”  No thanks. 

I went to Amazon. I read the customer reviews. I went to order and all my information was already there. Click. Buy. Done. Cost me about four bucks more than on the other site.

Acting like you like your customers, value their opinions and anticipating what they need. There’s an idea.

John Catlin, Movian Senior Writer.

Love of the Automobile Endures
Our relationship with cars may not be the same as that of our grandfather or great-grandfather, but that emotional connection continues to be passed down—especially when you live in Michigan.

As a Michigander you not only have a connection to your car—which, of course, is none other than American-made—but more than likely your job, company or your sister-in-law’s cousin has some connection to the auto industry. Don Hart, President of MOVE Communications, can attest to this. In January he attended Autoweek’s annual Design Forum at the College for Creative Studies to hear about the three subjects that affect our company: Cars, design and marketing.

The forum brought together some of the best brains in the business to discuss what it is like to design for today’s consumer. One of the speakers included was the “Father of the iPod,” Tony Fadell, who used to serve as Senior Vice President of Apple's iPod division, where he developed the first 18 generations of the iPod.

Staying Connected Through Technology
Fadell came out of retirement to found Nest and create an energy-efficient thermostat that is Wi-Fi enabled so you can adjust your temperate settings via iPhone app from anywhere around the world.

He brought this concept of “staying connected no matter where you are" to the forum. Sure, technology has entered our cars. For example, our conversations no longer need to end on the way out the door; we can simply enable our Bluetooth headset and drive handsfree. Then there are the latest innovations, like Ford’s new feature that will read your texts out loud and respond with pre-selected messages. But, Fadell wants to see electronics blend more seamlessly with cars for an enhanced consumer experience.

Millenial Point of View
Clay Dean, Director of General Motors North America’s Advanced Design, suggested that the Millennial generation of 80 million strong, who his company is targeting, isn’t asking for the glitz and glam of high-tech features; but instead they desire a vehicle that reflects their culture, triggers emotion and reassures their commitment to the brand. 

Peter Schreyer, Chief Design Officer at Kia, is dedicated to pulling on the heartstrings of consumers, because he too sees a strong emotional connection between people and their cars. “Our fascination for cars is not a matter of age,” said Schreyer. “In our business brand building starts very early. Each of us remembers certain times of our lives and the car we had.”

Designing and the Environment
Max Wolff, Design Director for Lincoln, focused on the designs saying, “Our design must differentiate us.” Comparatively, Peter Horbury, Senior Vice President of Design at Geely Group, who designs for Volvo, shared a perspective from oversees. According to Horbury, car buyers from Sweden and Scandinavia are looking for vehicles that are more environmentally savvy.

A Valuable Relationship
Whether you believe today’s consumer is looking for technology, an emotional connection or design, or all of the above, we can’t deny that the auto industry has devoted itself to keeping up these relationships and inspiring new ones.

Blog Post By: Jade Grammatico, MOVE Winter/Spring Intern and Kim Beson, Associate Writer/Project Coordinator.

Celebrating Your Brand
A party, gathering or social event is considered a success when lots of guests attend, stay and have fun. But, with corporate events the stakes are higher. They’re all about publicity, attracting high-profile guests, like President Obama, (more on that in a moment) and promoting the brand in hopes of increasing future sales.

MOVE Sets Clients’ Business in Motion
When MOVE received a call from Rebecca Fitzgerald, External Communications Director, Johnson Controls’ Power Solutions, to support the Grand Opening of their new Lithium-Ion Plant in Holland, Michigan, we were delighted. Why? Because we helped them with their strategic messaging and the creative to tell their lithium-ion battery story.

Plus, we love doing events. Take the North American Auto Show, as well as contributing to the Auto Shows in Frankfurt and Shanghai to name a few.  So, to help plan the event, handle media, and organize vendors in the local Holland area, we called on Jessica Westra of Jessica Westra Media Relations as a strategic partner.

Working as a team, the plan was put in place for the Grand Opening, but everything changed  when Fitzgerald received notice from the White House that President Obama would be visiting the facility the following week. Suddenly, the deadline went from a Grand Opening in one month to a Presidential Event in one week. Yikes. Get your security clearances and get to work!

Corporate Event vs. Political Event
Fitzgerald’s goal was to make this a world-class corporate event. To complement the main event—President Obama’s speech—every other element had to be clearly articulated, agreed to by security and the White House and then put into place.

The path that guests would take was identified—pass through security at the parking lot, and be received at a Johnson Controls event outside while guests were awaiting the President’s arrival, enter the facility, be seated and wait in anticipation of the President’s entrance.

“You want your event to meet guests’ needs, and more importantly, you want them to leave as Brand Ambassadors,” Westra said. “Your guests will tell people that day and even months after the event about the facility, why it is important to the community and its larger role in the economy.”

With that in mind, the Johnson Controls team and Westra made sure that information about the plant and company was readily available during the pre-event.  We developed fact sheets and created posters explaining Johnson Controls technology and the jobs the Meadowbrook plant would create.

Now all that was needed was the guest of honor.

Watch for next week’s post chronicling President Obama’s visit to Michigan.

*Photography taken by Morgan Anderson, http://www.morgan-anderson.com/

Great Automotive Social Media Campaigns

I’m happy to say that I made it to an Ann Arbor Ad Club (A2AC) event just in time—the group ends in May and starts again in September. As a new employee of MOVE Communications, I’m excited to get involved in MOVE’s social media presence. With that said, the topic couldn’t have been more fitting: Great Automotive Social Media Campaigns. The featured speaker was Chris Barger, a digital and social communications professional who worked with IBM and most recently General Motors.

Freedom to Push the Envelope

GM was heavily recruiting Barger to join them and lead their social media campaign. Living in New York at the time, Barger wasn’t too enticed by the prospect of relocating to Detroit. However, during the interview, Barger asked the then Vice President of Communications a question along the lines of, “Looking back a year from now, what would make you say, ‘Yes, I chose the right person?’” To that the VP answered, “I want you to scare me every day.” That freedom to push the envelope was what sold Barger.

Social Media Tips for You

As GM’s director of global social media, he led their social media campaigns from blogging, podcasting, wikis, social networking, etc. Here are some noteworthy tips from a seasoned pro:

• Large corporations can have Social Media campaigns: Think there’s too much red tape? Most large corporations, like GM and Ford, have established successful social media campaigns—and who knows where their business would be if they hadn’t. Even during bankruptcy GM kept their social media department running.

• “Immerse and Disperse”: This is a program developed at GM to get everyone in the company involved—from Customer Support to Marketing. Each month, 15 or more GM employees from various departments join the social media team and carry out their initiatives. That way, there aren’t just a handful of social media experts; everyone is an expert who will consider how to contribute to social media.
   
• Be aware of your social ROI: Sure, having thousands of fans and followers is important, but companies also have to keep their business goals in mind and measure the results they are having on business. For example, instead of promoting the Chevy Volt, the GM social media team created a presence around the Chevy Cruze. Why? Because they knew the Volt would get enough attention and they didn’t want the Cruze, their newest compact car, to be overshadowed.
   
• You don’t always have to go big: GM sponsored a Pizza Crawl, where people in the community visit local pizza restaurants in search of their favorite pizza while test driving GM cars. Berger said it might have been a small campaign, but it was equally effective.
   
• Don’t just talk about the brand: If Barger and his team had only talked about GM cars, the blog, twitter account, etc. would soon get stale. Instead, be a part of the community; and remember, the key word in “social media” is “social.” For example, Barger once tweeted about a sports team and generated an impressive amount of traffic.
   
• Understand the audience’s needs: When GM was going through bankruptcy, the social media team did not try to market or promote GM. They listened, commented on people’s comments and answered questions. In fact, they still have Customer Support agents who search the web and answer customer complaints. 
  
  
• Educate your employees: No one wants a backlash like Chrysler recently experienced. That is why it’s so important to teach employees how to correctly use social media. The most important message to convey is that you represent your brand.

Interested in learning more?

Read Barger’s social media thoughts in an Ad Age interview. 

Whether you’ve just started promoting your business through social media or you’ve been doing it for years, I hope you’ve found something useful here. I know I’ll keep these tips in mind as I post, blog and eventually tweet for MOVE.

A set of panelists was up next. These included:

• John Wendl, Content Director at Turn 10 Studios, who introduced the incredibly cool video game application of the Forza Motorsport franchise. With partner Microsoft they’ve taken CG, User Generated Content (UGC), and social media, using X-Box live, to a whole new level.
• ICON Aircraft’s COO, Steen Strand, presented its ICON A5 that leveraged "world-class design to make recreational flying more appealing and accessible."
• Bruce Campbell, VP of design for Nissan Design America, who led the design efforts for the new Nissan 370Z, Maxima and Rogue, said that the automotive industry has become caught in "sameness" and needed to press toward a renaissance in design. "With globalization, we're simply copying. The economic fears are driving this sameness. We need to design, not just for the business concerns, but we need to design for people." In this regard he said, "We need to create regional looks, take advantage of the fact that electric is here." He concluded with this call to action: "Be bold, step out. Hit the reset button every day. Reset design and lead the way with creative."

Key-note speaker Ralph Gilles, head of Chrysler design and CEO of the Dodge Brand, built on this momentum and called on the audience to "campaign the change" in design. He gave a very frank, funny and engaging presentation--the kind of presentation that made you feel like, "Yeah, there’s a community here made up of some very smart, hip, approachable people. Together we’re going to create something cool, now that we’re getting through all of this turbulence."

He framed his comments with a number of introductory quotes, including this one from Freeman Thomas, now at Ford as Director, Strategic Design for North America: "Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, and comes from collaboration and trusting intuition."

The current temptation, he said, "is for everyone to aim for the same center" of the target. It’s creating a lot of "me-too" looks. While vehicles do arrange themselves within specific "visual imprints," the designer’s job now is both to look for the soul in these icons and also to create the next icon. "Branded design is everything. You still need to create the soul and you create the soul by design."

He pointed out some 10 to 12 silhouette prints, including two new icons -- the Prius, establishing the line for the energy efficient aerodynamic vehicle; and the Smart car for the urban small car. He commented that his team was keeping a keen focus on the Millenials, a group that prides themselves on diversity but are all looking for connectivity and an active interface. In this regard he said, going forward, that "technology will be the trump card."

In signing off, he thanked his alma mater, CCS, saying that "education is working" and encouraged the new designers to "be respectful, but speak your mind. You have to campaign the change."

The day ended with Richard Chung, Vice President Design, Asia Pacific, Johnson Controls Automotive Experience, who brought a further global perspective. He shared that in the last 24 years since Johnson Controls entered, and has dedicated itself to, the automotive business, it has grown to be a leading global supplier, with eight design studios to serve its customers. He pointed out that in China, his area of focus, there was no real culture built around the automobile and that this was a historic moment to influence this exploding market of first-time buyers. As a recent example of Johnson Controls innovation, he highlighted the recent re3 global design demonstrator as breaking away from the "expected" and helping to shape "what is next."  MOVE supported Johnson Controls by helping develop the marketing creative for the re3 and the video presentation promoting it at Design Forum. 

You can catch more on this event by going to autoweek.com or downloading their iPhone app at the iTunes store. 

From all of us at MOVE, hats off to all who threw this party and who attended. You set a great tone for what surely will be a better year than the last. So as you look toward the year ahead, challenge yourself in your area of expertise. Be a part of the renaissance—keep creating.

It was just announced this week that GM is phasing out its' Pontiac brand.  While I can't say that I've ever been a big fan of Pontiacs, it's still a sad day in the automotive world.  Pontiac has been in the GM family since 1926 and has become the GM performance brand.  I think Pontiac actually just hit a homerun with the G8.  It's a pretty great looking car.  But one niche vehicle can't save a whole brand.

I'll admit, I'm actually more disappointed that they're getting rid of Saturn.  It seemed like they were moving in a good direction with their product offerings and especially with the offering of the VUE hybrid.  We've all gotten used to $2/gallon gas again so we're not pushing quite as hard for fuel-efficient vehicles anymore but GM's hybrid offering is pretty sparce and the Chevy Volt might not be the savior of the NA automotive industry that the media/government/GM is touting it to be.  It's a great leap forward for GM but there's still a long way to go.  In the mean time it's a shame to get rid of some of their more family-friendly hybrid vehicles. 

The problem is that GM just had too many brands.  There's a lot of development that goes into each vehicle line and even with the move to global platforms they end up having to repeat work.  The average customer can't really differentiate between the brands and they don't have the same kind of brand loyalty that my grandparents' generation had.  I've been trying to figure out what marketing lesson we can learn from this.  There are probably quite a few but the one I've landed on is to focus on what you're good at.  GM has a great thing going with Cadillac and there is a lot of brand loyalty to Chevy.  The demise of Pontiac gives us all a chance to re-evaluate what we're really good at and make sure that's our focus.   

Everyone’s pretty down on the automotive industry right now.  Here in Michigan, we’re definitely feeling the pain of the changing market.  Some people think that we should just let the OEMs ride the market wave and fail if that’s where it takes them.  Others are concerned with the fallout, not only for the OEMs, but also for their suppliers and the various industries that provide a network of support for employees and their families. 

Personally, I’m not ready to throw in the towel on automotive.  I love cars.  One of my earliest memories is of the upholstery in my parents Pontiac Phoenix hatchback.  (Incidentally, I’m glad the hatchback is regaining favor with American drivers, but that’s a story for another time.)  So I’d like to see us figure out a way to make automotive work in these global economic times, but the issues are complex and I don’t know what the answers are.  

What I do know is that some really great work is being done within the industry to evolve it into something that is sustainable, both economically and environmentally.  We had the opportunity to work on a video for the Johnson Controls NAIAS 2009 “demonstrator” vehicle interior, the re3, this past year.  When they began the development of this interior they realized that they had to rethink everything.  Consumers’ attitudes are changing.  They want smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.  But they still expect the comfort features that they had in their larger vehicles.  Then Johnson Controls looked for ways to renew the industry and the driving experience.  This meant making it a plug-in hybrid (with Johnson Controls lithium ion battery technology), using renewable materials, and reducing mass wherever possible.  But they kept in mind that consumers still wanted comfort features and found ways to respond with electronics, storage and seating innovations. 

Johnson Controls offers the OEMs a way to get more mileage inside their vehicles too.  Take a look to see how:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMDjUQYWHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VDHeGjlJww
Recommendation: watch it in HD if your computer can handle it 

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce Morning Edition.  As a marketing communications professional I was impressed with the number of innovators sharing their story at this networking breakfast event--right here in Ann Arbor, right here in Michigan.  

Among them was key sponsor Ann Arbor State Bank, a new start-up in the banking industry. They are to be applauded for joining with other strong local banks in bringing stability and insight to our challenged financial industry. Lumigen is a research, development and manufacturing company of chemiluminescence technology.   Chemiluminescence is the generation of electromagnetic radiation as light by the release of energy from a chemical reaction.  A sample demonstration lit up the room like a spotlight and not a firefly.  The Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative has reduced recidivism by 20% in the state of Michigan in the last two years.  And Zipcar is a new vehicle service that gives you wheels when you want them and enables exciting new forms of alternative transportation.   

One of the key speakers, Dr. David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research, extended the theme.  On the heels of the announcement that Mercedes will open up a new research facility in Ann Arbor, he spoke about other opportunities that are developing based on the retooling of the automotive industry and the important collaborative work going on right now between the labor unions, auto company management, supply chain representatives and the federal government.  This difficult but game-changing work, if it succeeds, will avoid bankruptcy while restructuring to compensate for overcapacity and ultimately strengthen the industry to provide profitable, market-pleasing products going forward.  In conversation afterwards, we spoke about the innovation of Johnson Controls, one of MOVE’s clients, and a recent project developed by its global innovation team headed up by Michael Warsaw in North America.  This project, the re3 vehicle rethinks the small car interior environment.  He remarked that this is an example of Johnson Controls strong history of strategically initiating to bring new ideas to its customers. 

My take-away was that now more than ever all of us in business have the opportunity as  we service our customers to bring forward new ideas based on our expertise that solve problems in ingenious ways--ideas that our customers wouldn’t have had the time or resources to generate. As we do, we shouldn’t feel obligated to have everything totally baked before we demo an idea.  Let our customers collaborate with us in tuning the innovation to their specific applications. If we do, we’ll see a new edition of innovation.  Bring it!