Zane Safrit

Gas Prices at Record High. Chrysler Launches Muscle Car

Gas prices are at all-time, inflation-adjusted, highs. We're 60 days away from the peak driving season which means we'll start seeing the prices continue to rise during that time. There's no real sign prices will drop significantly this year.

And Chrysler's solution? A muscle-car sporting a sprightly V-8.

And boy are they excited.

"From my perspective, it's the ultimate halo vehicle," said Reid Bigland, president and chief executive of Chrysler's Canadian operations. "The attention this product gets is like nothing I've ever seen." - Chrysler Launches Challenge into an Uncertain Market. Business Week

Yessir. The ultimate halo vehicle. A muscle-car, powered by a V-8, launched during record gas prices... Sold ALL 64-hunner'd of 'em. ( Brings tears to a momma's eyes, I'm sure. How did I raise a boy like that?)

The Detroit Free Press recently described Chrysler's recent quarterly performance as follows:

Chrysler's lost share, relative to its size, was the worst performance of any major automaker.

Chrysler lost 1.5 percentage points of market share in q1, 2008, alone.

That's equivalent to your competitor's taking 45,000 cars off your lot, putting them on their lot along with the cash from their sales. Your stuck with the costs of manufacturing and overhead.

The same article in the Detroit Free Press reported:

Japanese automakers, led by Honda Motor Co. and followed by Toyota Motor Corp. -- both of which dominate lists of the nation's most fuel-efficient vehicles -- picked up the 2.3 percentage points of retail market that Detroit lost and then some.

By coincidence, I found this Honda press release from 1998: Two of Every Three Honda Vehicles Sold in  US to Be a Low Emission Vehicle.

They made the decisions for 10 years to get where they are today. So did Chrysler.

Customers and You: Do you miss each other?

Would you confess, one to the other?

Anna Farmery at EngagingBrand noted in her twitter post, loving this post at Conversation Agent...I'd say Me, too.

The post is The Cluetrain Manifesto Conversation.

"You’re either participating or you’re not"...,

These are not necessarily negative conversations, mind you. They well could be constructive discussions filled with chances to learn about your customers and what you need to do to make them happy. Happy people buy more and tell their friends. It's your prerogative whether to join the conversation or not.

Yes. Every brand has a prerogative. ( Ask Bobby Brown; he had one, too.)

Most, funnily enough, choose to not join the conversation. Go figure. Their loss, really.

That's why so much of marketing these days isn't about talking to ...gasp...the customer. No, it's about statistical modeling and research, survey numbers and margins of error, statistical anomalies... Not about conversations, no.

What an opportunity, though, especially for small businesses where one2one conversations with customers, with each other in the company, can happen daily. They should happen daily.

That close contact with the customers is one of THE KEY ADVANTAGES a small business has over the large impersonal cash-cow brands we call national brands. They can customize their products to their customers needs based on what the customer tells them...in person. That, my friends (both of you), is the true definition of direct marketing.

But enough about me...(What do YOU think about me?) Valerie Maltoni writes Conversation Agent. This post is a great post about conversational marketing.

And Anna Farmery writes a great blog and hosts a great podcast series at The Engaging Brand. She speaks, we should listen.

Engaging Brand Interview: David Vinjamuri

Anna Farmery at the Engaging Brand hosts a great series of interviews with experts in branding, creating an engaged and passionate brand for your customers, community and employees. 

Her most recent interview is with David Vinjamuri. Mr. Vinjamuri is author of a hot new book titled: Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands.

The first few minutes are rich with observations. Paraphrasing:

* No MBAs, advanced degrees, sometimes even college degrees.

* No professional marketers

* Not in it for the money

* Following their passion, their personal mission (which happened to resonate with the market)

* Make sure you understand every way your customers will interact with your brand. And Choreograph that interaction. (Ok, that was Anna's commentary. But it sprung from David's description of J.Peterman's call center environment.)

Anyway, the interview's excellent. Again, Ms. Farmery is an engaging host. Mr. Vinjamuri is an engaging guest. Together they make...an engaging interview.