Everyone knows Craftsman hand tools are the best.  Right?  Everyone realizes that a lifetime warranty and the ability to walk into retail outlets nationwide and return those tools, to instantly receive a replacement, as backing of that warranty, creates an inherent value that makes the product the best in it's field.  This warranty propelled Sears and Roebuck to the top of the quality hand tool marketplace and held them that position virtually ad infinitum.

So.....

With that type of marketing in mind, car manufacturers learned an important marketing lesson.  A perception of quality can be created by warranty.  The better the warranty and accompanying service, the higher the perception of quality the end user is likely to receive. 

The rub.....

Car dealers and car manufacturer’s interests do not always parallel one another.

The producer of the product always wants the product to receive top billing.  Their product is, naturally, the star of the show and should be given the treatment of a star.  Coddling and pampering of the star are mandatory and a prerequisite for success.  At least as far as the producer sees it.

Car dealers, on the other hand, get rewarded for turnover of inventory.  That's it.  If loyalty helps this to occur, then it is a good thing.  If it isn't necessary for turnover, that's fine also.  In the end, it is an issue of turnover for turnovers sake or profits don't exist.

Reconciling these disparate needs has needed to be a focus of the auto industry for over twenty years now, with very few real successes.  The companies doing it best appear to also be the ones leading the sales sheets.  This isn't an accident as I see it.  For all the talk of bankruptcies, employee and retiree benefits and poor quality product, the real problems facing American automakers today are more involved with proper marketing of desirable product than any of the other aforementioned causes.

Imagine.....

GM and Ford working with their dealers to create showrooms people would want to visit.  Swank decors in the dealerships with properly trained sales folk who understand the product and know how to develop a loyal clientele.   Prep departments in dealerships with incentives to make sure the car is right before it is ever released to a new purchaser or showroom floor.  Service departments that go the extra mile for customers, rather than expecting customers to go the extra mile for them.

In the end, if all the members of an automotive company don't get on the bandwagon of being the best in their industry, in all facets of the industry, then the cutthroat nature of the competition today virtual assures that company will fail. 

Let's hope the execs in the American automobile industry figure this out before it is too late.

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