Obama Did What?
Oh, this is classic! I quote the May 21, 2009 headline from Adverting Age magazine… “Obama Halves Chrysler’s Planned Marketing Budget.”
The article goes on to say, in part,
“DETROIT (AdAge.com) — Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it’s expected to be in bankruptcy — the U.S. Treasury’s auto-industry task force gave it half that.
“So if GM, which is wrestling with the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing itself, is wondering how much influence the task force will have over marketing, the answer is: plenty.”
So here we are in near depression. We’ve got the government virtually nationalizing private businesses all over the place. Everybody seems to be looking to the administration to get us out of this mess. We believe our leaders are supposed to be wise. We look to them for an example; to show us the way to go; to give us the path back to prosperity.
And what do they do? Tell us to stop selling.
Are these people crazy? Don’t answer that. None of us really wants to know.
Now wait a minute. I’m not here to argue the relative merits of Chrysler’s mid-bankruptcy advertising and marketing efforts, specifically. You could argue – and apparently even the bankruptcy judge did bring up the question – that, with manufacturing plants shut down, why should Chrysler advertise at all? You could make the argument that they have no business running a single ad at this time, let alone $134 million worth of them.
But that’s not the point. What is, is whether the federal government has any business telling Chrysler, GM, any auto-maker, bank, insurance company, newspaper or lemonade stand, what they should do to market their business, how much they should spend, how they should spend it, or anything else related to the operation of that enterprise.
Think about this. Barack Obama has never run a business, small or large. The only one he’s ever been in charge of is the one he runs now – the government itself – and his ability to run up red ink makes GM and Chrysler’s combined bankruptcies look like chump change. We’re a far cry from having even the slightest inkling that this guy is any kind of a corporate turnaround artist. He has never had to make marketing decisions, where sales and profits were on the line. (Believe me, getting people to decide to vote for you among a choice between 2 alternatives, is a veritable cakewalk, compared to getting people to go deep into hawk for a car that costs twice as much as some of the houses in Detroit.)
Okay, I acknowledge that the President didn’t make this call on his own. His Auto-Industry Task Force made a recommendation that was surely rubber-stamped by the White House, and carried before the bankruptcy judge. And I confess I don’t know who is on that task force or what their background is. I’m sure a bunch of bean counters and other auto industry execs and former execs (whose credibility in making any kinds of decisions regarding growing a car company, has to be suspect given their track record over the last four or five decades, unless their names are “Mr. T” (Toyota) and Mr. D” (Datsun, now Nissan)).
But even that misses the point. The real issue at hand is that you can’t stop selling. You can’t stop marketing. How do you do anything without sales and marketing?
You don’t. You simply wither away and die.
If you’re really frugal, you wither slower and die later. But the minute you stop selling, you seal your fate. You’re headed for the scrapheap.
Let me tell you something you’ve probably heard before, but that has apparently escaped the Obama administration and the vast majority of unthinking political types out there… Nothing good happens until something gets sold. Nobody gets paid until something gets sold. Nobody. Not the janitor, not the CEO, not the Congressman, Senator or President. Nobody gets raises, nobody gets a retirement income, nobody gets healthcare until something gets sold.
You can print money based on nothing and by so-doing stave off the collapse for a while, but it can’t go on forever. And in the current anti-business, anti-sales, anti-prosperity climate in our political class and among the academic elite, as well as the unenlightened, “pro-big government please save us” working masses, our ultimate demise is being hastened.
Again, I don’t know that Chrysler should be spending a plugged nickel on advertising right now. I do know that as a symbol of the attitude of government toward business and government’s role in business, this decree is a bad omen indeed.
Incidentally, the Ad Age article went on to say that Chrysler had argued, and the task force agreed, that totally cutting advertising would erode the brand during the predicted nine-week bankruptcy process. That is a crock. The brand is already eroded. The hiatus from largely ineffective advertising would be highly unlikely to hurt further, particularly if, upon emerging from Chapter 11, the manufacturer came out with some hard-hitting, direct response ads actually designed to sell cars, instead of merely build brand. (Again, beside the point, but I just couldn’t resist.)
What’s it mean for you? What kind of executive decisions are you making these days about your own marketing, advertising and sales efforts? Are you cutting budgets? Are you trying to conserve your way to prosperity while actually diminishing your sales-related activities? Are you insane?
Got a business problem… a revenue problem… a profits problem? Get out there and SELL your way out of it. And do it NOW, before Big Brother Barack tells you you can’t.
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Comments
A cut in marketing is not Chrysler’s problem - their problem is piss-poor management, boring designs, horrible safety and longevity records, and corporate executives that would rather pick locations for their next beach house than employees that can help sustain their business. This is a company that crumbled from the inside out, top to bottom. Chrysler is lucky that ANYONE is holding it together. What’s left of taxpayer funds should go to help CITIZENS in need NOT corporations that played the survival of the fittest game and lost. Sore losers are pathetic. Marketing is extremely important, I do agree, but you can’t market crap and that is EXACTLY what these Bail-out whiners are producing and they’ve been dying long since before Obama touched it. Hopefully he’ll make more mistakes and this company can be put to rest and the American people can move on to the real issues and problems. Sorry if I have offended, but for decades all anyone ever seems to do is point fingers at Clinton, Bush (Sr or Jr), or Obama - where was all this brilliant advice 8 years ago or even 8 months ago. It’s easy to say someone is messing things up when you’re sitting in your office watching people run around trying to get things done. You want Chrysler fixed - invest in it. Buy a Chrysler, tell your friends to buy one. I doubt you will. Instead you’ll continue to complain, like everyone else, about what isn’t being done correctly or what others should have done to fix your problems.
One last remark, you can sell your stuff until your blue in the face but if your customers truly don’t have the money to buy it - it doesnt matter how much you spend on marketing. The people that would buy a Chrysler don’t have $20,000 to $50,000 lying around to buy one and the banks aren’t too excited to give much money out. So who would you suggest they market these cars to exactly?
I totally agree. Now is NOT the time to quit marketing a product or service. Great view. Thanks for the common sense marketing mentality. It’s becoming rarer by the hour.
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