PreviousWhat Car Brands Can Learn from Saturn (Visit this link)
Kevin Smith from Automotive News: In a few weeks we will learn the fate of Saturn. A number of options are on the table, but it is clear that Saturn no longer is part of General Motors' long-term future. How did a business-school case study, and a rare moment of GM brilliance, fall so far so fast? While Saturn has lost its place in GM's orbit, it still points the way car companies and many other brands need to go in these challenging times. Saturn built an organic brand with a powerful internal brand culture, driven by the customer, and the results were staggering. Saturn won buyers back from the imports. Its clever product launches surprisingly exceeded the lofty quality and resale standards set by Honda and Toyota and claimed third-party customer-satisfaction awards year after year. But soon Saturn was losing its way. Some speculate that GM saw Saturn as a finished product that didn't need significant ongoing investment. And internal politics were beginning to surface, too. Soon Saturn was a target of other GM brands as they competed for scarce product and marketing resources in GM's overpopulated brand portfolio. In effect, the free-standing Saturn division had become a bothersome internal rival, nearly as menacing as outside competitors.
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