GM's shock and awe campaign

Can GM move beyond its gas-guzzling image?

GM's new marketing campaign is going to "shock Americans into a new awareness about the competitiveness of GM products," according to Bob Lutz.

Via any method of comparison, GM believes, their products are as good as any other automaker. And, according to the latest quality rankings, etc., GM has a case.

But is marketing GM's best path to changing perception?

Several years ago, Bob Lutz claimed it would have been smart for GM to utilize just a fraction of one year's multi-billion dollar marketing budget to fund the production of a Toyota Prius-contender. Eventually, Lutz's realization evolved into the Chevy Volt, however, the Volt won't come close to challenging Prius sales for more than a decade, if ever.

While the Volt won't offer game-changing sale's numbers, it will drive a lot of green buzz, but will it bring new consumers to GM?

Ultimately, GM has made huge strides in quality, but according to a recent automotive supplier's survey, for instance, GM's innovation is still lacking. Obviously, the Volt will help address that issue, at least in terms of perception, but it seems to me that GM needs an innovative fuel efficient vehicle that can sell at least 100,000 units per year.

Possibly, the Chevy Cruze could be that product, however, the Cruze will never appear as innovative as the Prius. If GM can find a way to address that product gap, with a product and not marketing, I'd bet GM's perception problems would need far less marketing "shock".