Exclusive (w/ video): Whitacre talks about overcoming the perception gap with GM vehicles
If you’re not already sick of GM’s new Chairman, Edward Whitacre, here he is again talking about the problem of overcoming the perception gap with GM vehicles. Whitacre, 67, has been in the headlines quite a lot recently due his appearance in General Motors new ad campaign called ‘May the Best Car Win.’
Most have compared Whitacre’s appearance in the ad to Lee Iacocca’s Chrysler ads that ran back in the 1980s. Lutz has been defending Whitacre’s leading role in the campaign saying that his appearance is nothing like Iacoccas.
“What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face,” Lutz told Automotive News. “He’s tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little bit when he walks, which sort of gives him this old cowboy look.”
Whitacre will only be in the public face only for the first phase of the ‘May the Best Car Win’ campaign, which will be directly pitting GM products against competitors. You can learn more about the campaign in Omar’s post made this morning.
These two videos are the first in a series of four – we’ll bring you the other two very soon.
Click through for the two videos.
The critical consensus is that GM’s reputation significantly lags behind the quality, innovation and great designs of its current products. Great products can only go so far; how much can great marketing do to help consumers reconsider GM vehicles?
In your experience, are there any guiding principles that should help GM reinvent itself in the 21st Century?
– By: Stephen Calogera
