GM's showing a weird disconnect. Nobody for a minute believes the employees' discount either amounts to much if they give it to everybody, nor do those ads really say anything other than yet another sales gimmick. Yet another desperate sales trick by a company which needs to address the quality of its products first, then build from there.

Seems painful, but not running the employee discount promotion could result in greater losses; the promotion is intended to generate sales in order to keep production up through the end of the model year. Were sales to tank even more than they have due to increasing fuel prices, there would be even greater job cuts. Or worse.

What's more challenging are the real issues behind what looks like a faux pas. The UAW would not renegotiate their existing contract, as requested by GM; GM made the request because existing overhead expenses are non-competitive, in no small part because of exponentially increasing healthcare expenses.

They're both on the same side of the issue, thought, both GM and UAW; they both need to be competitive, but health care expenses are crippling both as they compete against automakers across the globe who can rely on national healthcare programs to subsidize these benefits for their workers.

GM is the largest healthcare provider in the state of Michigan, I'll point out; healthcare costs approach or exceed the cost of steel in each vehicle they produce. Why is it that we expect corporations like GM to be healthcare providers?

Unions, too, should be free to concentrate on providing higher quality labor forces while protecting those workers against abuse -- not scrabbling for healthcare.

Something's got to give, and soon, or we are going to lose the auto industry altogether to those countries with subsidized healthcare.

It is a meaningless advertisment. The least they could do was not call it employee discount, especially at a time when they are discounting their employees.
Shame on GM, shame on big business...

I'm tired of being taken for granted as an idiot by companies like GM. Slash jobs today, tomorrow run ads that saw, "we love working here."
Sure.
I'll get an "employee discount." Do I look like I came here from high school?
No one seems interested in running a dog in the race called Health Care scam. I live in Yuma Arizona where there is a scarcity of not only GOOD doctors - ANY doctors. Know why??
NO MONEY in it. Why are we surprised at that, huh? All the docs here are from the Pacific Rim, the Dentists are a closed practice and do so with a handgun in one hand and mask in another, Mexican dentists are just across the border and treat Americans better than our own doctors do.
The American Doctors flee to Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, etc where the big hospitals, large populations, and big salaries and practices are.
We need 60 minutes on this case, somebody on the trail of FOLLOW THE MONEY. What happens and why. Start with filing a claim, why the insurance companies hold you off for a year before paying, doctors dunning you, and what's with the middle company that "qualfies" your claim. There's so damn much money to be made in the health care business OFF YOU if boggles the mind, - AND CONGRESS hasn't even lifted a finger to help/
..........I'm mad as hell and won't put up with it any more.

The GM campaign is a failure within the marketing and advertising industry as well. To advise a client to take a marketing and sales approach so transparent in meaning and insensitive to the employees and current (former) customers is incredulous. It just reinforces bad practice.

As a business development specialist, I counsel my customers to improve their customer value at every turn. Ultimately, every corner of the business is touched by the need to improve its product & service delivery.

Why aren't GM's advisors counseling them on a strategy that will give it's employees and its customers confidence in its products, its vision and their opportunities? Why not create incentives for loyal customers to share their satifaction, re-purchase, and refer?

Unfortunately, the current strategy of "Ready, FIRE, Aim" is just another example of previous manangement strategies. It's almost as if they have been surprised by this series of events.

It seems every time I get ready to buy a new car the company I'm looking to buy from does something to really tick me off. So I still drive my 87' Crown Vic. If I go by miles driven, I'll never need a new car; the Ford only has 137K. However, I want a truck. What GM has done with commercials doesn't weigh at all, but what they do with the software that locks one into its service program has stopped me from buying its products. This is something on which people don't seem to focus. They should. From MSFT to GM software fascism is forcing people to stick with products. I can afford NOT to buy. Most cannot.

GM is in much more serious trouble than most GM execs would like to admit. There are in serious trouble with their unfunded pension plan. Fortunately, in the end this will cause a new rebirth of the car company. They'll get back to basics. All they have to do is build great cars for a fair price and they'll end up making a fortune.

That promotion was what put me in to my new Chevy (versus the Nissan that I was considering).

GM is in the business of selling cars - and this promotion worked fine by me. The reality of the situation is that GM also IS NOT slashing 25,000 jobs. The majority of those are simply positions that are being retired by the current employee that are not going to be refilled.

GM's got a lot going wrong for it. No question. But lets not forget this problem is also related to the UAW. GM cannot flex like 99% of the companies in the world - its workers won't let it - and in doing so the workers are already sealing their own fate.

GM's inability to produce is not the fault of the UAW or the medical profession. They simply have crappy products. I see it everyday. GM makes sub par products as compared to Toyota, Honda, and yes (caugh) even Ford. If folks are willing to shell out $25,000+ on a depreciating asset such as a vehicle, then we want a quality product that last. Not a faulty poor engineered product like GM is putting on the shelves.

Simple formula:
Great Products+great customer service=Profits PERIOD.

Timing couldn't have been worse, but actually a good multi-brand promotion. GM's issues (intractible union and healthcare problems notwithstanding)are simple; they have no antennae for consumers or the marketplace, and continue to build yesterday's cars at truly average quality levels. Ask anyone who's bought, driven and replaced four sets of brakes and two transmissions in a hulking Suburban (10-13MPG), and finally thrown up their hands and replaced it with an Acura MDX; the difference between GM's design/build quality and MDX's is astounding. Once you've driven a truly thoughtful, reliable and user-friendly automobile, it becomes readily obvious that anything GM builds at less than $50,000 retail is a piece of trash. At the end of the day, the real issue is GM's inability to anticipate and deliver on customer's needs and wants.

Newsflash...

The ads are still running, and other car makers ("lemmings") are jumping on the "employee discount for everyone" advertising bandwagon.
(When exactly did creativity leave advertising?).

You may have noticed that in some markets they appear to have changed the fine print. You have to have high-def to catch it though. In case you don't have high-def, the ad now says you have to show up on the lot with the ex-GM employee whose discount you are wanting to use. "Hi! This is Joe, he used to work for you. I want that 06' Escalade in the corner, and don't forget to ring up my discount!"

Sorry... Please forgive me. I am experiencing a flare up of my disturbed sense of humor again. As for all you ex-Gm employees I mean no offense. I am sorry to hear of your loss. Especially since the reduced payroll burden likley freed up the marketing dollars to run these rediculous ads. Talk about irony!

Try to look at the bright side however, you can still get the discount, and now at almost every other car maker!