Lacking the design, consumer understanding and quality to compete effectively with Toyota, Honda and the ever improving Korean automakers, Detroit has wielded the only tool left in their marketing arsenal: pricing. This time around, facing an economy that makes matters worse, it has resorted to "employee pricing". Anyway you look at it, this pricing gimmick will be an expensive one, sapping net sales, further diluting its brand equity and ticking off those buyers that paid more just 6 months back. The one upside will be the thousand of cars moving off inventory and the balance sheet.
The lesson is one that marketers in any field should heed. If you are not sufficiently consumer centric, the value of your products to consumers will decrease as better offerings come around. These products will be better fits for consumers lives and they gladly will pay more. The other products will be left to sell on price to the worst potential group of consumers: price switchers without loyalty.
As managers and marketers, we owe it to our franchises and brands to be constantly probing the end user's interaction with our product and category, and trying to improve their experience. And we should not be shy to ask for a reasonable premium for the better products we provide them.
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