General Motors Co Vice Chairman Bob Lutz waived his plan to retire at age 77 to reprise his “ultimate car guy” role at the reincarnated automaker and return to his marketing roots.
“Marketing is my occupational specialty, it’s what I was trained in, it’s what I did the first 20 years of my career,” said Lutz, who has worked at all three US automakers over the past four decades. “I was in product development almost illegally.”
The new GM on Saturday emerged from bankruptcy protection after 39 days, focusing on four brands in a bid to return to profitability after $88 billion in losses since 2004. Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson called Lutz “critical” and joked that the company had to retain the former Marine fighter pilot to prevent him from “recycling through another set” of automakers.
Lutz will be responsible for crafting the images for GM’s four remaining brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. As the leader of design at GM, his stamp has been on cars such as the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac CTS sedans, both of which were greeted with praise from auto critics. He’s also the champion of the electric Chevrolet Volt, a car that GM plans to sell by the end of next year.
“We have to be much bolder, much less risk-averse,” Lutz said. “Very frequently the General Motors way is to sanitize the message to the point where no one is offended. But when no one is offended, there’s no interest in the message anymore.”
Lutz’s primary job will be advertising, communications and marketing, areas that previously fell under several different officers. He’ll still have an advisory role with product development, which will be led by Tom Stephens, who was named as the replacement in February when Lutz first announced his intention to retire.
Marketing the remaining brands using traditional messages won’t work for Lutz, said John Grace, president of consulting firm BrandTaxi in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“The minute that I see an ad with a car driving around the bend in a mountain with someone saying ‘There’s nothing like a Chevy’ I am going to throw up,” Grace said. “From a positioning standpoint, honesty works. They’d sell a lot of cars if they just said: ‘It’s cheap, but it’s good.’”
Lutz said he has plenty of fight left, fueled by optimism about the auto industry’s future. His dad, a Swiss banker, worked regularly until just weeks before his death at age 94. Lutz said he’s in much better shape than his father was.
“As long as I can function physically and mentally, what’s the point?” Lutz said on Saturday in an interview in Detroit. “I vastly enjoy working more than not working.”
Lutz prides himself on speaking bluntly both to reporters and to the public. In his 1998 book “Guts,” he spelled out his “laws” of business including “the customer isn’t always right.” Lutz in 2005 told a group of auto analysts that Pontiac and Buick were “damaged brands.”
He will usually come up with a great quote and sometimes it’s to the detriment of Detroit-based GM’s reputation, said Maryann Keller, president of auto consulting firm Maryann Keller & Associates in Stamford, Connecticut.
“Reporters like him a lot, but sometimes because he says things he shouldn’t,” she said. “It will be interesting to see how he fares in that role. I find it odd.”
Lutz said that his candor isn’t about to change.
“He seems to have the ultimate ‘car guy’ job now,” said Aaron Bragman, an analyst with IHS Global Insight Inc in Troy, Michigan. “He’s responsible for making sure that GM’s stuff is cool and that customers are thrilled.”
Grace, of BrandTaxi, said he expects Lutz to be successful.
“They have been whacked upside the head,” Grace said. “They have their marching orders.”
