Speedzzter

I Was Wrong About GM Bankruptcy

User 158164: "I know there are some retards talking boycotting, yeah that makes sense. Put Americans out of work solely because you don't like the President and drive down the value of the company so that you the taxpayer loses money in some kind of childish hissy fit. Fortunately I think those numbers are small and their job at the car wash does not buy a new car anyway."

Actually, its the folks working at the car wash who were more likely to vote for the current administration and who will have few objections to government ownership and greater receptivity to "bailouts" and other forms of welfare subsidies.

A fair number of regular and loyal Detroit 3 buyers (many of which did not vote for Obama and and who tend to be disproportionately among the upper middle and upper classes) are objectors. If only a plurality of these regular customers abandon GM or Chrysler in the current depressed market, it may have measurable effects on the recovery of these automakers.

To be sure, some of the "I'll never buy another GM car" talk from some Republicans and independents is overblown. But some of these customers really mean it. Add on the dealer terminations, which may degrade customer loyalty in some smaller and rural markets (e.g. not as many small GM and Chrysler dealers selling to their friends and neighbors at the small town country clubs, little league, and "chamber of commerce" meetings), and its clear that a potential image problem looms.

Marketers know that purchasing decisions involving vehicles are not completely rational. Emotions, brand image and other subjective perceptions play material roles in the retailing calculus. Thus, while talk of "boycotts" strikes some GM and Chrysler fan boys as irrational and "childish," it is unreasonable to expect that all or even most of GM and Chrysler's former customers will ignore the extraordinary linkage between these companies, the federal government, and the future political fortunes of the Democrats.

I Was Wrong About GM Bankruptcy

The biggest long-term problem for GM and Chrysler is partisan politicization. A significant percentage of their most loyal "buy American" customers were alienated by the Obama-UAW-Democrat "seizure" of these companies and the stage-managed "show" bankruptcies. Many also vehemently object to "bailouts," notwithstanding that decades of failed regulatory policies and unfunded mandates crippled Detroit's competitiveness.

Now GM and Chrysler are viewed by perhaps as many as thirty percent of potential customers as clients of big labor and the Democrats. GM and Chrysler will have a difficult time luring these conservative "conscientious objectors" back into the fold.