Saturn’s social media lessons
ADOTAS – I was saddened to read about the coming demise of General Motor’s Saturn brand this past week.
As someone who passed his road test in the 1980s, bought his first car in the 1990s and hailed from a family that had migrated to Toyota, I was thrilled that Detroit was fighting back with a car brand that could launch a truly American car with Japanese quality of service.
In addition, as a student of advertising and marketing, I loved the way Hal Riney and Partners, Saturn’s ad agency at the time, humanized the brand, making it as much about the people who build and buy Saturns as it was about the cars. Cars don’t build or buy cars; people do.
It’s worth taking a look at one of the ads Hal Riney and Partners created for Saturn’s homecoming party in the early 1990s. Saturn invited car owners from all over America to come to the company’s factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., to join employees in celebrating Saturn.
What struck me was that the ad campaign basically incorporated all of the values of social media for marketing well before the term “social media” had entered the marketing lexicon.
What can be more social media than for a company to invite customers to spend some time mingling with company employees –- both executives and factory workers? Can anyone think of a better focus group than sitting around with customers over a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup and hearing them talk about what they like and dislike about your product?
This leads me to a point that I have long felt regarding social media. The technology might be new, but the processes are not. Good marketing has always been the result of an open and transparent dialogue between marketers, development and customers.
Tweet that.
Reader Comments.
Completely agree… some companies have always found ways to “socialize” their products and services with customers input.
I remember Saab in the 1980′s I think, asking AOL or Compuserve members to put together an ad campaign about things they liked about Saab. Today it would be called a user generated ad, and probably win an interactive award! 
Open and honest dialogue is the best way to go. People want to be talked to not talked at and seeing the nuts and bolts of the company is the way to go. Social media just made it easier for people to connect but the drive to why has always been there.
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