Since GM didn’t manage to sell SAAB, they announced that they will shut down the legendary SAAB brand last Friday:
G.M. would still be willing to consider selling Saab if a new buyer were to emerge. If that does not occur, the process of winding down Saab will begin in January… “I can’t rule it out, but the clock starts now.” John F. Smith, a General Motors executive vice president
Nytimes.com
In other words SAAB is now on the death-row. GM is not an charity organization. Until now buyers have only offered them words, here is my idea for how to get potential 10 billion Euros. In other words, numbers so good that it would be criminal to say no.
SAAB has the most dedicated automobile consumers in the world. Still GM only manage to sell 93,000 SAAB cars last year. Too few brands have something unique left. Users of SAAB understand this better than GM management.
Here is my solution: start selling one of the SAAB cars customized into a special edition. Sell it for a higher price, lets say 50.000 Euros. Give buyers half of the money back after 2 years if they in that time have managed to sell 10 cars to others.
By buying one of the unique SAAB cars the buyer automatically becomes an owner of SAAB. Each bought car makes the buyer a part-owner of the car, that will make fans go from being ambassadors to Kings and Queens (everyone will recognize this special edition of SAAB and see what they stand for – a hero and owner of the SAAB brand). Include a free tripe to the SAAB fabric in Trollhättan for every partner that owns a SAAB car. Give each car a unique number, so more fans can expand the fantribe by using social media (connect every car with an user story, ore an Twitter account on wheels). Let these part-owners become future salespeople of SAAB cars. Connect the cars with Google Maps and GPS, give the owners better commissions on the sales if they park and drive them in popular places. Give every employee and suppliers the same deal (at least 10.000 people are directly or indirectly involved in the making of SAAB cars today).
Numbers: Sell 200.000 cars before they are made to consumers, employes etc. 200.000 x 50.000 Euros = 10 Billion Euros. 10 billion Euros will make a difference.
If only they listened to you, Stefan. Your ideas about a retro version of the ur-Saab and the limited edition number-spotting in Detective Marketing were really good, and would have helped Saab over the years. But GM has shown itself to be severely lacking in imagination when it comes to managing Saab. Even its own Cadillac division puts out cars with very poor interiors, and many of its models have dull styling. The company does not understand premium, and I dare say it would not understand any adventurous marketing initiatives.
Thanks Jack, I hope that SAAB is still around 2010.
Check out http://www.rescue-saab.com
It’s almost unbelievable that Saab can soon cease producing!
It doesn’t seem that long ago that “Rover” went the same way but let’s be honest they were poorly built, unreliable cars with a poor history. Saab on the other hand have always been innovative, reliable and well built. So how can this happen? Is it another case of the Americans taking what they want then just dropping it when the going gets tough!!
I really hope a decent buyer comes in with a successful bid then turns it all round and makes some more memorable cars.
I’ve had 4 Saabs and consider them up there with the German rivals prhaps with a bit more character and soul.
“Viggen up”!!!
Thanks for strong points John, SAAB is a really good car. It is sad that GM did not care about the values they once purchased, as users as your self put values on their SAAB cars. I do hope the next owner is an SAAB fan and not an ‘goldfish’ looking for shortcuts.
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