Tumblroth

I was excited to read this morning that Penske Automotive is buying Saturn. I was always perplexed by GM’s treatment of Saturn as a step-child brand rather than one all of its other companies should be modeling themselves after. The division had interesting styling, a committed workforce and, for awhile, passionate customers. The book Building Strong Brands had a whole chapter on Saturn’s origins:

People who joined Saturn broke ties with their prior GM unit and often moved to Spring Hill, Tennessee, where a “green field” manufacturing facility was built. This new organization was integral not only to creating the product but also to the broader challenge of creating a brand and communicating its identity.

And GM used its workers as a way to sell the company:

According to Saturn retailers, another aspect of the firm’s brand- customer relationship is a sense of customer pride in Saturn as a U.S. car that has beaten the Japanese firms at their own game, in the employees for their commitment and achievement, and in themselves for buying an American car. This is different from the product-centered pride felt by many new car buyers.

And then GM changed strategies, integrated the once proud offshoot and then forgot about it. From 1994 to 1999, it didn’t get even one new model. Way to go GM!

Back to Penske: At the very least the sale brings the opportunity to rethink how to build and sell a brand. Roger Penske — despite a personal brand built over decades racing American cars — has been a master at hawking foreign cars. Nearly 75% his 304 franchises (according to the last 10k) sell foreign brands, the biggest chunk of which are Toyota/Lexus/Scion dealerships.

Penske, in other words, knows what car buyers want. Plus, his company is responsible for bringing, and has the sole distribution rights to, the Smart brand in the U.S. Those micro cars might not be selling the way anyone expected them to, but credit Penske with taking a risk and putting his money behind it. (Penske’s son, Roger S. Penske Jr., is even a Smart dealer)

I have no idea what Penske has in store for Saturn, but it can’t be any worse that what GM did to it and might just be better. I’m optimisitic that a breakup, done right, of the American car industry can lead to innovation (and Charles Mann has a facinating article in WIRED this issue on one possible road map). More of these kind of transactions, please.