JOHN MOORE OFFERS "CIRCLE OF DISCOUNT ADDICTION" - GOOD STUFF...

Hmmmmm... this is the second post in a week linking to something I agree with John Moore about. Most of the time I find myself at opposite ends of the spectrum with John. The first post was agreeing with his take on Dunkin Donuts new strategy. Anyways, John continues with his crusade to end discount pricing. This time he takes on the car business and refers to comments made by Nissan's CEO:

During the New York International Auto Show this past week, Nissan’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, made an impassioned plea to the auto industry to wean themselves from their addiction to discounts and incentives. Ghosn is quoted as saying, "Incentives are an insidious, confusing carousel that no one seems willing to get off.” He went on to say, "You'd be hard-pressed to name another industry so reliant on discounts." [SOURCES: NY Times article and CBS Marketwatch article]

We share John's distaste with runaway discounting. He put together an interesting exhibit called Circle of Discount Addiction that is worth a peek. (Note to John.. not sure the connection of "war room" to discounting. Perhaps you can elaborate?)

We have been very vocal in our criticism of the folks running marketing for Detroit. Here's a few recent postings:

GM SALES AND MARKETING CHIEF MARK LANEVE: RUMORS HURTING SALES?

WHAT YOU DIDN'T HEAR FROM GM AND FORD AT THE DETROIT AUTO SHOW

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Comments

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Mike ... substitute Board Room for "War Room." Just a nod to all those marketing meetings that take place where ideas are offered to drive sales through marketing activities.

Would you care to elaborate on where we differ so greatly in marketing mindset? Thanks.

[Mike Smock]

Hi John,

Our marketing mindsets differ greatly on new marketing, open source marketing and customer generated media. Latest example of how we differ are our individual takes on the Chevy Tahoe experience with CGM. We blogged it here:

http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/maneuver_marketing_commun/2006/04/juxtaposition_g.html

We also look differently at WOMM as demonstrated by the Jack Trout podcast. We blogged it here:

http://twoscenarios.typepad.com/maneuver_marketing_commun/2006/04/jack_trout_.html

But in general the difference between us can be reduced to the word "control". I believe marketers need to maintain every ounce of control they can.

James Cherkoff has turned into a good sparring partner. We've had several exchanges on his blog about our differences:

http://www.collaboratemarketing.com/modernmarketing/2006/03/an_old_general_.html

Most importantly I think that these differences are good and we can learn from each other.

[Mike Sigers]

I think you both do a grest job. I agree and disagree with both of you every now and then. That's called life.

Good to see two blogger disagree agreeably.

I said my peace about car dealers in a recent post. I'll link it to my name.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Mike … I don’t think I made public my feelings on the GM Tahoe CGM experiment but since you like to exercise as much control as possible over customers … we differ here. I applaud GM for taking the risky step of giving up some control and creating a way for customers to mix their own commercial—it certainly created some chatter.

Like you, I agree WOMM is another tool in a marketer’s toolkit. So I’m not sure we disagree much there. However, I do believe longer-lasting WOM can best be created through spending dollars to make the product/service more remarkable not to make the advertising more remarkable. And that’s been my public take with numerous postings on the Oprah Pontiac G6 thing and all the kooky creative Burger King is doing.