THE MISSION: A WORLD-CLASS PRODUCT

From the beginning, the driving concept behind Saturn was to create a world-class compact car that could match or exceed such Japanese imports as the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla in quality. The car needed to have the reliability, safety, feel, appearance, and overall excellence that people expected in the top imports while remaining competitive in price. This quality imperative was one of the defining dimensions of Saturn's corporate culture and brand identity.

Too often there is a delusion that brands can be created by advertising without a product or service that really delivers quality and value in short, that image is a "problem" of advertising. In reality, the product drives the image. The Edsel of the 1950s would have been a symbol of quality today if it had been an excellent product in that key first year; some very good Edsel advertising and marketing was wasted because of a shoddy product. The Volkswagen Beetle phenomenon of the 1960s very likely could have been transferred to the Rabbit in the mid-1970s if it were not for the initial mechanical problems that plagued the Rabbit during its early years. These problems doomed the effort to use advertising and the rabbit symbolism to transform the Beetle equity to the Rabbit. In fact, VW has lived in the shadow of those days ever since.

Saturn did not make the mistake of the Edsel or the Rabbit; its product was good from the outset. Reviews in car magazines provided objective judgments that the car was designed and built well, and that there was substance behind the positive feedback from the customer surveys. The 1991 Saturn was called "a major step forward" by Road and Track, and the 1992 Saturn SL was called the "best value" of any 1992 small car in its price range. The already cited J. D. Power indices delivered even more persuasive evidence that Saturn had pulled it off.

One visible example of the Saturn quality emphasis has been the decision to offer a money-back guarantee. Within the first thirty days or 1,500 miles, whichever comes first, an original purchaser may return his or her Saturn for a full refund or for a replacement car. The guarantee not only reassures the buyer about the purchase decision but also (because of the substantial economic penalty for poor quality) provides an internal signal about the quality level that is needed and expected.

Recalls have given Saturn numerous opportunities to graphically demonstrate its quality culture. When it was found during one recall that defective coolant (antifreeze) might have caused some unrepairable damage, the 1,836 involved cars were never resold. During another recall, a Saturn engineer personally delivered a seat to a customer who lived on a remote Alaskan island.

THE TEAM APPROACH: "A DIFFERENT KIND OF COMPANY"

GM's basic premise was that a world-class compact car and a strong quality culture could not be created within the confines of an existing General Motors division. A new company was therefore formed and given the freedom to create not only a product but a whole new organization free from the restrictive UAW contract and the historically confrontational relationship between labor and GM management, free from the constraints caused by an existing brand family, and free from the inhibitions of an existing way of doing business. 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. The initial Saturn ad, shown in Figure 2-1, illustrates the commitment of the first people to sign on.

EFX: MUSIC THROUGHOUT NARRATOR: There was Barney, Billy, Scooter, and me.	We grew up on the corner of Jefferson and Palmer. And if you lived there then, you lived, breathed, swore at, and by, cars.
EFX: The more buck toothed and hole riddled the better. We grew up some. Went away. But we came back to build Mustangs, Corvettes, and GTO's. Among other things.	It was the '60s. And of all the things we could be thinking about, we still mostly thought about cars.
Life was good. Work was good. But then, the oil dried up.	And it seemed like overnight somethin' happened to the way people thought about cars. It got frustrating
Then I decided to go to work for a company called Saturn, and build cars again. But in a brand new way.	There were some things I knew I'd miss. . . But there were certain things I wanted to remember. EFX: MUSIC OUT
Reprinted with permission of Saturn.

THE 1993 RECALL In June 1993, Saturn decided that a recall was needed on all 350,000 cars made before April 1993 to ensure that a wire was properly grounded. The initial negative publicity was gradually replaced by more positive reports. Why? First, the recall was voluntary, not mandated by the government. Second, it was handled expeditiously: After two weeks 50 percent of the cars had been repaired, in part because of the contact that retailers had with their car owners. (In contrast, a major recall by a competitor--mandated by the government--was only 33 percent complete after twelve months.) Third, retailers handled the event positively. One chartered a bus to a baseball game; when the bus returned, the cars had been repaired and washed. Another had a barbecue that customers could attend while their car was being fixed. A third offered theater tickets. In all, Saturn's strong customer relationship was reflected in the way that the recall was handled. Tracking studies indicated that the Saturn image on the "takes care of customers" dimension was not affected, and that the brand had actually improved on the "good dealer" dimension.

There are now cross-functional teams of people assigned to modules within Saturn that stimulate change, maintain standards, and provide the basic organizational structure. A team focus pervades the organization and provides a sense of empowerment. It is behind the partnering relationship with the UAW, which is unique within GM. The extensive training effort (5 percent of all work time) contains a heavy dose of team-building exercises. Objectives and rewards are based upon team and organizational goals. For example, manufacturing people have 20 percent of their compensation based upon the quality and productivity of the plant. This team orientation is part of the "different kind of company" that emerged at Saturn.

CREATING PERCEPTIONS BY SELLING THE COMPANY, NOT THE CAR

Having a world-class car was not enough to create a strong brand. Customer perceptions are what matter, and perceptions do not automatically follow reality. Audi, for example, found that spending a billion dollars to create what may have been the best car in its class was not enough to attract buyers who were skeptical of the Audi name. The VW Rabbit was a quality car one or two years too late; the perception of low quality caused by the model's early problems could not be overcome.

So, given that Saturn had created a world-class car, how could it convince people of that fact? The obvious tactic, essentially used by all car makers, would be simply to tell audiences why the car was so good, using phrases like "the relentless pursuit of perfection" or "as finely tuned under the roof as it is under the hood." The story would build upon specifics: safety features, exterior design and finish, fuel economy, acceleration performance, comfort, road tests, endorsements by car magazines, guarantees, nimble and quick handling, and so forth. The focus would be on the car, using unrelenting logic and mind-numbing facts. Saturn certainly would have had plenty of facts to use if that option had been exercised.

A logical, product-oriented approach would have been almost surely doomed to fail, in part because others had already been there. Ford's motto had been "Quality is Job 1" for over a decade. Buick was the "symbol of quality." Honda seemed to own the J. D. Power index. For at least half a decade, Lee Iacocca, former chairman of Chrysler Corporation, had been saying that Chrysler cars were just as good as Japanese cars. Saturn advertising along these lines would surely look like that of a dozen others brands and thus might not be noticed or believed. Further, an emphasis on attributes would tend to make price a focus, given the similarity of the quality claims.

The solution was to sell the company its values and culture, its employees, and its customers--rather than the car. The initial advertising showed Saturn employees as people with personalities and a deep emotional commitment to both quality and the teamwork approach. The commercial in Figure 2-1, for example, had workers describing the role of cars in their childhood. Another showed the sacrifice and risk of moving to a new area and beginning with a new company; a third, shown in Figure 2-2, portrayed workers' pride in seeing the first car come off the line.

EFX: MUSIC UP & UNDER THROUGHOUT EFX (TV SET) 78 degrees today. In other news, the first Saturn car will be rolling off the line in Spring Hill.	NARRATOR: It used to be, I saw the product that I was making, but that was just one part of the thousands of parts that went into the makeup of a car.
"It's going to be some day, I guess." There was no way I would ever see the cars that it went into. The way things were done, I wasn't involved.	No one would ever ask me what I thought. Then I heard about Saturn building a whole new car plant to build a new car. And they figured out a new way of running things too.
No one else in the world had done all this, not that I know of, not since the Model T anyway. Raw material comes in the back door and a car comes out the other end.	Seems to me, that when you see where your part fits into the big picture, it means a lot more. It's my perception anyway.
Now we got people watching us, some are for us, some are against.	But I'll tell you, when I go to the end of this building and I see that car sitting there, I'm gonna feel alright
Gonna be a great feelin' to know that I was a small part of history. EFX: MUSIC OUT
Reprinted with permission of Saturn.

In early ads, prospective car buyers were made to feel that Saturn and its employees would not design, build, or sell anything less than a world-class car, simply because of who the people were. The believability of the ads undoubtedly was transferred to the implicit product claims. In contrast, a prime problem of most product-oriented car advertising is the credibility gap spawned by conflicting claims, all of which cannot be true. The resulting judgment that some ads must be false or exaggerated casts a shadow over all. Further, the simple fact that Saturn chose a very different tack was helpful in breaking through the clutter of automobile advertising.

The visual imagery of the Spring Hill plant helped to support the whole concept of a new kind of American company. As a new plant in the middle of a border state not associated with automobile manufacturing, the Spring Hill facility had the clear potential to start from scratch and to do things the right way. The "middle of nowhere" of the early print ad subtly implied a breath of fresh air. The employees also provided strong imagery. Think of Pontiac and your mind might visualize a car; mention Saturn, however, and the picture is more likely to be one of people.

Two important name decisions are noteworthy. First, Saturn distanced itself from GM. Early concept research had made it clear that cueing the GM name resulted in a substantially lower quality perception and credibility, whereas cueing a Japanese name (such as Sony) did the reverse. Further, the whole concept of Saturn involved a fresh start at building an organization and a car; linking the effort to GM would have undercut that concept.

Second, the option of naming models (like the Honda Civic, Prelude, and Accord) was resisted. The focus was to be on Saturn the company and the product. A model can provide a useful subbrand when it distinguishes something very different from the rest of the brand, like the Mazda Miata or the Ford Taurus. In this case, however, models would have drawn attention away from the main story.

CREATING A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SATURN AND THE CUSTOMER

Most brands, particularly car brands, focus upon such attributes as safety, economy, handling, or comfort in developing a brand identity. Such positioning strategies are often relatively easy to copy or surpass and thus are weak bases for loyalty. Strong brands usually move beyond product attributes to a brand identity based upon a brand personality and a relationship with customers. For example, an important part of Saturn's brand identity is its commitment to treat customers with respect and as a friend. Properly implemented, this relationship and the brand personality that underlies it have the potential to create an intense, enduring brand loyalty.

Along with the quality imperative and the team orientation, the Saturn way of treating customers is a defining dimension of its corporate culture and the basis of many of its characteristics. The retail experience, for example, follows from this relationship concept. Haggling over price and playing negotiation games is not compatible with the Saturn-customer relationship. It seems incredible that nearly fifty years after the marketing concept appeared on the scene, treating the customer with respect and as a friend was a breakthrough in the automobile industry. But it was.

To understand the nature of a brand-customer relationship, it is useful to consider the metaphor of a brand as a person who has a personality and interpersonal relationships with customers. For example, Volvo personified might be dependable and reliable (with a European accent) but somewhat stodgy and lacking a sense of humor. The customer relationship might be characterized by feelings of being secure and comfortable. In sharp contrast, Mercedes as a person might be elegant, successful, and perhaps a bit stuffy and aloof. Its customer relationship might then be based on the customer aspiring to belong to the Mercedes group.

Saturn might be personified as young (at heart), genuine, honest, friendly, and down-to-earth, and as someone who cares about individuals (whether they are clients, patients, or customers) and treats them with respect and as a friend. This person would also be competent and reliable a person you would respect and trust. The head of the Saturn engineering team talks of his company as a person who is "thoughtful and friendly" and who "won't let you down and won't outshine you."[footnote omitted] The personified Saturn would not have a foreign accent, and would not speak to you condescendingly (as might, say, a personified Volkswagen who thinks you don't get the Fahrvergnügen concept), but would speak with respect and as a friend. The concept

THE SATURN "HOMECOMING" Toward the end of June 1994 some 44,000 Saturn owners were invited to a "homecoming" at the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee (see Figure 2-3) [figure omitted]. This "Saturnstock" event was modeled after a festival sponsored by Harley-Davidson that had drawn more than 100,000 Harley bikers to Milwaukee. As with the Harley-Davidson event, many Saturn owners traveled to Spring Hill in caravans organized by local retailers. In addition, over 100,000 other "Saturn-ites" attended picnics and parties organized by local dealers. The "family get-together" participants at Spring Hill were treated to entertainment and activities. Six stages featured country music (with Wynonna Judd and others), rhythm and blues, gospel singers, mimes, clowns, and jugglers. The activities included line dancing, barbecues, craft fairs, mingling with celebrities (like Olympic gold medal skater Dan Jansen), and in the spirit of Harley-Davidson, a Saturn-logo "tattoo" parlor (the logo was removable). The centerpiece was the plant tour. In fact, the whole event was stimulated in part by the many requests from Saturn owners to visit the plant. The event captured and reinforced the Saturn charisma. The focus was on Spring Hill, the plant, and the people; in fact, some 2,300 employees volunteered to be hosts for the event.

of Saturn as a person helps to give the brand-customer relationship more depth and texture.

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. The purchase and use of a Saturn goes beyond enjoying the functional characteristics to expressing a customer's values and personality. Among the keys to this pride are the plant at Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the American employees' intense loyalty to Saturn. Ironically, Saturn never adopted a slogan like (Chevrolet's) "Heartbeat of America" or (Oldsmobile Aurora's) "An American Dream." If it had, the pride might not have been as strong, because it would have had less chance to be discovered by and to emanate from within Saturn owners.

Saturn has much in common with other charismatic brands (such as Apple, Harley, and the VW Beetle) that have developed intense and loyal relationship levels. Each is an underdog to a larger competitor, each has a strong user group with an identity of its own, and each has users who encourage others to buy.