Mr Goodwrench, RIP
Born in 1977, Mr Goodwrench was a marketing brand used to sell GM parts and service at franchised dealers. Now, after 33 years in service to The General, Mr Goodwrench is passing on to join Pontiac, Oldsmobile and HUMMER in GM’s crowded brand graveyard. Automotive News [sub] reports that
GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick wants the vehicle brands, not corporate, to be the stars of GM, and that includes service and repairsEwanick has made it clear that he intends to continue the post-bankruptcy trend of shifting emphasis away from GM as a corporate brand and towards GM’s four vehicle brands. As an umbrella brand for service and parts for all of GM’s brands, Mr Goodwrench can be considered the latest victim of GM’s corporate restructuring. But Goodwrench was in failing health before Ewanick’s brandicide spree, and even embodying the brand as the satirist Steven Colbert didn’t convince GM’s US dealers to emphasize the Goodwrench service brand. GM won’t officially comment on Mr Goodwrench’s condition, but the brand is expected to survive in the Canadian market, where it allegedly continues to enjoy consumer cachet.In order to honor the passing of this past-its-prime symbol of GM’s decidedly mediocre service reputation, we’ve assembled a few Mr Goodwrench ads below the fold.
Once upon a time Mr Goodwrench knew that “it’s not your car, it’s your freedom.” More recently, the reality has become something more along the lines of “it’s not your car, it’s a way to inflate dealership profits.”
In the late 80s, Mr Goodwrench delivered some of its most inspirational (or vomit-inducing, depending on your perspective) advertising based on the very same message. But Reagan-campaign-ad-style shots and a strong tagline wasn’t enough to prevent the hollowing out of Mr Goodwrench’s raison d’brand. After all, by ’89, GM was having its lunch eaten on the issue of reliability, and talking about service merely served to remind consumers of GM’s deficits in this regard.
Which helps explain why “Keep That Great GM Feeling” was never going to last as Mr Goodwrench’s slogan…
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Oh hell ,who cares ? This company is doomed anyway. GM is done.They are just as tone deaf to customers as they were before they began all of this shuck and jive brand killing/repositioning/refocusing or whatever they call it this week. The fact is,there is just enough meat left on the carcass of this company to interest Wall Street for as long as it takes to unload on gullible investors. GM still has crushing overhead and debt and a cranky,unionized workforce that trusts management about as much as...Those former Chevette owners up there.This company didn't die,it was killed by dumb greedy managers and dumb,greedy workers many years ago and its a wonder that they have managed to hang on this long. Who cares what happens to the Goodwrench brand ?
If they'd killed the Mr. Goodwrench brand sooner, he could have at least a better choice of hearses, including Pontiac, Hummer and Saturn.