Twisting the knife in the wound ...G.M. Saying Goodbye to Mr. Goodwrenchhttp://wheels.blogs.nytimes.co...rench/For more than three decades, Goodwrench has been the name of the service department of General Motors‘ dealers. Its ad mascot was Mr. Goodwrench, a pleasant, clean-cut mechanic (though he was played with more sass by Stephen Colbert in a series of commercials in 2003, as you can see above). But now that G.M. and its new marketing boss, Joel Ewanick, are putting an emphasis on the automaker’s four core brands, Mr. Goodwrench is getting the boot.G.M. said Monday it will phase out the Goodwrench name in the United States on Feb. 1.“This is more than a name change — it is a declaration of our commitment to our customers,†said Steve Hill, vice president and general manager of G.M. customer care and aftersales. Goodwrench will be replaced by the Certified Service tag for each brand: Chevrolet Certified Service, Cadillac Certified Service, Buick Certified Service and GMC Certified Service. “Certified Service supports G.M.’s strategy to focus on the four brands,†said Mr. Hill, explaining that the new strategy provides “a natural extension of the customer’s vehicle purchase experience at the dealership.â€OK, so which will be the first "Certified Service" dealership to tell us that they will no longer service our Vibes???
The new GM appears to be just as 'marketing stupid' as the old GM! OK. I take that back. More stupid!As Alan Mullally of Ford realized when he ordered the revival of the Taurus nameplate after his predecessor's decision to dump it, it just makes NO SENSE for a company to suddenly abandon a recognized brand after they've spent decades building consumer trust in it!!! Mr. Goodwrench was NOT make-specific!What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks are they thinking?
My 2003 Vibe Base Auto 2-tone Salsa "SalsaWagon" was built in May 2002. I acquired it in Feb 2004/Traded it in on a 2016 Honda HR-V in Feb 2018.
i used to work with the marketing folks at GMSPO on various brands and can say that they had no idea how to market goodwrench and for years were wrestling with whether to even market it. they tried to tie goodwrench to the individual brands at one point-i see that they're just going to promote individual brand service and it seems like the logical next step. truth is, there's very little value in the brands behind service brands and service parts not tied to the vehicle brand, so there's little value in marketing service brands. what it comes down to is that consumers choose servicers based primarily on trust in an individual/shop and convenience. the goodwrench name, like most dealer service, has lost any broad trust from consumers (although poeople will still have a dealer or shop they trust/like).in short, few consumers identified "mr goodwrench" as providing expert service for their chevy. but "chevy certified service" implies directly by name the value of that brand to them as consumers.
The "Goodwrench" trrademark/service mark is a valuable asset. As a taxpayer and thus part owner of GM I think they should sell that mark to the highest bidder. Trademarks are established and maintained by use. A company with a good legal department could wait a year and then adopt that name on the basis that GM "abandoned" it. To avoid that I suspect GM will continue using the Mr. Goodwrench mark somewhere on something. I suspect the same thing will happen with the Pontiac mark.
2009 Vibe 1.8L Carbon Gray AT Power Pkg 1/12/092003 Vibe 1.8L Neptune AT Mono Power Pkg 1/27/03 [sold 2/2/09]2007 T&C SWB 7/31/07 "Broke people stay broke by living like they're rich. Rich people stay rich by living like they're broke."
Quote, originally posted by Zimm » used to work with the marketing folks at GMSPO on various brands and can say that they had no idea how to market goodwrench and for years were wrestling with whether to even market it...Zimm, in retrospect it appears that the 'old' GM often had little clue about how to market ANYTHING they made after the 1970's!I've long associated the Goodwrench brand name with NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the #3. When Dale died at Daytona in February 2001 was when GM essentially stopped marketing the Goodwrench brand.
My 2003 Vibe Base Auto 2-tone Salsa "SalsaWagon" was built in May 2002. I acquired it in Feb 2004/Traded it in on a 2016 Honda HR-V in Feb 2018.
Quote, originally posted by jake75 »The "Goodwrench" trrademark/service mark is a valuable asset. As a taxpayer and thus part owner of GM I think they should sell that mark to the highest bidder. Trademarks are established and maintained by use. A company with a good legal department could wait a year and then adopt that name on the basis that GM "abandoned" it. To avoid that I suspect GM will continue using the Mr. Goodwrench mark somewhere on something. I suspect the same thing will happen with the Pontiac mark.a decade or 2 ago (when the goodwrench brand had infinitely more value that it does today), GM tried to franchise Mr goodwrench stand-alone service centers. as you can imagine by the number of times you've frequented one, that failed miserably.there's no value in the goodwrench brand. 90% of the people who even recognize the name will be dead in 15-20 years. there's little to no value
Quote, originally posted by kostby »Zimm, in retrospect it appears that the 'old' GM often had little clue about how to market ANYTHING they made after the 1970's!I've long associated the Goodwrench brand name with NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the #3. When Dale died at Daytona in February 2001 was when GM essentially stopped marketing the Goodwrench brand.in all honesty, it was the folks who brought the goodwrench brand into the nascar realm that had the least idea of how to market the brand. they just kept shoveling money into that endeavor, which produced nothing measurable on the sales side-just meaningless brand equity (because the vast majority of people who choose their service provider use criteria other than brand identity/perceived value.their money brought fans a winning nascar team, but did nothing to help their bottom line.
Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver »It's closer then you think!!! I totally agree with you on that one It seems every couple years they are shedding some part of the company (Olds, Pontiac, Goodwrench, etc...) what will they shed next ????? I say some of the brain dead overpaid execs who have made these terrible decisions in supporting of their corporate greed nuff said
Quote, originally posted by Zimm »what it comes down to is that consumers choose servicers based primarily on trust in an individual/shop and convenience. the goodwrench name, like most dealer service, has lost any broad trust from consumers (although poeople will still have a dealer or shop they trust/like).in short, few consumers identified "mr goodwrench" as providing expert service for their chevy. but "chevy certified service" implies directly by name the value of that brand to them as consumers.But doesn't "Chevy Certified Service" also tell Pontiacs, Buicks, GMCs, Oldsmobles, and non GM brands to go elsewhere? Mr. Goodwrench was non brand specific and the fact is that dealers are happy to service any brand and make.I have had much service work done at Firestone on my other vehicles because I know they work on anything and my warranty is good anywhere. If someone has a Buick, they may just think that the only place to get service is at a Buick dealer and the Chevrolet dealer down the street will lose the business. I think it is a bad idea to exclude other vehicles by creating an image of brand specificity at the service departments.
NE Ohio - home to the most successful Pontiac drag racing team in history - Bill Knafel's "Tin Indian" and also home to Summit Auto Racing.
2009 Vibe base 1.8L auto towing 2009 Aliner Sport hardsided pop-up