Oldsmobile

Dr. Blair,

You probably do not remember us, but oh, we remember you. It was you who
taught us the ways of Marketing in the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of
Management in the fall of 1996. It was you who challenged us with a
particular project. It was you who openly and categorically disagreed with
our recommendation (giving each of us a less than satisfactory grade of
"B"). It was you who thought the brand name Oldsmobile could and should be
saved with Marketing hocus pocus and wizardry. It was we three who
recommended that General Motors discontinue the Oldsmobile line, moving the
one or two "best sellers" in the ridiculous line of cars to Buick or
Chevrolet. As we recall:

Oldsmobile had blown its image with the failing "This is not your father's
Oldsmobile" campaign.
Oldsmobile could not afford to retool its line.
Oldsmobile was not competitive from a safety standpoint.
Oldsmobile was not competitive from a luxury standpoint.
Oldsmobile was not competitive from an affordability standpoint.
Oldsmobile was not competitive from a dependability standpoint.
Oldsmobile was not competitive from a sex appeal standpoint.

Let's face it, Ed: Oldsmobile simply was not competitive on any front, and
as we argued (and as our classmates supported), there was no hope. In 1996,
Oldsmobile had suffered a 90% downturn in car sales over the course of a
decade and its cars did not appeal to any facet of the population. They were
expensive, poorly engineered, unattractive, and basically had been at the
bottom of their respective performance/satisfaction ratings across the board.

Attached are some articles for your review. Themes constant across these
articles are those that we expounded four years ago. Two questions remain:

1) How much money has Oldsmobile vomitted over the last four years?

2) Can grades be changed four years after the fact?

Yours Truly -

John Suttle (JGS Class of 1997)
Jay Williams (JGS Class of 1997)
Greg Egan (JGS Class of 1997)

http://detnews.com/AUTOS/industry/961126/olds/olds.htm

http://slate.msn.com/Code/Moneybox/Moneybox.asp?Show=12/13/2000&;idMessage=6675

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001218/bs/gm_cuts__1.html