GM'S TOTAL VALUE PROMISE!

By Mark LaNeve Vice President GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing

While many of the business media and industry analysts were understandably impressed with the success of our GM Employee Discount for Everyone campaign, some suggested that it was just a new twist on the marketing approach we’ve been using since Keep America Rolling in late 2001. They warned that we might be eating into future sales and future profits by holding what amounted to a summer fire sale. However, we saw some very encouraging signs in America’s response to this promotion. And we think we have good reason to be pumped up about the launching of our 2006 product line. First of all, this program proved that customers like our products. That’s undeniable: we sold record numbers of trucks and sport utility vehicles, and our launch vehicles continued to be hot properties. Unprecedented numbers of GM cars and trucks moved into consumers’ garages in June and July, and a lot of those consumers were new to the GM family. OK, you say, if people like those products so much, why weren’t they flying out of the showrooms before June? Well, it’s obvious that the sales promotion made the difference. Customers liked the lower prices we offered, and they really liked the idea that “you pay what we pay.” It was a simple idea that really caught their attention, and, in fact, the attention of our competitors and lots of other retailers.