News that Penske has backed out of the deal to purchase Saturn will ripple through the industry in a myriad of ways.  Detroit’s economy will be effected, thousands will lose their jobs, dealers and their employees are left scrambling.  These are the serious consequences of the deal blowing up.

Less serious, but no less real, is the fact that another automotive brand will disappear.  There was time when Saturn stood for something: “A different kind of car company.”  The promise of no haggle pricing and a dealer experience that was customer focussed and positive.  These attributes were foundation stones of a remarkable branding campaign:

These ideas and brilliant marketing created the essential ingredient of an automotive brand…brand advocates…..lots of them:

Unfortunately, Saturn proved the truth of something that an automotive client said to me years ago:  “Cameron, with all due respect to marketing, 80% of success in the car business is product, make a good product and people will buy it, don’t and the best marketing won’t make a difference.”  On one hand there is real wisdom in this and the fact that GM starved Saturn for product for so many years proves the point.

However, Saturn was a brand that stood for something.  I don’t think it matters much how it attained that status, the fact is Saturn was a brand that had an ethos.  I was hopeful, even confident, that Penske would be able to revive the brand and rebuild it.  Unfortunately he couldn’t reach an agreement with Nissan/Renault to supply product.  Once again, that “truth” about product rears it’s head and Saturn the brand is the loser.

In an industry, where there are so few strong brands it’s a real shame when a good one is allowed to whither and die.  We need to take our brands more seriously and take better care of them.  Without brands, we’re just selling transportation.

This week it was announced that Roger Penske had cut a deal to buy the Saturn brand from General Motors.  What a terrific development for Saturn and the Saturn brand.

A few weeks ago I was with a GM marketing guy and he made the observation that “you can tell that finance guys made all the decisions about the future of GM, because marketing folks would have kept Saturn and Hummer.”

The point he was making is that a marketing person would have recognized the inherent value in the Saturn and Hummer brands.  It looks like Hummer is going to get a second chance with a new Chinese owner and it remains to be seen if Hummer can successfully navigate changing consumer sensibilities to build a solid and profitable business in the US.

Saturn on the other hand grabbed the brass ring.

Much has been written about how Hal Riney created a great automotive brand image for Saturn and how years of product neglect by GM made it impotent in the marketplace.  Most recently Saturn has gotten some new product which is highly regarded and that has helped immensely.  The Saturn distribution network has always been one of the industry’s best and now they have the Penske organization behind them.

Penske understands what it takes to be successful.  The fact that they bought the Saturn brand and distribution network while dodging the factories speaks volumes.  Saturn will now get product from any number of international manufacturers and not have to deal with the GM cost structure.  Sounds like suddenly Saturn may be able to do something it never could under GM…make a profit.

That’s great in and of itself, but here’s the thing I’m excited about.  This is a chance to resuscitate and reinvent the Saturn brand.  It’s a chance to make it the powerful force that it could have been years ago had it not been neglected.  What a great opportunity for all the people involved with Saturn and Saturn marketing.

As a marketing guy, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a more exciting automotive job than as part of the Penske team that will rebuild the Saturn brand.

Sign me up, rebuilding the Saturn brand would be a great gig.