Influx

For a brief moment in US automotive history, Smart was the car everyone was talking about.

Now, according to Fortune magazine, it’s about to become just another “me-too”.

“Faced with
sinking sales of the original Smart two-door, Roger Penske, the car’s U.S. distributor, made a deal with Nissan to provide him with a small
car that he can re-brand as a Smart. It
was the most significant statement to date about Penske’s unhappiness
with Smart, as well as the speed at which Smart’s corporate bosses at
Daimler are moving to reverse its decline. It also represents a
further retreat from Smart’s initial ambitions to revolutionize small
car production. More and more Smart is looking like Daimler’s version of
Saturn’s story: The initial reason for its existence will have to be
destroyed order to save it.”

Somewhere along Smart’s story arc something got damaged. Obviously, changes of brand ownership haven’t helped and probably the very rosy picture that was painted in the earliest part of the car’s entry into the US, wasn’t sustainable.

It’s tough to get the balance right and you need distribution, so unless you can find a unique way to be financially healthy, stealthy and small in a market where mass is king, you are going to run into problems.

The over-promise of the brand and expectations of scale have forced it out of its original positioning and into a place of no return.

Had there been people behind the brand with a keen sense of focus and discipline, who weren’t demanding unrealistic unit sales, the brand could have stuck to its promise and been a strong global urban transportation brand.

Posted by Ed Cotton