通用汽车营销总监遭解雇 涉争议交易

    通用汽车公司（General Motors Co.）雪佛兰（Chevrolet）品牌与曼联足球俱乐部（Manchester United）之间的一次营销合作成了通用全球营销总监乔尔•伊万尼克的“滑铁卢”。

    一位不愿透露姓名的知情者引述了伊万尼克突然离职在法律层面引起的争议。他说，通用高层认为五月底公布的与曼联的交易“不正当”。该知情者拒绝讨论所谓“不正当”的性质。通用发言人格雷格•马丁表示，伊万尼克的工作表现未能达到公司的预期。周日，伊万尼克离职。但他本人并未发表任何评论。

    乔尔•伊万尼克在身处困境的通用汽车迅速崛起，并获得授权对这个庞然大物进行改组，而如今他的命运突然逆转，成了被驱逐的对象。考虑到辞退伊万尼克草率的时机选择和含糊不清的理由，不由让人们想起另外一位营销总监的命运——同样雄心勃勃的朱丽•罗姆。她曾对克莱斯勒（Chrysler）进行改组，但在下一家雇主沃尔玛（Wal-Mart），她却发现自己卷入了争议当中。（当然，两个案例的具体情况各不相同。）自从2009年宣布破产，并在美国财政部援助下完成重组之后，通用汽车一直在努力对剩下的四个美国车型进行品牌重塑——雪佛兰、凯迪拉克（Cadillac）、别克（Buick）和GMC。通用高管称，伊万尼克带来了富有想象力的、打破传统的领导方式，对汽车广告与营销的固有观念都带来了冲击。由于高昂的成本，他停止在Facebook上投放广告，并宣布2013年终止在橄榄球赛事超级碗（Super Bowl）的广告业务，这些举措都吸引了媒体的关注，但同时也引发了争议。之前，通用汽车投入海量资金，为众多重复的品牌投放各种节目广告、促销广告和赞助广告。

    按照伊万尼克的构想，与曼联的合作将帮助雪佛兰成为一个全球品牌，而不是仅仅只是盘踞在北美市场。通用在欧洲的德国欧宝品牌正处于困境，而中国的首次购车消费者规模正在不断扩大。因此，伊万尼克与他的团队当时把目标瞄向了足球迷，希望打动世界上人数最多的团体运动观众群。雪佛兰的蝴蝶结型Logo将出现在曼联比赛的现场；此外，通用还同意赞助在中国举办雪佛兰杯足球赛。

    眼下，52岁的伊万尼克离开通用之后，负责销售和营销的高管们要接过他的担子。通用汽车美国销售与服务部门主管艾伦•贝蒂将暂时接任他的职位。

    过去三年，伊万尼克迅速崛起，可谓一帆风顺。他先是在韩国现代汽车（Hyundai）担任营销总监，之后又前往日产汽车公司（Nissan）担任相同的职位。2010年，他在日产尚未开始大展拳脚，便收到通用汽车的邀请。通用首席执行官丹尼尔•艾克森将他从北美营销总监提升为全球营销总监，负责所有品牌，监督全球最大的广告预算，金额预计达到45亿美元。艾克森对通用管理层进行了调整，以为公司注入“紧迫感”的名义，辞退了多位长期任职的高管。目前，美国政府拥有通用汽车26%的股份。

    2008年金融危机之后，洛杉矶人伊万尼克获得了韩国现代汽车的青睐。他帮助公司设计了“现代汽车失业回购保障计划”，这项计划保证，若消费者失业，现代汽车将购回新购的车辆。虽然计划成本不高，却极大帮助了美国的现代汽车经销商，使这家韩国汽车制造商在美国的市场份额大幅增加。

    过去的一个月，艾克森曾对伊万尼克的工作大加赞扬，并公开将他的工作表现评为“优秀”。这一系列事件，以及艾克森的表述均表明，与曼联的合作问题逐渐明朗，并且很快就水落石出——在此期间，通用并没未对对伊万尼克有何微词，而是允许他继续留在工作岗位上。对于这一做法，到目前为止，通用拒绝透露更多信息。

    按照汽车行业的惯例，伊万尼克可能会得到一笔经济补偿，但不能为竞争对手效力。但这样一份协议并不能阻止他在广告业或公司营销领域卷土重来。

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    A marketing tie-up between General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet brand and the Manchester United soccer club led to the ouster of Joel Ewanick, GM's global marketing chief.

    A source who declined to be named citing the legalities of Ewanick's abrupt departure, said GM (GM) senior management had identified "improprieties" in connection with the Manchester United deal announced in late May. The source declined to discuss nature of the impropriety. A GM spokesman, Greg Martin, said Ewanick's job performance hadn't met the company's expectations. Ewanick resigned on Sunday. He declined to comment.

    Ewanick's sudden departure is a stunning reversal of fortune for a quickly rising executive given a mandate to shake up a stodgy giant. The hasty timing and vague reasoning recall the fate of another high-flying marketing executive, Julie Roehm, who shook up Chrysler but found herself embroiled in controversy at her next employer, Wal-Mart (WMT). (The finer details of the two cases differ, of course.)

    GM is in the midst of rebranding its four remaining American vehicle lines -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC -- following its 2009 bankruptcy and reorganization by the U.S. Treasury. GM executives say Ewanick provided imaginative and unconventional leadership that challenged staid notions of automotive advertising and marketing. His moves to suspend paid advertising on Facebook (FB) and skip the 2013 Super Bowl because of costly rates generated headlines and controversy. In the past, GM spent enormous sums to support the myriad programs, promotions and sponsorships of its many, overlapping brands.

    The Manchester United initiative was conceived to help Chevrolet become a global brand, rather than dominant in only North America. With its German Opel brand in trouble in Europe and a growing market of first-time buyers in the People's Republic of China, Ewanick's team wanted to make a concerted effort to reach soccer fans, the world's largest audience for a team sport. Chevy's bow-tie logo will begin appearing at Manchester United matches; GM also has agreed to sponsor a Chevrolet Cup soccer match in China.

    For the time being, the sales and marketing executives for GM's vehicle lines will pick up the slack left with the exit of Ewanick, 52. Alan Batey, 49, U.S. sales and service chief will also assume Ewanick's duties on an interim basis.

    Ewanick rose swiftly over the course of the past three years from marketing chief at Hyundai to the same position at Nissan (NSANY), where he was plucked in 2010 by GM before he could even get started. Daniel Akerson, GM chief executive, promoted him from North American marketing head to global executive in charge of all brands, supervising the world's largest advertising budget, estimated by some to be $4.5 billion. Akerson has shaken GM's management ranks, forcing out longtime executives in the name of instilling "urgency" into the company, which is 26%-owned by the U.S.

    A native of the Los Angeles area, Ewanick gained attention at Hyundai following the 2008 financial crisis. He helped devise a "Hyundai Assurance" program, an offer in which the company would buy back new vehicles in the event a consumer lost his or her job,. Though the program didn't cost much, it helped Hyundai dealers in the U.S. close deals, resulting in more market share for the South Korean automaker.

    Within the past month Akerson praised Ewanick's work and publicly rated his job performance as "good." The sequence of events and Akerson's utterances suggest that the Manchester United episode unfolded and was resolved swiftly -- with little or no consideration to reprimand Ewanick, while allowing him to stay on the job. So far GM is declining to provide further details.

    As is customary in the automobile business, Ewanick likely received a financial package in return for his resignation, stipulating that he can't work for a competitor. The agreement won't stop him from appearing somewhere else in the advertising or corporate marketing frontier.