Chrysler: Press Presses on with the Press

Jack Flack usually picks on companies for talking a good game, but not living up to their talk. But, oddly enough, he has picked on Chrysler for doing just the opposite.

Whether you believe it is the right approach, and whether you believe it will be sufficient to truly rejunvenate the troubled auto-maker, Chrysler does indeed have a clear, bold strategy, and is wasting little time in executing it. And yet, that clarity and boldness have not extended to the company's communications, which have often required translation for human consumption.

But given the progression of Chrysler utterances leading into the National Automobile Dealers Association convention kicking off today in San Francisco, that may be changing.

So what's the new spin strategy out of Auburn Hills?

Put your articulate president on his feet, and keep the formal communications minimal.

On Thursday, Jim Press met privately with Chrysler dealers, kicking off an 8-day "New Day" roadshow. He explained that the company would signficantly reduce the number of models it produces under its Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brand names, and that it would be pushing for equally signficant consolidation among its distributors.

As noted before, and then again yesterday, sharing any news with independent dealers has the same level of confidentiality that occurs when one of the Spears girls gets prenant. Consequently, Neal Boudette's inevitable WSJ scoop later that evening prompted widespread immediate follow-up coverage.

So, at 2:30 Friday afternoon, Chrysler issued a brief press release vaguely confirming the news reports. Headlined "Chrysler LLC's 'Project Genesis' Aligns Needs and Wants of Customers With Product Portfolio and Dealer Network," the release was not posted on the company's website, and was criticized by one industry news service as "cryptic" and by another as "gobblygook."

So other than its brevity, the release was not much of step forward.

But that's where Press comes in. He spent his Friday addressing a public roundtable at the conference, which was heavily attended by reporters. While he backpeddled aggressively on the specific numbers reported out of the previous day's meeting, Press provided a candid, logical and (unless your a line worker) compelling argument for the strategy. While Press came to Chrysler from Toyota with a blazing reputation as a remarkable sales guy, he's also completely able with the media. Consider this NBR interview sampling:

What we're doing is we're adjusting the company to reality. In the past, the capacity, the product portfolio, the dealer body, was all numbered for what they wanted to sell, not what they were selling. And the reality is that our volume is about 2.5 million cars a year. And we want to be the best darn little 2.5 million car company in the world, which means we can't duplicate products, like we need to sell 4 million. We can't have production capacity for 4 million or we can't have the dealer capacity because the business isn't there.

Press will now spend the next week courting 3,000 dealers, most of whom will already know exactly what he will say, but will still be glad to hear it directly from him.

While it probably feels a little ragged, the spin strategy of letting Press do some open-field running is likely the best alternative. Because, to be fair, the pourous dealer dynamic puts the flacks in a tough spot every time Chrysler announces dealer-relevant news. You can't announce it before you tell the dealers, or they'll feel ambushed. But if you wait until the second day of your roadshow, the news will break on its own, potentially careening down an undesirable path.

Jack Flack believes the Chrysler strategy is not only bold, but also correct. And as the dust settles this week, you can expect full parsing service to ensure that it's properly understood.

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