????通用汽車（General Motors）首席營銷官喬伊?伊萬尼克走馬上任已有十個月。在與他的交談中，他多次提到自己的“泳道理論”。

????伊萬尼克說的可不是體育鍛煉，而是他在完成通用汽車 “復興大業”中的主要任務。（此前他曾用不同品牌擁有各自的“泳道”來比喻強化品牌識別度，堅持品牌創新——譯注。）在這位51歲的通用高管看來，他的首要任務在于確保通用汽車完成多個品牌的清晰定位；特別是考慮到在消費者腦海中，這些品牌相互間既不要重疊也不會沖突——就像在各自的泳道奮勇前進的游泳運動員一樣。“現在我們必須采取措施杜絕一切重蹈覆轍的可能，”他說道，“我們可不想再次因為失敗而登上《財富》雜志（Fortune）的封面。”

????伊萬尼克所說的是1983年8月22日的《財富》雜志封面（如圖），這幅圖片曾像夢魘一般困擾著幾代通用汽車高管。畫面上排列著四輛栗色轎車，分屬于不同品牌卻出自同一個設計制造平臺，所以外形看起來如出一轍。這些車在外形上的高度接近性也反應了消費者的困惑：如果連車型本身都讓人無法分辨，購車者又怎能區分不同的品牌呢？這張封面照片可以說是通用公司管理失誤的一個縮影，同時也是通用背棄前主席阿爾弗雷德?斯隆先生座右銘的一個寫照。這位傳奇性的高管曾經提出一個口號：“不同的錢包、不同的目標、不同的車型”。

????二十八年之后，通用汽車在重組風波中浴火重生。2009年，通用汽車申請破產，后經美國財政部（the U.S. Treasury）援救，進行了資產重組。多個享有盛譽的品牌如龐蒂亞克(Pontiac)、土星(Saturn)、悍馬(Hummer)和薩博(Saab)相繼宣布關閉并出售其資產，在美國本土，唯有凱迪拉克(Cadillac)、雪佛蘭(Chevrolet)、別克(Buick)和通用汽車公司GMC幸免于難。在這種情況下，通用汽車被迫關閉了十二家工廠，裁掉2萬多名員工。最糟糕的是，通用汽車還從全球頭號汽車制造商的寶座上跌落，已經滑落到谷底的士氣遭受毀滅性的打擊。而今，通用汽車已然卷土重來，此刻的通用汽車急需一位富有靈感和激情的營銷領袖，最好他還能具備“旁觀者”的眼光。

????伊萬尼克，這位來自圣費爾南多峽谷的加州人，衣著時髦，曾效力于保時捷（Porsche）、現代（Hyundai）和日產（Nissan），于2010年年中被通用汽車董事長馬克?羅伊斯招致麾下，接管美國市場。幾個月以后，通用汽車進一步授權，任命伊萬尼克為全球首席營銷官。【除了負責大眾熟知的通用旗下美國品牌之外，他也同時接管了霍頓（Holden）、歐寶（Opel）、沃克斯豪爾（Vauxhall）等國際品牌。】

????迄今為止，伊萬尼克的舉措可謂相當大膽。他已決定將雪佛蘭的廣告業務轉給舊金山的廣告公司古德拜?希爾福斯坦（Goodby, Silverstein & Partners），而雪佛蘭銷量占通用汽車美國市場總銷量的70%。要知道，底特律的坎貝爾?愛華德公司（Campbell Ewald）為雪佛蘭操持廣告業務已有91年之久，這一變動震撼了整個廣告界。（通用汽車全球廣告費用估計可達30億美元。）

????A conversation with Joel Ewanick, General Motors' chief marketing officer for the past ten months, doesn't proceed for long without his mention of "swim lanes."

????Ewanick isn't talking about exercise, but his primary task at a resurgent GM (GM). In the 51-year-old executive's view, his mission is to clearly define the company's varying brands, taking particular care that, in consumers' minds, they do not collide with one another -- like swimmers separated by lane markers. "We have to develop policies and procedures to this never happens again," he says. "We want to prevent a repeat of the Fortune cover."

????Ewanick is referring to the August 22, 1983 cover of Fortune magazine (above, right) which has haunted generations of GM executives. It featured four maroon sedans, each from a different GM brand but built on the same engineering platform. All looked identical. The cars' similarities spoke to consumers' confusion: how could potential buyers differentiate brands if they couldn't tell individual models apart? The cover epitomized the company's mismanagement and the extent to which legendary GM chairman Alfred Sloan's maxim -- a car for every purse and purpose -- had been forgotten.

????Twenty-eight years later, GM is emerging from another agonizing reorganization. The automaker went bankrupt in 2009 and was rescued and recapitalized by the U.S. Treasury. Storied brands Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab were shuttered or sold, leaving only Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC alive in the U.S. GM was forced to close a dozen facilities and cut more than 20,000 jobs. Perhaps worst of all, GM found itself knocked from its perch as No. 1 automaker worldwide, a devastating blow to already plummeting moral. Now that GM has managed to claw its way back to the top spot, it desperately needs an inspirational marketing leader with an outsider's perspective.

????Enter Ewanick. The hiply-dressed Californian from the San Fernando Valley worked for Porsche, Hyundai and, briefly, Nissan (NSANY) before being recruited by GM President Mark Reuss in mid-2010 to run U.S. marketing. A few months later, GM expanded his portfolio, making him its global chief marketing officer. (In addition to familiar American brands, he is also responsible for the international Holden, Opel and Vauxhall marks.)

????So far, he hasn't eschewed bold moves. He decided to move advertising responsibility for Chevy, which accounts for some 70% of GM's U.S. sales, to the San Francisco-based agency of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Because Detroit-based Campbell Ewald had supervised the account for 91 years, the moved rocked the advertising world. (GM's global ad expenditure is estimated at a massive $3 billion.)