• by Karl Greenberg , August 11, 2009

General Motors' press conference to analysts and media on Tuesday morning followed a similar presentation the day before. But that one was for an invited audience of consumers, most of whom don't own a GM vehicle.

That says a lot about where GM wants its corporate culture to be, per CEO Fritz Henderson. Behind the company's chief stood a car that GM hopes will say much about the liveliness of the company's product pipeline. The Chevy Volt will launch next year -- albeit at around $40,000 and in limited volume -- but GM hopes it puts a spark in consumer perception of the company as leading on the tech front.

The company has been teasing the fact that the car is the first to get a 230 mpg rating based on new EPA metric parameters for electric cars. The "230" (the "0" is a smiley face on an electrical outlet) symbol has been running in cryptic ads on Major League Baseball and elsewhere. The ads don't mention GM, or Chevrolet.

"When the 'new GM' launched a month ago, I said our priorities were customers, cars and culture," said Henderson. "We need to put customers first. And [Monday] we hosted customers first because we wanted to get their feedback right off the bat."

Henderson says getting feedback from consumers will be central to how GM does market research, and part of that will involve expanding consumer research beyond so-called blind clinics to public forums like GM's "Fast Lane" blog and Design Lab to solicit consumer feedback on new products.

Per Henderson, attendees at Monday's consumer showcase comprised former owners, "many of whom blogged with us," as well as critics. "Those who asked me to jump out the window we didn't invite," Henderson joked. "We got a cross-section, but the vast majority of them do not own today a GM vehicle and hadn't for some time, and that's what we were targeting. We have a tremendous base of loyal customers and we have to maintain that, but we also have to change the game with people who don't give us consideration today."

As for new products, Henderson said the company will focus almost entirely on small cars and crossovers instead of what had been, for years, a practice of supporting full-sized pickups and truck-based SUVs at the expense of cars.

Henderson said GM will not market GM, but go to market with its four remaining brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC. "Historically, the weight of all advertising and promotions has gone to brands -- you will see even more of that. You will see the weight of our activities behind the four core brands. We need to focus resources in cars and crossovers, so between now and 2014, spend on full-size pickups -- and SUV's will be focused on fundamentally bettering fuel economy and capability. But those programs, historically, have been big capital users."

He said that going forward, the power of GM's capital expenditures will be applied to cars and crossovers including a new Malibu, the forthcoming Chevy Spark, and a new Aveo. Henderson said GM will roll out 25 new vehicles in the US between now and 2011, including a CTS coupe in 2010, a new SRX wagon and CTS wagon, and an entry vehicle for Cadillac smaller than the CTS to compete with vehicles like Lexus IS and Audi A4.