GM Will Never Meet It's Turnaround Goals With An Eight Brand Lineup.

Implications: Mark LaNeve, GM's head of marketing and sales in North America acknowledged that their current lineup is a marketing challenge. The question is, is there any chance of overcoming it? 

Analysis: After three years of restructuring, GM is still racking up billion dollar losses and isn't ready to say when it will return to profitability. The slumping U.S. economy is certainly a big factor and one reason GM will show a hefty drop in sales for March.

But there is another reason for a pessimistic outlook regarding GM's ability to turn the corner. Its one that has plagued the automaker and its dealers for decades. The eight brands in its portfolio often compete with each other--both for customers and a share of GM's marketing budget.

For example, GM has four mass-market midsize sedans. The Chevy Malibu is backed by a terrific ad campaign and is a top seller. Meanwhile the Buick LaCrosse, Pontiac G^ and Saturn Aura have struggled to build the awareness and recognition needed to compete.. Toyota has one model to compete with these offerings--the Camry--and last year it alone outsold GM's four models.

There is no doubt GM has made some progress in its restructuring. Since 2005, it has cut yearly fixed costs by $9 billion, shed a third of its unionized work force, closed several plants and improved the quality of its cars and trucks.

GM is also working to reduce overhead and overlap among its brands. Buick, Pontiac and GMC vehicles are sold mostly through dealers that carry all three lines. To keep them from competing with each other, GM has trimmed their product lines so that Buick offers premium cars and wagons, Pontiac offers sporty models and GMC concentrates on trucks.

Still internal competition continues. Last year GM introduced three crossovers, which look like SUV's but are lighter and more fuel-efficient. Two of them, the Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia, are all but identical, and the more luxurious Buick Enclave. The Acadia and Enclave were hits, not the Outlook.

Now Chevy will get its version, the Traverse around October, and dealers are already seeing an impact, Saturn dealers have enough OUtlooks to last five months!

Mark LaNeve, GM's head of marketing and sales for North America, agrees "its a challenge" adding, "I'm telling you we can manage it."

I'm not so sure.