Paul Ballew
Paul Ballew
clearly consumer erosion growth head november operative present remain seeing slower winds word
The operative word is we remain cautiously optimistic, ... There are risks. Head winds are clearly present. We are seeing slower growth and seeing some erosion in consumer confidence. But we want to stress, as we look at November and December, we should not overreact to those factors.
improve pleased quality sales
We're not pleased with our sales decline, but it's important for us to improve the quality of our sales.
bit expected industry softer
We were down a little bit from where we expected to be, and the industry was a little softer than we expected it to be.
ford response surface
We have been anticipating the competitive response from Ford would be forthcoming, ... They do surface every now again. I wouldn't say it's revolutionary.
challenge knew month terms tough
We knew we had a pretty tough challenge in terms of the month performance.
believe break simple time
We believe it's time to be simple and compelling. It is important to break through the clutter.
compelling conclude consumers course diversity interest lost offers rate run side
Not all consumers want an interest rate or a contract. We'll get a little more diversity going forward. But I wouldn't conclude that compelling offers on the interest rate side have run their course and lost effectiveness in the marketplace.
arms breath deep
It's something to monitor. Let's just take a deep breath and get our arms around it.
aggressive industry pressure remain
Everyone is going to remain aggressive in the marketplace, ... ...I think the industry as a whole is just grappling with pressure on pricing.
accept complicate entitled everybody
Everybody is entitled to play this game. We accept it for what it is, but it does complicate some of the things we're doing.
offset varies
It varies by category, but it's a significant offset in many cases.
below somewhat
That is somewhat below what we were anticipating.
execute time
It is the appropriate time to execute this strategy.
believe brings compelling continue crafted created due leadership offensive period plan program sales simple time weak
It's a program that has been crafted for a period of time -- it was not created due to weak sales in May. We are on the offensive and we plan to continue to be on the offensive. We believe simple and compelling works, and we believe leadership brings its own benefits.