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General Motors Corp. is using the Web to build relationships with car buyers and increase consumer conversation about its vehicles.

General director of CRM Jack Bowen said that although GM is a market leader, its market share has declined. This, he said, is partly due to a history of focusing on mass media advertising and a perception that its products are of poor quality.

GM knew it needed to play to the emotional investment drivers have in their vehicles. Cars are a unique category, he said at the MIT Sloan CMO Summit in Cambridge, MA, last month. Unlike other appliances or mechanical devices, people are so attached to their cars they'll photograph them and display the pictures in their offices. “You don't photograph your toaster,” Bowen said.

A new GM site, www.gmprovingground.com, launched last May. Created by Digitas, the site offers peer reviews of cars. The testimonials are “realistic” and not unabashed glowing praise, said Bowen, a tactic designed to create consumer confidence.

GM also is using blogging to communicate with drivers online. GM's vice chairman Bob Lutz — an auto industry veteran and the company's director of product development — began a blog about the company earlier this year. Once readers realized it really was him and not an advertising ploy, they quickly warmed to the idea that he was talking candidly about GM and its competition, said Bowen.

Seventy percent of auto buyers now go to the Web for auto information, said Glen L. Urban, professor of management and director of the MIT eBusiness Center, MIT Sloan School of Management.

Those who traditionally are the least effective auto purchase negotiators — women and minorities — gain the most from this information, he said, noting that on average, buyers who do research online end up saving an average of $450 on their vehicle.