Rebranding

General Motors has too many brands selling too many similar models. Allow me to list them all:

Chevrolet
Buick
Pontiac
GMC
Saturn
Hummer
Saab
Cadillac
Holden
Opel
Vauxhall

What's worse is that all these brands, with so many brand engineered models, have destroyed almost all of what initially made them distinct. Secondly, the stereotypical image of some brands due to demographics has severely affected their marketability. What 18-25 year old male wants to buy a Buick? None, well except for Mark who wants a LaCrosse cause he thinks he'll be taken seriously in the corporate world. Sorry Mark, you'll never be taken seriously, so the Buick isn't going to help. Lastly, the diverse and numbered amount of brands has led to consumer confusion and frustration.

Brand loyalty is established at an early but is hard to retain with GM's current portfolio. As people age, loyal owners are expected to stay within the GM family but switch to different divisions. Chevrolet is the economic choice and was designed to be the starting point for car owners. Pontiac, although initially different, has become the "excitement" division. Oldsmobile was a step up from Chevrolet and Buick was the cushy "doctor's car." Cadillac, of course was the "Cadillac of cars" and has remained as the top nameplate within the family for decades.

The problem, in my opinion, is this process no longer works. People want to remain loyal to their brand and when their brand doesn't offer the vehicle they want, even if another division does, there's a huge chance of jumping ship. A prime example is the loyalty and rivalry of Chevrolet and GMC truck owners. GMC owners would never buy a Chevy Truck and vice versa. Even in the engineering centers, this competition and rivalry still carries over from when the brands were developed independently. When I interned at GM's Truck Center in Pontiac, some people scoffed at the "Heartbeat of America" license plate I had hung up in my cubicle. It was retarded, I know.

One thing General Motors needs is a clear brand identity and more importantly brand singularity. The top three growing automotive manufacturers in the US are Toyota, Honda, and Nissan (Update -- it might actually be Kia and Hyundai but let me make my point). Look at their brands. Until recently they each had only two: the normal brand and the luxury brand. Consumers knowing if they want a luxury model or not, have a one stop shopping centers for all their needs. Now look at GM. For consumers who want to remain loyal to the General, they have to cross shop for ordinary vehicles at Saturn, Chevrolet, Saab, Buick, Oldsmobile (ok, its dead now I know), & Pontiac. It's especially confusing when the only differences between many of the cars are body-cladding and badges.

From an engineering standpoint, keeping all these brands is a money pit. Although each division now shares most of the chassis and underlying parts, all their exteriors and interiors are independently produced at five times the cost. This isn't economically viable. Exteriors and interior designs need to be standard across the board with a set design. Differences should be decor details and trim not different instrument panels for each division, although more luxurious models should be made of higher quality and luxurious materials (Buick) but the design should be fluid thus reducing engineering costs. Differing the materials on an instrument panel costs a fraction of what engineering a entire new panel would be.

Another problem of their massive branding is vehicle dilution and the marketability of sales numbers. Quickly, what is the number one selling full size pickup in the United States? It's been the Ford F-150 for over a decade by a large margin (200,000 units in the lead). But if you look closer it's not so clear cut. If you were to combine the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra sales together, the numbers would come out about equal with the F-150. By the way, these two vehicles are identical and for the most part only have differing labels. This best-selling distinction is a marketing goldmine and GM could obtain it. Every year Ford is able to advertise that it has the best selling truck in America. GM needs and could have this publicity.

Want another example? How about GM's Epsilon platform. This platform and its variants produces the Opel Vectra, Saab 9-3, Chevrolet Malibu, Opel Signum, Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, Pontiac G6, Fiat Croma and the upcoming Saturn Aura. Now here's the disadvantage once again. Toyota claims to have the best selling car in America with its Camry selling over 400,000 a year. If GM were to combine all the US models into one brand, the total would come to 340,000 cars (180,000 Malibus, 125,000 G6s, & roughly 35,000 9-3s). This wouldn't take the lead from the Camry but would put it in third place just behind the Honda Accord, ahead of the Honda Civic but most importantly on the list of best-selling vehicles in the US and I think that's a very important status symbol. People pay attention to the best-selling list just like some blindly follow the lame evaluations of Consumer Reports. The mindset is "hey, everyone is buying a Camry, so should I." Simply being on the list could boost sales in the next year. Everyone wants to buy a winner.

So what can be done? Simply, GM needs to combine and rebrand its entire line of cars and trucks to streamline their portfolio, revamp their business model and once again regain profitability. Critics have long discussed how GM needs to kill off some of its brands like Buick and Oldsmobile, which it did. But its not that simple. You can't just kill off brands because you want to, at least not without severe repercussions. If you were to get rid of Pontiac, Buick, and GMC Truck, that would mean the elimination of thousands of dealers across the nation (I'll be ignoring the issue that GM has way too many dealers during this post). The uproar and public relations fiasco would be attrocious.

Therefore, I have put together a plan that would create a better brand singularity without putting half of GM's dealers out of business (even though they should be -- Toyota has roughly half the amount that GM does).

Step Number One
Chevrolet remains as Chevrolet but stops selling the top trim levels and becomes the economic brand with its stereotype of cheap plastic interiors. It will retain nearly all of its current models.

Step Number Two
Pontiac is scraped but the dealers get the Chevrolet Sport trim level to sell. This is effectively all of Chevrolet's SS models. SS is scraped in my opinion because it makes me think of guys with mullets who drive 89' IROC Camaros and chew Skoal. The dealers retain their sporty image and Pontiac dealers thank me for not putting them out of business. The interiors will remain nearly identical to the Chevrolet with the same overall design and materials except for maybe white faced gauges and other items commonly found in Type R cars. Chevrolet Sport will roll out an entire line of upgradable performance parts to get the car enthusiast crowd interested, but most importantly manual transmissions will be available on every car (automatics will be an option too). You can't sell sport edition cars without a manual transmissions. Period. This Chevrolet Sport division will also have upgraded engines over the normal Chevrolet. They'll use the same block but will have turbochargers or superchargers to increase power. Enthusiasts love turbochargers. Its a great way to gain interest and boost power cheaply without designing a new engine. An example of this plan is that while Chevrolet will sell the Corvette, Chevrolet Sport will sell the Corvette Sport, which will be the renamed Covette Z06.

Step Number Three
Buick is scraped because well its image sucks but the dealers will get the Chevrolet Special trim level or something that sounds better. This is effectively a smoother riding mid-luxury Chevrolet. It will have the same interior design except with softer to touch materials and lots of detailed accents. Upgraded sound deadening the doors, better stereo system and things like aluminum trim and higher quality leather seating. The exterior will of course have small changes too. The trim level retains its focus of being the "doctor's car." Think of Chevrolet Special to be like a Chevrolet in LT trim but better. Once again, Buick dealers will thank me for not putting them in the poor house.

Step Number Four
Saturn is scraped but the dealers get the Chevrolet Eco trim level to sell. It will finish what their upcoming Green Line of vehicles will start. Chevrolet Eco will exclusively sell all the hybrid Chevrolet models. They could also sell fuel efficient direct injection diesel engine cars because well, I want one. Yuppie hybrid cars are a perfect fit for the Saturn brand because their dealerships have the best overall feeling inside. Saturn dealerships are actually a nice experience, much unlike most other dealerships including all brands. This "feeling" is suited perfectly to the hippie liberal douche yuppies that currently buy Priuses and think they're saving the planet. Just in case you're wondering --- they're not. Regardless of what they do, oil will continue to be burned until it runs out. In fact if we all drove Prius' and decreased our dependence on oil, it would only plummet the price of oil and people would start buying Hummers again in mass quantities. Oh well, what can you do about hippies? Of course, don't get me wrong, I prefer a fuel efficient vehicle. I want a 50 mpg sedan but I'm not doing it to "save the world" and hurt the evil oil companies. I doing it because I don't want to buy $40 of gas each week. I'll take pragmatism over idealism anyday.

Step Number Five
Goodbye Saab. You'll be sold. You're a money pit and the idea of the key in a place that a cupholder should be is retarded. Adios.

Step Number Six
Cadillac will remain Cadillac.

Step Number Seven
Hummer, probably GM's strongest brand, will remain as it is.

Step Number Eight
GMC Truck will get out of the consumer business and will only focus on the commercial truck business and can continue to use its "Professional Grade Engineering" slogan ad nauseum.

Step Number Nine
Opel, Vauxhall, and Holden ... I'm not sure. In my mind they should become Chevrolet but that probably wouldn't work since some of their markets don't have Chevrolets right now. So I'm skipping over this part.

Now, in case you're wondering what would happen to a lot of the models, here's a spreadsheet of my proposed solution. I'm probably missing some vehicles but you get the point.

Now we have four brands instead of eleven. It still doesn't address the massive dealer problem but it helps. It helps because now the brands have distinct identities. Someone shopping for a sport sedan with lots of power isn't going to shop at Chevrolet Eco -- they're going to go to Chevrolet Sport. This will virtually eliminate the need for consumer cross shopping the numerous GM brands.

What do you think?

Tags: GM, Brands, Overhaul, Image, & Rebirth