Quote:
Originally Posted by SierraGS
You are correct that it is a minor cost to sell Vauxhall's in the UK opposed to Opels and GM avoids buyer backlash in a strong market for GM.
My reason for holding Opel and Vauxhall/Holden separate other than they are strong brands in their home markets is that I think GM should sell and manufacture Vauxhall's in India and make Vauxhall the mid-level brand there. Vauxhall is a RHD brand that is going to be established as mid-level along with Opel in Europe so it is logical to expand this to the India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand markets and since the old Opel models seem to do better than the GMDAT ones in Australia they will be sold as Holdens in Australia/New Zealand.
This plan would be duplicated in South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania using either the Holden or Vauxhall name.
I am also toying with the idea of selling a expanded line (from just the VXR) of RWD Vauxhalls with (LHD) in Europe along side Opels similar to what should be Pontiac/Saturn dealers here.
With a expanded Hummer line of smaller more "Jeep" focused models, Hummer would be sold along with Vauxhall in Vauxhall/Hummer dealers and GM can re-enter the Japanese market with Holden/Hummer and since GM will never get a large part of the Japanese market it should focus on Holden/Hummer and Saab/Cadillac only to maximize margins.
Note that all of these markets (except Australia/New Zealand and Japan) will have Chevrolet under Holden/Vauxhall and Saab/Cadillac above them.
One last point I would not even limit names to Holden or Vauxhall in these new RHD markets, if Buick, Daewoo, Pontiac, GMC or Saturn "click" better with the market then use them. As you say there is not much cost involved in marketing a separate brand for a entire country and what many has missed here is GM has to have a marketing campaign focused on each of these markets anyway so use the Brands and Model names that work best.
|
With all due respect, SierraGS, I don't think you've spent much time in Britain's former colonies!
Vauxhall haven't been sold in India in decades, which may be to its advantage, but I doubt it'd be an instantly recognisable name to them.
I'm not sure how Aussies view Vauxhall, but the brand hasn't been represented there since the 1960s. Maybe some Aussies can shed light on what 'Vauxhall' means to them.
In New Zealand, where the brand lasted until around 1980ish, it's a very stodgy name and the situation is exacerbated by the last crop of models suffering from dreadful reliability issues.
Reviving Vauxhall in South Africa would be disastrous. While the "big six" Velox and Cresta enjoyed popularity in the 1960s, Afrikaners wouldn't touch anything too "Englishy" sounding, prompting GMSA to rebadge everything as Chevrolets in the early 70s. It's a dead name there that I doubt anyone would want revived.
The Irish gradually Vauxhalls with Opels and the last Vauxhalls were sold there in the early 80s. This was done because of Vauxhall's poor brand image and the perceived German superiority the Opel name held.
The only reason Vauxhall was kept in the UK over Opel was because GM feared losing its lucrative fleet sales. At the time GM was planning to phase out Vauxhall, UK fleet buyers held steadfastly to "British" cars and GM felt Opel would be viewed as "foreign", thus risking losing half of their customers. That, coupled with Britain's Thatcher-era revival of nationalism, and victory in the Falklands, prompted GM to keep its UK brand "British".
Frankly I'm quite surprised GM hasn't phased out Vauxhall in favour of Opel in recent years, and I suspect that GM has contemplated how they could go about doing this. From what I gather from today's Britons, they couldn't care less if the cars were called Opels or Vauxhalls, since UK buyers no longer care if a car is "British" or not.
'Vauxhall' generally conjures images of horribly built, dreadfully unreliable (Canadian Pontiac Firenza anyone?) British cars. It's the LAST name in GM's portfolio that should be marketed anywhere, no less as an upscale brand.