Quote:
Originally Posted by windvale
Forgive me...but 90% of this discussion is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
GM needs to get down to three divisions > Chevy, Cadillac and GMC. GM desperately needs to concentrate it's remaining capital on designing, buiding and marketing a strong entry at each market point (sub-compact, compact, mid-size, compact CUV, mid-size CUV, small and standard truck, etc.) for Chevy. Cadillac needs to be Cadillac. GMC should just sell trucks - period.
The above lineup *will* cut into GM's market share - I know that - but I can't see how GM really has the resources to design, manufacture and market Buick and Pontiac.
The bulk of GM's efforts from here on in need to be in designing and marketing a *highly* competitive sub-compact, compact and mid-size Chevy offering.
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Pretty much.
I've been saying (actually
SCREAMING) this since my first few posts on this site which were years ago.
GMC and Saturn have to go. They're absolutely pointless. GMC, because of its totally redundant nature and Saturn.......because that's like trying to sell an Isuzu. GMC could work if you could make it just a HD division. Saturn could work if you stopped trying to sell products in segments that GM already covers and offered something unique like all diesel or all hybrid powertrains.
Chevrolet + Cadillac alone would be ideal but it's not going to happen.
I'm very different from many of you in that I believe Hummer should actually stay. However, it can only stay if it's market properly as a luxury brand. You can't buy the Hummer image anywhere. It's unique, it has brand equity and it stands out. In Hummer's case, you have a product issue though. None of the products are truly world class. Even with the new interiors, they're not where they need to be.
Pontiac seems to be a diminishing brand by the day. Buick can work in between Chevy and Cadillac but for that, Cadillac would have to move slightly more premium and have more to offer at the top end.
Now if you're just going to dwindle down each brand to 3-4 products just so that they don't overlap with each other and then sell them all as one "channel", you're just shooting yourself in the foot and won't really get anywhere. If that's the strategy that GM's going to use, you can start shorting stocks today. No matter how you do it, you can't have these many brands in America if you can't position them appropriately and support with necessary marketing.