Picture the Mercedes logo in your head. Easy, right? A three-pointed star. You could draw it from memory if asked. Now do the same for BMW. Maybe a bit harder, but still pretty simple.
Now try to picture the Cadillac logo. Not at all simple. It’s the shape of a shield, with 23 separate elements and five different colors. Could you draw it from memory?
The logo, which the company calls the “Cadillac Crest,” is based on the coat of arms of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the French explorer who helped found Detroit in 1701. (Hardly an aristocrat, Cadillac invented his own noble identity and drew up the coat of arms once he arrived in the New World.)
The Cadillac crest, and accompanying cursive script, was once a clear signal about what the car maker valued, and whom it saw driving its vehicles: the well-bred affluent. A coat-of-arms logo is the automotive equivalent of country clubs, crystal chandeliers, and blazers with brass buttons. Cadillacs were driven by—and chauffeured for—CEOs, senators, and movie stars.
Now try to picture the Cadillac logo. Not at all simple. It’s the shape of a shield, with 23 separate elements and five different colors. Could you draw it from memory?
The logo, which the company calls the “Cadillac Crest,” is based on the coat of arms of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the French explorer who helped found Detroit in 1701. (Hardly an aristocrat, Cadillac invented his own noble identity and drew up the coat of arms once he arrived in the New World.)
Asked about the Cadillac Crest, the marketing executive shrugs. He points out that it’s been streamlined and modernized, and the wreath that surrounded the crest has been dropped. It’s not what he would have chosen and the shade of yellow is wrong for a luxury brand, he said, but it’s such an inescapable part of Cadillac’s identity that he’s stuck with it.
I wonder if this hints that a "simpler" shield logo might one day be in the offering? Or, in a more radical act, ditch the shield altogether and come up with something unique and different to represent the brand (much like Olds did before their unfortunate demise...).
By better managing its inventory, Cadillac’s average transaction price climbed 9% to $51,000 last year, second only to Mercedes in its category.
Pretty impressive. I wonder if anyone has really picked up on this?
Two decades ago, Audi had a reputation in Germany for making stodgy cars driven by staid business men, he says. The company was able to define a new form of luxury between the traditional, conservative luxury of Mercedes and the engineering, performance-oriented luxury of BMW. Its new niche: a sort of progressive luxury that made drivers feel they’d made a smart choice.
Cadillac needs to find its own form or luxury, and can draw on its heritage as an authentic American brand to shape it, Joachimsthaler says.
“I think Cadillac is in a very good position,” he said. “They have good product, they can tap into different subcultures that have a very positive association with the car. What they need is a brand strategy to consolidate those strands.”
This is going to take decades to fix. However, for the first time in a long while, I feel that they at least have some folks at the top of the pyramid who are taking their mission seriously.
Cadillac lost its swagger years ago. Driving one meant that you had arrived. Look at the '69 Eldorado. Masculine lines and unapologetically American. Cadillac designers have shown glimmers of hope, but the cars that would bring this swagger back will never be built. Too busy chasing the Germans
Cadillac should not be trying to revive the past or chase the Germans.
The luxurious land yachts of long ago shall never grace our shores again. Who would buy them now?
As for the Germans, they are having problems of their own. BMW and Mercedes are reaching downstream to bring fresh new meat into the showrooms. Good plan really, but unfortunately it will tend to dilute the intrinsic value of these icons.
It's time for a brave new world. Bring on the autonomous electric vehicles of the future. Tesla is proving the demand is already there. Cadillac ELR could have been a harbinger of a new generation. Instead it was a flop. Back to the drawing boards again mates.
We can have both. Cadillac can be cool again with a lot of work like nadepalma says and GMI could do it your way but then it would end up like that other GM fan site and be irrelevant. This way we get news and thought provoking discussion that sometimes goes on for pages.
Actually, the Cadillac crest wasn't drawn up by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. It was drawn up by an advertising agency for the car company based upon established principals of heraldry. So it's probably correct and defensible. But it doesn't actually come from the Cadillac clan.
Cadillac can absolutely be cool again. But they still have to offer what people want to buy. Look at the Escalade.
If they had a full lineup of CUVs/SUVs, Cadillac would be among the sales leaders. If those CUVs/SUVs maintain the performance and style level of the sedans, I think they would be seen as pretty cool.
They can be cool again, but they cannot TRY to be cool and achieve cool. Moving HQ to SoHo because that's where your wife wants to live is NOT cool. It's self-centered and disloyal to the mission for which you were employed.
Lincoln is working on Cool with its M McConaughey ads. Is he a modern Paul Newman? I don't know.
But have you seen a Caddy ad lately? I can't remember seeing one. The ELR swimming pool ad was VERY cool, but since Caddy has no nose for cool, that went away el pronto.
Yes, now the problem is the logo. Maybe just the name. Maybe too much association with the US.
Scrap everything. Here's the new logo... $¥€. Dollar, Yen, Euro. It represents wealth in every market LuxSpotIge (the new name) wishes to conquer. LuxSportIge comes from Luxury, Sport and Prestige. Next we'll split the company entirely from GM and re-incorporate in Switzerland. Neutral ground, and no negative associations with Elvis, poor people, old people, or armament manufacture. Then public hangings of those in key executive positions over age 35. GM will buy-back everything from the period between 1959 and 2011. They will pay Richard Branson to launch the vehicles into space, drop them and allow them to burn up in the atmosphere.
The Breakthrough commercials were great, they showed the vehicles as they should, moving and sporty with a good tune in the background. Compare that to the drek they're peddling now.
In addition those vehicles were better looking than they are now, IMO. The design language has gotten stale and off putting.
Want to make Cadillac cool again? Either bring back the wreath and crest or come out with something completely different but memorable.
Come out with production cars that look like the concepts and give them the concept names. Don't be stubborn and lazy, when multiple reviews say that CUE sucks and buttons and knobs would help-then change it, now.
Better ads, better looking vehicles, better pricing, better logo, better naming convention. That might do it but whatever they're doing now is just not going to do it, IMO
Cool is kind of a tough thing to put your finger on. Cadillac makes some pretty good cars. But cool? Cool would be if someone who wasn't a GMI geek and didn't know every last bit of nomenclature on the CT6, but was some regular someone who simply took a look at one of them on the street and said: What's that, that's cool?
Now that would be cool, no?
Lemme see, what was something that struck my fancy recently? A couple of weeks ago near my home, I saw a white on white 6 Series Gran Coupe being driven by a beautiful, elegant woman. My attention was captured enough for a couple seconds to think to myself: 'that was cool'.
It's not about the look of the badge. It's not about letting go of what you were and starting from scratch either. Cool is kind of like porn. Maybe hard to explain, but you know it when you see it.
Perhaps those in charge of Cadillac, haven't had the ability to recognize "cool" in a while.
Cool is kind of a tough thing to put your finger on. Cadillac makes some pretty good cars. But cool? Cool would be if someone who wasn't a GMI geek and didn't know every last bit of nomenclature on the CT6, but was some regular someone who simply took a look at one of them on the street and said: What's that, that's cool?
Now that would be cool, no?
Lemme see, what was something that struck my fancy recently? A couple of weeks ago near my home, I saw a white on white 6 Series Gran Coupe being driven by a beautiful, elegant woman. My attention was captured enough for a couple seconds to think to myself: 'that was cool'.
It's not about the look of the badge. It's not about letting go of what you were and starting from scratch either. Cool is kind of like porn. Maybe hard to explain, but you know it when you see it.
Perhaps those in charge of Cadillac, haven't had the ability to recognize "cool" in a while.
Your last sentence seems to 'splain it. While they haven't had the ability, they think they themselves are the embodiment of it. That's like Hilly lecturing about integrity.
It was on interesting read though. I do agree, and I've said this myself for quite a while, that Cadillac should simply write-off the Boomers. They're too old and set in their ways ever to look at a Cadillac.
Even Infiniti knows this as witnessed by this ad:
On the down side: Has any brand ever become "cool" by deliberate effort on the part of a Marketing campaign? Or, is it something that simply "Happens"?
-simplifying the logo will make the cars as cool as when the logo was more complicated,
-the one mention I read of the Escalade says that they are ubiquitous on the streets of arguably the coolest city on the planet, but the author somehow tries to make this a bad thing.
What a waste of bandwidth. If it were on paper it still wouldn't be fit to line a birdcage. Useless, self-important twaddle.
The logo. Actually if it were a hologram it might help. But arguing that the logo has an effect on sales is like saying the shape of the cops' badges caused the arranged mobs to riot in Ferguson/Baltimore/LA/you name it.
When Cadillac finishes writing off the boomers, they may realize they have dumped a large group of people (potential or existing customers) with the assets to actually buy a new Cadillac - or help a younger family member buy a new Cadillac.
But in Other Worlds, people believe that marketing to coinless college grads with part-time jobs who have been programmed to panic and seek a Safe Place when they see anything that upsets them is a win-win, are, as Jefferson said about a similar situation, believing what never was and what never will be.
I think that piped-in V8 rumble* computer-matched to the throttle settings and played on speakers out by the twin pipes would help a lot.
So would spoked wheels, especially if they design in a provision where you can clothes-pin a baseball card* to each wheel to make cool noises as they turn. Can't lose! Call it "As The Wheel Turns" ad campaign.
LOL. That should do it. If they could get permission/license to use that TV ad for some drug (can't recall specific drug, ad not very effective) where the old duffer jumps into the swimming pool and splashes his granddaughter/great-granddaughter/wife/child bride/whatever, and then she jumps in and then everybody swims under water and smiles and lives happily ever after if only they'll just use lots of this great drug, yes that ad with a NOT YOUR D.O.M. GRANDFATHER'S CADILLAC!* flashing on and off, that should do it I think.
Another Caddy swimming pool ad. Yes we can!:clap:
*JdN et al., as usual I will bill you within 90 days of your use of my material.
Cadillac as a brand has limitless cool potential. It's just that those in charge have been sucking the cool right out of it. How many jaw dropping Cadillac concepts have we seen, which were what - too cool to produce??? There are a few people on my $H!t list.
Cadillac cool again? Never ever will a CT or XT whatever Cadillac be considered cool, hip or "in."
The Escalade is cool and a status symbol. The V series Cadillac with big honking American V8s (not hoity toity V6s) were bitchin Cadillacs. The El Miraj, Ciel, Evoq and Cien could be proper Cadillacs. The XT5 should be the Provoq and should offer a Volt type hybrid powertrain but with a bigger battery and proper Cadillac tune.
Sharing a spot at the top of the line should be a production Sixteen with a gen V V8 based V16. It should share the spot with a version of the Escalade (with the same V16 engine) and a mid engine uber car Cien. A trio of range toppers with three different segments and clientele.
The movie Entourage had one of the Caddy concepts in it and they drove around in it the rest of the movie. Looked great and excited people.
The current cars are either downright homely or just plain boring (except for the V Series)
The more I see the new badge, the more I like it. But the badge has absolutely zero to do with Cadillac's problems.
Right now, they just have the wrong product mix. I'm a car guy, but, unfortunately, the market wants CUVs/SUVs. Build them and they will come. The SRX was gobbled up in mass numbers despite not being class-leading. Build CUVs with Cadillac style and performance and you may be seen as "cool."
The El Miraj and other concepts were cool. If they had been built, I tend to think they would have cost more than people were willing to pay for a Cadillac. Who knows what the production reality would have been, but I get the impression that they would have been large, land-yacht sized cars in a time when such cars were becoming unfashionable. They may have ended up today's historical curiosities and collectors pieces.
It was on interesting read though. I do agree, and I've said this myself for quite a while, that Cadillac should simply write-off the Boomers. They're too old and set in their ways ever to look at a Cadillac.
Even Infiniti knows this as witnessed by this ad:
On the down side: Has any brand ever become "cool" by deliberate effort on the part of a Marketing campaign? Or, is it something that simply "Happens"?
When Cadillac finishes writing off the boomers, they may realize they have dumped a large group of people (potential or existing customers) with the assets to actually buy a new Cadillac - or help a younger family member buy a new Cadillac.
-simplifying the logo will make the cars as cool as when the logo was more complicated,
-the one mention I read of the Escalade says that they are ubiquitous on the streets of arguably the coolest city on the planet, but the author somehow tries to make this a bad thing.
What a waste of bandwidth. If it were on paper it still wouldn't be fit to line a birdcage. Useless, self-important twaddle.
>The logo. Actually if it were a hologram it might help. But arguing that the logo has an effect on sales is like saying the shape of the cops' badges caused the arranged mobs to riot in Ferguson/Baltimore/LA/you name it<
Don't be so surprised. When the Logo is absolutely HUGE as it is on the Sedans it is a part of the design. It is noticeable and it ruins the look, IMO.
not unless they eat, sleep snd breathe their heritage autos- those are the only reason anyone cares anymore- take the cts out and replace it with the Voyage! It sill kills. ATS replaced by the Urban luxury concept- More CUVs but I think the Acuras now look more like cadillac CUVs than the caddy CUVs do!
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