As someone who has owned numerous General Motors vehicles I’ve always wondered what exactly we mean when we say General Motors. What does it mean as a brand? For example, I owned a few C6 Corvettes (#savethewave) and on the exterior of the vehicle, near the bottom of the rocker panel was a small chrome plated “chicklet” displaying the GM moniker.

Then I thought to myself – I wonder how parent company branding impact the perceived value of their subsidiary brands. I’ve never fully understood why General Motors is the go-to name when talking about one of their core products. You’ll often hear people say, “Oh yeah, it’s a GM vehicle” when talking about their Camaro or Pontiac (RIP G8).  Have you ever heard someone talking about their Audi or Porsche say, “Oh yeah..this bad boy is a Volkswagen”. Doubtful.

I don’t want to get into the recent negative slogans like Government Motors, but you have to keep that in mind when doing brand development. I mean someone decided the Corvette needed a General Motors reminder stuck to its body panel. One could argue that General Motors, as brand, doesn’t actually make any consumer products so why even have them associated with each vehicle? What would happen if I put a Volkswagen emblem somewhere on an Audi R8 or S5? Forget about Stadler’s reaction, how would this impact the consumer brand perception? (enter Phaeton joke here).

My advice to General Motors, promote your core brands. Put the head of those brands up on stages, in front of cameras and out in the field giving them legitimate exposure. Keep all the General Motors businessy stuff off the cars and out of the media, to include the CEO.  As my grandfather once said, “If the Germans can make it work (Volkswagen Group) the Americans should at least try it”. Might be important to note that my grandfather was German.

Happy Motoring,

DCAG