General Motors has two men in charge of inducing change at its Cadillac brand, newly appointed CEO Johan de Nysschen and chief marketing officer Uwe Ellinghaus. Ellinghaus comes from BMW, where he held a number of significant marketing roles, while de Nysschen, a well-known executive in the automotive industry, has history with Audi and Infiniti.
Both de Nysschen and Ellinghaus have extensive experience with foreign luxury automakers, particularly German brands, making them perfect for the job at Cadillac. Ellinghaus has been in his position for nearly a year now and recently sat down with Brand Channel to discuss the changes de Nysschen and him have worked on so far.
Ellinghaus said he first needed to show his bosses at GM that a luxury brand works differently than a normal automaker. A luxury brand is “all about focus, continuity and consistency,” he said, which are “the sort of secondary virtues that the German brands are so good at.” Part of this was making the nomenclature of its models clear, which is what prompted Ellinghaus and GM to change Cadillac’s naming convention.
“The previous thought was that we have to go in between the segments dominated by the Germans. But I said we need to right-size our cars and make our nomenclature clear,” Ellingahus said. “Mary Barra herself assigned me to come up with a suggestion for fixing the nomenclature. Future cars will have “CT” and then a number behind it that indicates its size in our hierarchy, and future SUVs and crossovers will have an “XT” and a number.”
Another area where Ellinghaus sees room for improvement is in the “American-ness” of Cadillac. The company can have a desire to compete with Germany luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz or BMW, but it won’t help to emulate them. They must find ways to convey a sense of American character while still rivaling competing products in quality, design and performance.
He said Cadillac will convey “American-ness” by having less technology-driven marketing and also added that the brand is working on defining its values and injecting itself with more “American spirit.” If you really “don’t want the American-spirit this brand emobodies, then you can go to the German brands,” Ellinghaus said.
Cadillac’s ATS and CTS are leaps and bounds ahead of anything the brand had produced before and as de Nysschen continues to plan vehicles to fill the many gaps in its portfolio, Ellinghaus’ marketing job will only get easier.
Comments
I don’t know about your comment that the ATS and CTS are leaps and bounds ahead of anything the brand had produced before. The statement reminds me of going to the local international auto show this spring with a friend who owns a 2009 CTS-V. He was not at all impressed with the ATS and only with the front view of the CTS, but not the side or rear. He also loves his car’s “tweener” size in between the 3 series and 5 series, and cannot understand why Cadillac went away from that. Given the car that he currently owns and that he is a professional in his forties, it is not good for Cadillac that he feels this way, and I believe many other people out there feel similarly, as shown by the sales numbers of the ATS and new CTS to date. I sure hope the Cadillac guys have a considerable styling refresh coming, and that the upcoming V6 and transmissions make a difference.help.
Agree. The 2009+ CTS-V was a strong effort. It not only has the look, but plenty of performance to back it up. These vehicles continue to retain their appeal, the re-sale values remain strong. The V wagons are a good bet to be highly sought after in the future. Wagons remain popular in Europe, but not here and more importantly not a big seller in China.
This is unbelievable ” if you don’t like the american spirit this brand embodies then you can go to the German brands ” . You mean the potential customer who has seen the expensive ads , perhaps ,walks into the dealership and if he doesn’t really like what he sees , he can walk out the door and look up the German brands . This is a marketing nightmare to me . Why would any manufacturer polarize the vehicles into a love it or hate it , potential relationship with the consumer ??? Top end German and British vehicles tend to be understated , indeed , much of their sales go to American buyers . The wealthy don’t buy the gaudy , brash cars of a dozen or more years ago . They tend to live in reserved quiet neighborhoods , dress conservatively , and often informally . The name on the car’s hood and tail will tell you what is important to know about the owners . So you will potentially give these buyers up willingly , well God help Cadillac . I thought De Ny talked a lot , but he was positive about Cadillac’s rise in the marketplace . This marketing 101 course just given , however , is a head shaker , don’t mind me for leaving now , I’m sure I don’t want to be terribly disappointed for making the trip to one of your dealerships . So I’ll just wish Mr. Ellinghaus a long and enjoyable career and be on my way !!
“He said Cadillac will convey “American-ness” by having less technology-driven marketing”
Well this is frightening. Tech sells, and without tech to back up ‘The Standard of the World”, then really the CT6 would be just as garbage as the Fleetwoods were. Might as well offer factory white-walls.
Value-price the CT6 to ‘compete’ with the likes of the 300 and MKS, and I’ll never set foot in a Cadillac showroom again.
They by all means need their own tone but they should and need to display all the technology they can. This is a big hall mark of this segment. Just look at the adverting of BMW and Benz as they display their technology as a badge of honor.
GM needs Cadillac to be their technology show case in not just pure advancement but also in safety.
While the others express that they have heads up technology and other features we have dancing robots and a conceded geek waking around town.
Faster and better sell here not just being more American.
There really is nothing wrong with the styling. The middle is where it needs to be. It I like the Metallica black album. While the traditionals cry sell out the sales went of the chart because it was embraced buy a much larger audience.
To be honest the first gen CTS is not aging well. Good styling last like a Ferrari 250 Lusso and needs not to be edgy. Edgy styling gets attention but Good styling is forever.
I’m slowly starting to lose the optimism I had for Cadillac’s future….
This new course looked promising in the beginning, but now it appears to be somewhat merky. They still haven’t yet properly defined what the Cadillac brand is. They assert the fact that they wanna exercise the Germans “focus, continuity and consistency”, yet there’s no concrete identity of what Cadillac’s goal is and how they intend to standout from the rest of the luxury brands. So much of what’s in the mix seems to simply mirror the Germans: both the naming scheme and the products to come. I do like the intentions of bringing “American-ESS” to the brand. As bad as our country’s rep is, let’s face it: it’s the American heritage and engineering that’s going to have to play the biggest role in Cadillac’s marketing approach. But they gotta have the technology to back them up! This is where the Germans and the Japanese have them beat! Luxury consumers will have to be convinced to buy American, with plenty of incentives to reenforce this.
I guess we can only wait and see at this point.
I can remember about 3 years ago a female (oriental) wanted a new car. I made a few suggestions. She said no to each one. The problem was that they were not made in her home land in Asia. She said that she had to invest in her home country to show her support for her home land. I told her that was all well and good but she now lived in America. She said that America was a big and rich country. Now I understand why Asians buy Asian cars. It is not that they are good. They just want to see their home land get more American dollars.