Cadillac’s recently-appointed brand chief Johan de Nysschen has made some controversial decisions in his short time with the American luxury automaker. The long-time auto exec comes from Infiniti, where he moved the brand’s headquarters and renamed their entire product lineup, much like he’s now done with Cadillac. One automotive industry expert, Keith Crain, already wrote an open letter decrying de Nysschen’s decisions, but he’s not the only one that has a bone to pick with the South African native.
Retail automotive industry expert Jim Ziegler has worked as a salesman, sales manager and trainer for 37 years and is well poised to speak on the Cadillac situation. He wrecently wrote an editorial published by Ward’s Automotive expressing his concern that de Nysschen plans to “disenfranchise many of its dealers.”
Ziegler says Cadillac’s attempted revival in the late-1990s to 2005 made it exciting and edgy, helping it to capture a younger demographic. However now he believes the company “has lost its energy and its unique identity as market share continues to drip away,” and foreign luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and BMW dominate in sales.
GM’s strategy now, in Ziegler’s words, is to “build a flagship sedan to compete with BMW and Mercedes. Then (GM’s) going to hire South African marketing genius Johan de Nysschen and give him a lot of power.” A similar plan worked for Audi, which under de Nysschen’s leadership experienced a jump in U.S. sales of 60,000 units in three years, but Ziegler thinks it also entails cutting the number of dealers.
“The strategy is clear. Isolate the brand headquarters. Move it away from the corporate culture of the parent company, then reduce the number of dealers, create scarcity of product by cutting production, which ultimately allows the brand to increase transaction prices,” he wrote.
Like in Crain’s op-ed on the Cadillac situation, Ziegler disagrees with de Nysschen’s new naming convention for Cadillac. He says American cars “have names and brand identities, not numbers and letters,” like German cars. The naming convention appeals better to younger buyers and translates better in foreign markets, but this chasing of a younger demographic will “destroy the owner base,” according to Ziegler.
Time will tell if Crain and Ziegler’s assumptions about Cadillac are right. We can’t predict what will happen better than anyone else, but we have trouble faulting Cadillac for wanting to chase a younger customer base. We also have trouble blaming de Nysschen for coming in and implementing change, after all, that’s why he was hired in the first place.
Comments
Give the people the best damn car in the segment and market it correctly and they will buy it even if you call it a BR549
I said this on another forum earlier today, Cadillac is currently testing and driving the development for all of GMs future RWD car platforms (minus the Vette). It looks like GM is finally letting Cadillac be the innovator and then trickle down. This benefits all of GMs cars. So, it makes sense for Cadillac to get more selective, riskier if you will, in how they market themselves. If they gain market share of the younger generation who cares if they lose the older generation. If you gain the younger generation and do it right you’ve got them for life. The rest of GM can carry Cadillac in the short term during this transition because of the trickle in technology and innovation. Outside of the Alpha and Omega platforms right now, MRC is a perfect example of GM tech starting in Cadillac and trickling down to the rest of GM. You can argue the Corvette does this as well. Give it 2-3 years and then come back and see how it’s worked out. I bet Cadillac comes out ahead to the benefit of all of GM.
American cars “have names and brand identities, not numbers and letters,” like German cars.
Cadillac series 60, series 61, and series 63 anyone? The only argument that can be made against the new nomenclature is that ct6, XT4, etc don’t come off the tongue as easily as A4, A6, q3, c250, 335i, etc.
The naming convention appeals better to younger buyers and translates better in foreign markets, but this chasing of a younger demographic will “destroy the owner base,” according to Ziegler.
What owner base? The soon to be dead, old whites of America? Who cares about them, there’s a reason why BMW, Audi, and Benz are doing well, because their cars target audience is mostly teenagers even though they can’t afford their cars yet, but when they get older and able to afford a luxury car the first thing on their mind is more than likely gonna be “I want a brand new bimmer, or Benz,” when was the last time you ever heard someone say “that new caddy is nice,” I’ve never heard anyone (I’m 17 BTW) say that until the new ’14 CTS came out.
I don’t know why everyone has their panties in a rustle, just let him do his thing because frankly Cadillac sales are not too good anyways.
I say a lot of stand alone Cadillac dealers need to stay but the shared franchise in smaller counties/cities need to go.
Back then in the late 60s-early ‘2010s, Cadillacs was valued priced which forced a lot of shared franchise Cadillac stores in smaller counties. Since Cadillac is going to sell lesser volume in the future due to price, certain stores need to be abolished. Most wealthy people live in bigger wealthier cities and counties and shop at stand alone Cadillac stores anyway.
Unfortunately, where I am at, there are still few ’13 Cadillacs waiting on the lot to be sold and that is thru a shared franchise store.
The reason for shared franchises is that there isn’t enough volume for a single-brand to make enough numbers to stay viable.
People aren’t going to drive 200 miles to buy a Caddy, especially with Toyota will happy sell them a Lexus at the Toyota-Lexus dealer up the street. Or Infinity at the Nissan-Ininity dealer up the street.
I had to pull teeth to get my mother to take the 90 mile drive to test out the Chevy SS, because that was the closest dealer with a demo unit. People want to buy local with cars.
I haven’t heard Cadillac is gunning for dealer shares, but if they are, it would be the dumbest move in automotive history. I’m including the Aztek and G3 in that count.
The difference between Audi and Cadillac is that you’ll be able to buy great Epsilon, Theta, and soon Alpha platform vehicles on Buick and Chevrolet soon.
Audi and VW made sure to differentiate drivetrains and engines while sharing similar platforms. It’s almost impossible for GM to do that with anything other than Omega.
Especially as Holden starts begging for an Alpha LWB sedan (presuming a FWD Commodore is as panned as I suspect it will be), GM will be unable to give Cadillac the uniqueness that they seek.
What are you talking about… GM is making Cadillac unique. Buick is still on FWD platforms. They haven’t been RWD since 2008 with that SUV. Cadillac is developing a new family of 4,6, and 8 cylinder engines specifically for themselves. Plus, Cadillac is pretty unique compared to its cross-town rival (Lincoln) who still uses lesser Ford platforms.