There are numerous executives at the forefront of Cadillac’s turnaround, but you could argue that few have a more important role than the brand’s new chief marketing officer, Uwe Ellinghaus. Cadillac has the right products, and it’s the former BMW marketing exec’s job to make the public aware of their existence.
Ellinghaus sat down with The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles auto show to discuss how he plans to improve the brand awareness of Cadillac. The brand has stopped sponsoring events like golf tournaments and has begun to advertise at Hollywood events, fashion shows and other more ritzy gatherings. Ellinghaus says he intends to continue this trend, with plans to host an event at the 2015 Oscar celebrations.
“We will kick off our new brand point of view at the Oscar celebration,” Ellinghaus said. “We will have our own event but will also have in the Oscar show several blocks of media that we bought because we have one of the best audiences that we can have: people that are interested in Hollywood and everything that the lifestyle Hollywood stands for, and I think that’s a natural brand fit for us. So I’m not interested in Super Bowl, I’m far more interested in the Oscars.”
Ellinghaus says Cadillac’s brand image is fine. Nobody thinks of a bad car when you say the name Cadillac. The problem is very few people are saying the name Cadillac at all, especially when it comes to shopping for a new car. The automaker has a plan in place to increase their relevancy through way of greater street presence and new marketing tactics.
“The problem with our brand is we have a relevance issue, as the marketing people call it. People don’t necessarily have a bad image of Cadillac. What we lack is that people say: I want this car. They say, Nice but not for me. And this is something I need to change,” Ellingahus said. “Firstly, I need more street presence of our new cars. Our presence in Detroit, in Dallas- Ft. Worth and some other areas is terrific. But at the coasts, where the luxury market is, you hardly see the ATS and the CTS.”
Ellinghaus acknowledged that improving Cadillac’s relevancy in the eye of consumers will take “many, many years.” It seems the brand’s turnaround will be a bit long-winded, with President Johan de Nysschen also predicting that GM won’t see major improvements in regards to Cadillac until far into the future.
Comments
It will take Cadillac decades of product excellence to be relevant again. There’ll be no excuse for poorly executed cars.
Cadillac has a problem; and that problem is not their cars
Is the image, advertising and the need of faster distribution and most dynamic sales.
Regards from Spain
The reality is Cadillac is in the room with the others now product wise. They just need to continue to improve it and add a wider range of models and product.
The marketing they have is atrocious. I am hoping it is addressed by the new leadership soon.
The key here is they are now headed in the right direction at full speed. The new turn around will take about 10 years to get what they need to do done. Before I was expecting a half hearted attempt but today we know that GM is fully committed to letting them do their own engines etc.
I know they can and will do it now. The only worry I have is if GM panics and pulls back from committing for a full revamp with the proper investment. It will take time and money and not all companies are willing to do this. Right now GM has shown they are and lets home they let Cadillac finally close the deal.
IMO, the real renaissance started in ’12 with the ATS and XTS due to more elegant styling inside and out, performance, genuine interiors, fair and aggressive pricing to the competition, and dedication to the current turnaround while before that it was halfhearted.
Cadillac and GM can’t afford to do halfheartedness anymore. People not going for it. The newest model CT6 will be here a year from now and will demonstrate how serious Cadillac is with this car and I expect a crossover smaller than the SRX will come after that.
Cadillac needs to launch a massive motorsport offensive to increase brand image and awareness. Think of the effect of serious factory efforts in the U.S. and overseas. Cadillac are already in the Pirelli World Challenge Series in the U.S.
They need to join the DTM, BTCC, vaious GT3 series, WTCC and maybe even F1 with factory teams. They seem to underestimate the power of “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” ideaoligy. Come on Cadillac, give it a try. Just 1 full season will change their image in many parts of the world.
This is what they need to do here.
Stop putting their name on things like golf which they just have and not sponsor off things like fashion shows that no sees or reads about. Lets face it how many here read about GM at a fashion show here when posted. Hands???? as I thought.
Product placement is key. You want people to be seen and in top quality products. Placement in movies, TV shows and videos are key here. Also make deals with starts to be seen in their cars at events where they are high profile. And I mean people that will not make the new for the reason like Lindsey Lohan. does.
As for motorsports this one is tricky. The kind of global series that they can afford to get into is such low profile not many notice. Lets face it even the average race fan in America never has seen a Pirelli Series race on TV let alone in person.
They are not a good fit for NASCAR or Indy. On a global scale the touring car series in Europe would be good but not till they are shipping product there. FI is where they would get the most exposure but that is priced out. I would love to see the Haas Fi team get established and Cadillac in the future work with them on an Engine. But that is just dreaming.
I expect the ATSVR will go to Europe at Lemans in the near future and we will have to see how the rest plays out.
Marketing in this segment is tough when it comes to racing and being an American brand not yet on the Euro market. No one here cars and there is no product for sale yet over there and none of it is cheap.
The Golf deal was a bust. The only thing that got them notices was when Tiger ran his SUV into a tree.
The first thing they need to do is get marketing that is informative. Stop the where Waldo spots and do something like the others that features technology, safety, styling and quality all in one spot. Benz has been playing one of late that hits all the marks in a way that makes you think it is a smart thing to buy a Benz.
Odds are Cadillac will win the next presidential contract and if they do use it in the marketing. I am sure they can do this with the government with out involving names. Just show the years they have been involved and state ”
We are trusted to move some of the most important cargo in the world” with images of high powered people and the presidential car in view. Then use the tag line “Including your yours”! Then you show an affluent younger couple driving off with kids in their CTSV or what ever new Cadillac that is relevant.
I would also rewrite the old Cadillac ad from 1915 aimed at Packard and target the Germans. They need to make a statement like this. If you have not read it here it is.
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction.
When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues awagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass, or to slander you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius.
Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it can not be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistlers as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to to the river banks to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing.
If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live – lives.
If Johann has not read this someone needs to send this to him. The verbiage is a little old but could easily be updated.
100 years later and there is more truth in that old print ad than any forgettable tv ad that ever said that luxury was “redefined”.