As we’ve documented quite comprehensively, Cadillac is still strategizing a brand rebirth to boost relevance in the minds of (especially American) consumers. Recently, the automaker even “blanked-out” all its social media profiles to prime the public for their bold, dramatic second coming.
More recently, Cadillac uploaded an advertisement to YouTube which features precisely no Cadillac cars (save for the side mirror of one, pictured above). What the internet spot does feature is several lines from one of our greatest presidents’ great speeches: one known as “The Man In The Arena,” delivered by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910.
The folks at brandchannel sat down with Cadillac Chief Marketing Officer Uwe Ellinghaus to pick his brain in regards to the new brand direction.
“We want to resurrect the Cadillac brand and bring it back to greatness,” the CMO told brandchannel. “You can’t just put product—even great product, which we have—in front of people. If the brand isn’t relevant, people don’t care.”
That calls to mind this question: What kind of relevance is the Cadillac brand trying for? Johan de Nysschen is on the record as previously having stated that they should be “a luxury brand that just happens to sell cars.”
Mr. Ellinghaus explains things a bit differently: “We won’t ‘outdo’ luxury; we won’t use ‘attention to detail’ and other craftsmanship cliches,” he says. “‘Luxury’ is associated with European brands more than with American brands… We want to ‘outwit’ luxury, to dare greatly and create interplay among the brand values of boldness, sophistication and optimism, and yet be inviting and approachable.”
Of course, Cadillac has tried to reposition itself before. So how will this time be different? Says Ellinghaus: “This is a reinvention, not just a repositioning. And it’s a product renaissance as well. So we have the right to say we are ‘daring greatly’ ourselves. This is not just a ‘campaign.’
“We want people to say, ‘Look how much Cadillac has changed.’ And we will get some criticism.”
Comments
I think Caddylack is so far behind, they think they are ahead . This division , to me , appears to have no focus , no solid brand awareness with the younger professionals , an almost complete lack of understanding what modern professionals want . Look at Audi and BMW or Lexus , now how edgy , wow hot designs do you see ? Seriously , what lives and breathes there is ; refinement , understatement , quality , superb silky engines and drivetrains . Whether it is cars or crossovers , SUVs , the message and the delivered products are the same . Cadillac needed competing CUVs years ago and they are still not here . The SRX with numerous recalls and stop sell order and edgy , funky styling , looks totally out of place with the current competition ! By the time Caddie brings theirs to market , the competition will be into their next gen of products and be further ahead again.
The Dare Greatly ad is the most mind numbing waste of money I have ever seen , frankly worse than tampon commercials , in my opinion , it seems to be simply an exercise on how to get people to tune out or walk away from their TV sets !!
This division is floundering , indecisive and both its head man and his marketing genius , for the most part , again in my opinion , just keep talking and talking and talking ……..
Well they have the product to start to compete now. The styling is no better or worse than anyone else. BMW even with their tired grill has had enough of their own funk going around.
The bottom line is that there was a lot of disagreement internally on the mission of Cadillac and how far they needed to go to be taken seriously. Finally the good guys won inside less than a year ago and Cadillac has been given the money to have all the tools they need going forward at this point. Their own cars and own engines will go a long way to help them compete.
While the Chevy based engines are good engines they were still not Cadillac engines and there is no incentive to pay more for the Chevy engines.
When you pay more you expect to have something better and technical than the engine in your Tahoe.
Also they are just now getting their marketing started. We will have to wait for the results but they could not be worse what we have had in the past.
Right now Cadillac has just entered the new path they have chosen and it will take time to see how it will work. They for the first time in a long time are of one mission and one mind set vs. the run my commute approach.
The real issue has been many here do not understand the marketing of this segment and some that did not understand also were calling the shots for Cadillac.
We just have to let this one ride and see how they do now with the one vision for once. I think with a little time and better marketing on new products we will see a marked difference.
The SUV models will be important as they will be the volume models and they will be the ones to attract new conquest buyers that will migrate to the cars.
Cadillac Dared Greatly to hire an agency who “borrowed” the title, and the Teddy Roosevelt speech” from the book “Daring Greatly”, written by Brene Brown in 2012:
“Someone at Cadillac, or its ad company Publicis, is a fan of Brené Brown, a researcher who’s made a name for herself studying the benefits of vulnerability and the downsides of shame. Earlier this week, the car company launched an ad campaign, “Dare Greatly,” based on a 1910 speech by Teddy Roosevelt. Most recently, the quote has been revitalized by Brown, who titled one of her recent books Daring Greatly (2012). Brown noticed the ads, and so did her fans, she writes at her site. It wasn’t entirely coincidental:
Cadillac sent me an email last week informing me about the campaign and letting me know that they were inspired by the quote, and particularly by my book. I am in no way involved with the Cadillac campaign. I’m not receiving any payment and I wasn’t consulted or informed in advance of the launch. When I first learned about the campaign I experienced many different strong emotions — fear, anger, vulnerability — I’ve handed the matter to my attorneys and publisher. [Brown]”