Cadillac’s Melody Lee Allots 10 Years For The Brand’s Turnaround
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Cadillac did not unveil a flashy new vehicle or concept at the 2017 North American International Auto Show, but it’s because the brand is very busy plotting its next moves to return to glory.
Melody Lee, Cadillac Brand Director, sat down with Campaign to discuss how she plans to lead the brand’s turnaround. In short, she has given herself 10 years to begin seeing the results she expects will occur.
It’s a “10-year plan,” she said. “It requires an enormous amount of patience, taking the long view, and sticking with the strategy no matter the naysayers.”
Lee and her branding techniques have come under fire multiple times by automotive media and Cadillac enthusiasts alike who think the lack of vision is disturbing. However, we’re only beginning to see the start of a master plan, according to Lee.
Specifically, she was asked how her work is engaging younger, potential Cadillac customers. To that, she responded:
One of the things that we have going for us at Cadillac is a sense of emotional appeal. Our competitors often differentiate themselves on technology, on engineering prowess, on technical ability. There’s no denying that they are very, very good at delivering against that with their products.
There is no good brand without good product. There is also no good product without a good brand. My focus is the brand simply because what I want to do is make the brand so compelling that a customer comes to us and says, “Which Cadillac should I drive?” Because you can talk about the attributes of any product until you’re blue in the face, but if Cadillac is not a brand for them, then I haven’t done my job.
It’s more about lifestyle and a dream than the car itself. You’re seeing this resurgence of American luxury really coming back again. American luxury is meant to be used. It’s not that old-world luxury that’s put in a glass box or on a pedestal or worshiped or put away in the closet to be passed down. It’s stuff you use. I think that’s where we really are trying to differentiate ourselves, to make you feel something when you drive a Cadillac.
Lee wants her branding to come across as “real” and authentic in nature, leading her to choose brand influencers who are not household names. On the flip side of things, she’s working to make Cadillac synonymous with luxury by creating luxury culture spaces that happen to be tied in with Cadillac. Think Cadillac House and its many exhibits and functions.
Ten years is a long time, and we’ve yet to see how Cadillac will truly grow under its current executive team. If last year’s sales results are anything to go on, Cadillac is making improvements, but it’s still far from the top.
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Guys you need to lighten up.
regardless of who here is what Cadillac is trying to do.
Yes they are leaving the old customers behind. Why? Well they are not the customers of the higher end models. Cadillac at one time never served the kid of customers they did from the 60’s-2005. There was a time if you owned a Cadillac it really meant something and not that you sold Mary Kay. This is what lost their mojo and over time it became a car the baby boomers father bought and he bought before he retired. Most of these people are dead or not buying many new cars. That is why Lincoln also nearly died.
Now in the class Cadillac is going after it is a class where it is the younger money is moving and the classes between the boomers and millennials are doing well and I have several at work in ATS and other Cadillac now.
The bottom line is Cadillac has had to change to create a new perception of their products not only in image but quality. This takes time and by the time they get there many of the millennials will be working good jobs and at an age their minimal instincts will change just as will their politics and their out look on investing etc.
Marketing is like shooting Skeet. You have to lead the target if not you are going to be left behind.
Now this is not in support of any one in marketing as some are good but most are idiots. My market and my wife’s marketing departments are out of touch much of the time. The issues is many companies higher people with degrees but no passion for the product or knowledge of it.
But with that said you still have to plant the image that appeals and then grow it. As of now we do not have the product they are going to use to represent the future. Every model out is going to be replaced or refreshed as nothing sold is a JDN vision. All these cars were done before he arrived and hence the delay of new products now till they are ready. No sense putting out more product that needs changed.
In the mean time with the ATP that GM gets on Cadillac products they can survive and even make a good profit at low volume. This is not Chevy where they have to move product to make money. The unit price here is as good and sometimes better than a truck. Keep in mind it cost little more to develop a Cadillac over a Chevy but you can make 3-4 times the money on them.
Also they can not discount their way to a new image. Doing that is counter productive. That is like rubbing the kid with Hamburger to make the dog play with him.
Right now Cadillac is more half way there with their products. They need to really get the execution of the products right. They have them handling as well as anything. They ride very well even with good handling and the build quality is better than it was. But they need to make the styling more compelling,, They need to step up the interior quality. They need to apply the little details that set them apart from the others.
Just look at Infinity. That is a company that for years was lost in the wilderness. A few years back they started to get some direction and in time they are now building an image of their own. Even then the staffing there was changed too much and Nissan meddled a little too much.
Will JDN plan work? Not sure. But going back to the old ways is not going to fix anything as that is why they went wrong.
My mother in law was a old Cadillac customer. DTS etc. Trust me she is not the future of Cadillac and not the kind of customer they should be serving. She belongs in a Buick if she buys GM.
As for Melody I could care less what she says or where she went to school. In the end if she gets result great if not she will be replaced. This is a deal where performance counts and we have to give her new product and time to make the call on her. At this point this is like trying to call the winner of a game in the first inning.
No matter what she does GM will still be here and so will Cadillac as the money is still rolling in. They just want to make more money roll in.
Also Cadillac does not have to out sell Benz or BMW. Volume here is not the name of the game profits are. You want to balance the two.
The bottom line sour grapes from old guys are not going to make Cadillac successful. Be prepared as we will see many things tried some will work and some will not. They will double down where it works and the failures will fade fast. You have to really look at where the market is going and see if that is what they are targeting. If they are planning to make a Baby Boomer happy 10 years from now it will fail.
Here is an ad from 1915 Cadillac used in Saturday Evening Post. If you want to reach into the past to something relevant this is what you should look for.
The language is dated but the meaning still rings true. Note the last line “That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live – lives. “
This is where Cadillac needs to strive and they are just not there yet. I hope the changes JDN plans are this and GM does not get in the way.
Penalty of Leadership
In every field of human endeavour, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be 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 the 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 mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. 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 cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountback, 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 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 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. “
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