It appears Cadillac will take a much different approach as it prepares to move back to Michigan after almost four years in New York City, New York. Rather than separating the brand from many, Cadillac President Steve Carlisle said there will be “thousands of people” working on the brand’s revival at its new headquarters in Warren, Michigan.
He said in a Thursday interview with the Detroit Free Press the overarching goal of moving the brand to Warren, which will be very close to GM’s Warren Technical Center, is to foster close collaboration from all departments inside Cadillac. Carlisle added it will be much easier to fix the brand’s longstanding quality problems by moving closer to GM’s full operations.
As we know, Cadillac will introduce a new vehicle every six months over the next few years. Close synergies with engineering and design will be incredibly important for the brand, but Carlisle added that marketing will get an overhaul, too.
“Cadillac has its own values — boldness, optimism, innovation, sophistication — that will reflect in the master brand,” said Carlisle. The challenge is “how to bring those to life,” he added. After three years of “Dare Greatly,” the executive hinted Cadillac branding will no longer chase the Germans. Marketing will target customers instead of competitors, and the brand won’t be cross-referenced with something it is, or isn’t compared to rivals. Carlisle called Cadillac GM’s “master brand.”
And part of this will include making Cadillac a technology leader, something former President Johan de Nysschen previously hinted at. Cadillac will get all of GM’s new technology first and electric car tech will reach the luxury division before others.
Cadillac’s move back to Michigan will officially begin in January 2019 and will take about three months. We know the brand will keep a presence at its New York City office in SoHo until 2025 when the lease expires. Carlisle added the Cadillac House will stay open “for the time being.”
Comments
If they had moved from the Renaissance to Warren, nobody would have cared. If they had just opened a Cadillac store in NY, nobody would have cared, least of all the New Yorkers.
But the way they did it, making everyone think “this is phaaking serious”, really made all the stakeholders think of “New Cadillac” and what that could possibly be, instead of “Dying Cadillac” and all the chauffeur uniforms that go with that livery. And New Yorkers got the only thing that will get their interest – the bosses are in town (why do you think Trump still lives there?).
Now Caddy returns – prodigal son style – to it’s new/old home, Warren in Detroit. Closer to the technical center of innovation, but with every technician happy to be there instead of thinking “if only we were somewhere else…”. And meanwhile, a hi-fashion pop-up store lives in NY and it is very established and popular with a very new market of young buyers. Best of both worlds, and JDN took with him all the bad blood out of it as he left. I hope he got a good severance, I doubt he didn’t.
Are you an American PATRIOT?
Because if you hate any part of America … then you are NOT a patriot.
Now be honest with yourself. You hate New York and California don’t you? Therefore – you are not a patriot, you are an enemy of America. You need to be deported or sent to gitmo.
New York and California are AMERICA. Real America. George Washington took the oath of office for President in New York. Theodore Roosevelt made a Presidential trip to California a signature of his new US Forest Service dept. Have you been hating on Forest Service workers lately?
California provided the factories and workers for the DC3 Dakota, Ducommun supplied the aluminum for Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis, TRW made the ICBM’s that keep us safe, NAA’s Downey facility made the Apollo command modules (the 11th one sits in the Smithsonian lobby).
LATimes:
“It’s hard to overstate the extent to which postwar Southern California was built on defense spending. In his definitive account of the period, “Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963,” Kevin Starr wrote: “The Department of Defense awarded one-quarter of all its contracts to California in the 1950s. Between 1952 and 1962, the Department of Defense funneled more than $50 billion into California, twice the amount received by any other state.”
“You had this kind of cauldron of intellectual and entrepreneurial ferment,” said Ron Sugar, former chief executive of Northrop Grumman from 2003 to 2010. “It was really remarkable.” Employment surged again when President Reagan launched a new military race with the Soviet Union. More than 1,000 Northrop workers swarmed over B-2 bomber production lines in Palmdale.”
And then after Reagan won the Cold War (until Trump have it back to Putin on a plate) … no more money for California, and now with Trump giving the house and everything inside away to Russia for free, now Americans just wanna hate on the folks who saved your ass in the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s.
Hate California, Hate New York, but love Russia. Patriots? Nope!
Are u crazy? Trump hasn’t given anything to Russia. He has put more sanctions on them than any previous President in 40 years. Look at facts. Don’t be a sheep.
Trump – Helsinki July 2018, on the POTUS podium, right next to the Russian pres-on-his-podium, with all the world’s media recording every word: “yes, American officials should be questioned by Russian officials”
That’s Trump giving America away, right there. He gave Putin your America as well as mine.
Such a lack of stability at Cadillac. New headquarters, new company managers, new marketing directions. What is it going to take for an actual long-term plan with concrete stability to come forward?
Regarding the most recent move to Warren, I don’t see it as beneficial. While it’s good to have engineering and related activities closely integrated to GM, Cadillac has to stand apart from GM. When I think luxury market, I don’t think Warren. By having a location in a bustling metropolitan area like NY, Cadillac could tap a much larger labor pool and attract talent to build its high-end image and prestige. You need to surround yourself with the people you want to be and compete with. Cadillac is now surrounded by GM’s lesser brands and the corporate hacks constantly reigning in their attempts at true luxury. I don’t see this being a sustainable move for the brand.
I call BS.
GM has bragged about how they can design and engineer 24 hours a day with the global engineering arms and modern technology.
The truth is Cadillac can be better micro managed by the board where they can drop in anytime and disrupt the plans of Cadillac like they have for the last 40 years.
“will no longer chase the Germans. Marketing will target customers instead of competitors”
When did Cadillac actually chase the Germans?. Did the brand CEO used right-wing internet talking points about Cadillac?. I’d fire him for that. The customers for those POS Cadillac was making in the 90s either are dead, got an CUV or driving a MAGA-bro truck/suv.
Get ready for your XTS based CT6 soon….
How do you address and rectify quality problems, when you have a model locked and loaded to launch every six months ‘til 2020?
Not critical, just curious – how do you address and tweak and upgrade ‘issues’ when years of (re)engineering have already gone into the product coming up?
Best of luck to Mr Carlisle and the Cadillac team as they sally forth.
I believe no more in all these good promises. I have heard these song and dance since 90’s. The GM’s brand’s (mainly Cadillac) perfomance on CR still is poor. After the bailout, I hoped that GM would improve its quality to match its asian competitors but…nope. They prefer to focus and bet on the driverless car’s dream (that, maybe, the customers won’t want to buy) and skip the rest (Opel, Holden,….).
“bet on the driverless car’s dream (that, maybe, the customers won’t want to buy)”
Ditto for the all-electric car. It might sell in China and California, but not the rest of the US.
“They prefer to focus and bet on the driverless car’s dream”
If GM doesn’t make an autonomous car, tech companies and other automakers will.
I don’t say that they shouldn’t have to bet on the driverless car, I say that they shouldn’t have to put so much money and rather joining a tech company like Chysler with Waymo. On other hand, the electric cars (or hybrid car) and the reliability are the real challenges for GM!
Sure thing Steve, whatever you say …
Also, at what point do we start calling them out on this mythical product assault?
The executive suite from the top down is a very well paid ship of fools aimlessly sailing around without any coordinated long term plan for this giant corporation. They make changes so as to look busy without showing any quantifiable improvements in quality, design, efficiency, market share, or you name it. Small quarterly bumps in EPS mean big bonuses to top executives while the rest of the company and it’s customers suffer. The only market left to retreat from is the U.S. or China and China may well become like Europe was to Opel.
Stay in NY. Nothing against Detriot.
Display Cadillac in a GLOBAL CITY like NYC, but put it in Times Square.
All the back and forth! Changes in names, location, etc. Catera, ATS, XLR, ELR, SRX, CTS. vs. 3,5,7, S, E, C, As, LS, ES, have been around for years. How can trust be earned if I buy a one generation Cadillac.
What is the big secret about their future line up?
If you dont target the Germans/Asians & others how will people know what Cadillac is competing in? Lexus did and is a sells success.
Or is it Cadillac and nothing else? Cadillac needs to better than its Eurpean and Asain comps.
I want the best for Cadillac.
“Cadillac has its own values — boldness, optimism, innovation, sophistication — that will reflect in the master brand,”
Maybe Steve should add RELIABILITY and CUSTOMER SERVICE to those ” Cadillac Values” Maybe if they targeted the owners of the Cadillac vehicles with troubles they wouldn’t have to try so hard to find new suckers to buy the junk. They know who most of the unsatisfied customers are we all call and get case numbers, and waist our time to have nothing done. He is a perfect GM puppet. GMs “MASTER BRAND” with the brands WORST RELIABILITY and NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. GM can buy the TV add reviewers but real customers in Consumer Reports don’t LIE. Customer service would solve this trouble. in my opinion.
Should have put the Caddy in a cool building in Downtown Detroit. Low rent, hip upcoming city, attractive to millennials with creative energy (HQ nearby). Warren is Olive Garden, Applebees, traffic and ? ? ? …. you get the point.
Even the people who frequent these places are too smart and will not or can not pay $60 or $70K for a second rate product. Buy an American made BMW or Benz instead and get some quality instead of this incessant B.S.
“Beginning today, we will be introducing new entries at an average rate of one new Cadillac every six months through 2021,” Johan de Nysschen, president of Cadillac, said during his presentation Wednesday at the New York International Auto Show.
This statement was made March 29th 2018. It’s been over six months. Where is the new vehicle? Vehicle number two should be hitting the market by March. We are not talking the show circuit. We are talking the the showroom floor. He said new entries but unless he was including refreshed models they will miss their target. It doesn’t matter if they are chasing the Germans or not,what ever they bring it has to be class leading. If the delay is to make sure they are class leading then I am ok with that. But if they are second rate and late then in my opinion all hope is lost.Dont get me wrong I love GM but when they do stupid stuff it can be frustrating to stand by them. Kind of like loving your kids but when they do stupid stuff and you want to kill them.Then the good lord bless you with Grandkids as a thank you for not killing them.
“After three years of “Dare Greatly,” the executive hinted Cadillac branding will no longer chase the Germans.”
This is so infuriating. The Alpha Chassis models were among the best sedans in the world when they debuted and fell short only on powertrains when compared to the Germans. With continued development and a few more dedicated powertrains, Cadillac could have earned a reputation for building the best sport luxury sedans in the world.
Yet now they just give up after ONE try? And do what? Chase after Lincoln’s road barges? Go back to putting fancy grills on Chevy products? Make sharp-edged versions of Buicks? What? GM apparently have no idea WTF Cadillac should be.
If it will be more of the same, more products that are 85% of what they need to be, then GM should just kill Cadillac. Let Chevy have the Alpha platform for an expanded Camaro lineup (restyled) with coupe, sedan, and hatchback. Stop wasting money on a company that is afraid to succeed.
The commercials are what they are talking about not the cars.
Where did Cadillac say that they gave up on one try? The future Cadillacs will be the best in every class, more so the RWD models.
IMO Cadillac turned off potential customers with the image of: “these cars aren’t for you… they are only for the beautiful hipsters”. In this age of viral marketing, reality tv and YouTube, I find most automotive marketing to be predictably lame and boring.