Cadillac was the recent subject of a New York Times article highlighting General Motors‘ ongoing struggle to revitalize the brand and grow its sales domestically.
For its report, the New York Times spoke to David Placek, who is the founder and president of branding strategy and marketing group Lexicon Branding. Placek said he believes Cadillac is “stuck in time,” with its marketing approach and is insure about the next steps to take to improve its image. He also described the brand’s move to New York City as “wishful thinking,” and said that if Cadillac wants to “get their edge back,” the company will have to focus on developing solid products first and foremost.
Before implementing its most recent strategy, in which the company will try to position itself as a tech-forward brand capable of taking on the likes of Tesla, GM essentially touted Cadillac as an American alternative to BMW. Now the company isn’t as focused on Deutschland as it once was, instead trying to find a new type of buyer that appreciates technology and innovation above all else. Steve Carlisle, the brand’s recently appointed new president, explained this strategy to NYT for its report.
“We’re not trying to out-German the Germans anymore,” Carlisle said. “We have to find our own audience. When Cadillac has done its best, it is when we have represented the best of technology and innovation.”
Talk of Cadillac’s revitalization has been ongoing at GM for years now, so to see the brand again try to reposition itself is hardly a surprise. With an aging customer base, GM is right to try and find new customers for Cadillac to appeal to. The company keeps shifting the goalposts, though, making it feel as though the brand is running in place. Even the new EV-focused strategy seems a bit flawed. Cadillac’s first dedicated EV won’t be here for a few more years, while brands like Jaguar and Audi already have such products on sale. By the time the Cadillac EV does arrive, the EV marketplace will be much more saturated, so the availability of an electric car alone may not be enough to position any brand as a technology leader.
Cadillac also has the semi-autonomous Super Cruise hands-free driving system to help it win over buyers who appreciate innovation, but as NYT points out, the technology won’t be offered on its crossovers or SUVs for a few more years. In a rapidly evolving automotive landscape, there are risks in betting big on current-day trends that may take two to three more years to actually bring to market in large numbers.
Earlier this year, GM president Mark Reuss said trying to position Cadillac as an innovation leader could be GM’s last attempt to build the brand into something of significance.
“We don’t have any chances left with taking Cadillac to a really new place,” he said. “This is pretty much it.”
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Source: New York Times
Comments
All GM needs to do is :
Make a Cadillac !!
The designs are subjective but:
Like the small plastic in the CT5, where a window should be, shows a cheapness !!
And the performance of your standard Chevrolet , is less than appealing, to a new market place.
And the horrible customer support put forth by GM is just that, horrible.
Make a Cadillac, change it, refine it, and stand behind it, and repeat !!
Keep doing that, make a Cadillac, change it, refine it, stand behind it and repeat !!!!
So far lately, GM has been making Chevrolets and trying to pass them as Cadillac, when it fails they try to do the same thing over again, and over again.
Look at anything midsized Cadillac, its nothing better than a different looking Chevrolet.
GM says better, but GM has said a lot.
Quit trying to convince people, customers, that the same Chevrolet is a Cadillac, and make it better, make it a Cadillac.
The extra purchase price for extra warranty does not make the Cadillac better. It is the same, only more trips to a dealership because the warranty is longer but the vehicle in not better.
GM you need to make the vehicle better.
And GM you need to figure out this horrible customer support !!
If you don’t change the path your on how do you expect the outcome to change ?
Powerful.
Best-in-class interior room.
More fun to drive than Lexus.
Lower cost of ownership than the Germans.
Better build quality than Tesla.
Better performance than Lincoln.
A whole different animal than Buick.
Both stately and sinister in design. Admired by mobsters and heads of state alike.
THOSE should be Cadillac’s selling points.
Sounds too aggressive man! The new neutered GM of America will not allow for that haha! They should hire some people from dodge to do their marketing. I could only imagine how dodge folks would have marketed the previous generation V models.
^ Curtnik get is. Well done sir.
I would add:
More color choices inside and out
Smoother riding option
No vinyl seats
More a la carte options
“Better build quality than Tesla.”
“Better performance than Lincoln.”
I think they should aim a little higher than terrible quality and no performance.
People obviously don’t think Tesla’s build quality is bad enough to stop them from buying. As for Lincoln not having performance, this isn’t 2010 dude.
Well Said!!! Put the corvette passion in Cadillac!
My Dad had a Fleetwood and Sedan DeVille (and not the ugly azz cropped trunk version), when Caddy made some bad azz cars. They were powerful, luxurious, American awesomeness. Good attempt with CTS models especially the high performance ones. Seems easy enough, build powerful luxurious cars. Get rid of the wanna be German monikers (CT blah). Build quality, beautifully designed, luxurious cars like the Escala, El Miraj and the Ciel (Corvette based) and have the SUV line up with the same genes, possibly an electric that can compete with Tespa and Caddy will be back on top in America. Perhaps even around the world. Otherwise, continue with aesthetically displeasing looking cars with engines that will never outrun their direct competition from Europe or Asia.
The sad thing about those concepts is that they illustrate that someone at GM understands what Cadillac was and knows how to reinterpret that for today. The Cadillac Sixteen, Elmiraj, and Ciel are all pure Cadillac. They are instantly recognizable and need no scripts or crests. They are glamorous, flashy, and powerful. The Cien isn’t pure Cadillac and the Escala is a tad too Audi-llike but they all show a ‘Dare Greatly’ attitude that isn’t evident in Cadillac’s production cars.
Would a gigantic celebrity today drive an XT4? A CT5 perhaps? Likely the answer is no but the wealthy and influential folks once drove Cadillacs. Currently you’ll find them cruising in a Rolls or Bentley but they could most assuredly be enticed back to Cadillac by the Sixteen or the over-the-top Ciel.
It doesn’t take an expert to notice that the Cadillac brand is rudderless.
For those old enough to remember, think about what you’d get if you combined the last few years of Oldsmobile with the last few years of Pontiac: Wouldn’t that be today’s Cadillac?
Dan Ackerman said of the Lincoln division about 7 years ago “sprinkle holy water on it.” Unfortunately we are not too far away from saying the same thing about Cadillac.
Product comes first, then marketing. Stop acting like marketing is more important than the product. GM marketing sucks anyways.
They also tried “let’s price it like the Germans without making it as good as the Germans”.
This is such a frustrating topic.
“We’re not trying to out-German the Germans anymore,” Carlisle said.
Cadillac leadership is falling for a misguided narrative. It’s like they’re ashamed of benchmarking the German luxury brands as competition. The NYT article even says that Cadillac trails behind the Germans globally and is ranked 6th in north America. This means Cadillac isn’t making many conquest sales. The market is voting with their money. I believe it’s for reasons both GM and many enthusiasts miss the mark on.
Speaking of enthusiasts, the overall discourse surrounding Cadillac hasn’t helped. People say Cadillac needs to stop chasing the Germans, but so far the only alternatives I see people put forward is build cars like the DTS; a car with a reputation as both “grandpa” and “ghetto”. If you mention ANYTHING put out by Cadillac from the mid 70’s to late 90’s and ANY FWD Caddy, as an example of roots they need to return to, that example needs to be thrown out.
The point I’m making is that Cadillac had the most direction when they benchmarked the Germans. These last 15 years they’ve come the closest they’ve gotten to being firmly in the luxury car conversation.
The CT6 is by far their best effort to recapture the Pure Cadillac. Too bad it’s the “midsize” offering. Too bad we’ll likely never see the real flagship CT7/CT8 (or the design will stray too far from Art and Science). Too bad it’s on the chopping block.
Was Cadillac a little too ambitious with pricing? No doubt.
Was the ATS and CTS too cramped inside for their segments? Without a question.
Does Cadillac need a fully flexible RWD/AWD platform to underpin their CUVs and sedans alike? More than they know.
But Cadillac shouldn’t be ashamed of benchmarking the German luxury brands. GM SHOULD BE ASHAMED NOT GIVING CADILLAC THE PROPER RESOURCES TO COMPETE.
If GM doesn’t fix this, aiming Cadillac at Tesla will backfire the same way aiming at BMW did.
Building a CT7/8 makes no sense. There are basically zero buyers for full size sedans regardless of brand. Putting in larger engines don’t help much either when an EV can easily beat an ICE and do it quieter. An EV’s biggest downfall at this point is charge speed which Porsche is going to change with their 350kW charge capability.
Tell that to Mercedes Benz and their high ATP.
They can afford to stay in shrinking segments because Daimler wrote a blank check for the MRA, and MFA platforms. Each core Mercedes Benz vehicle “family” (C/E/S Class) is essentially the same underneath. The CUVs pay for the sedans, coupes, and wagons.
Agreed,
Bench marking the most successful Luxury brands is not an issue. And yes,reverting to principals that made them irrelevant in the first place, is not the answer. Performance of components and power has always been synonymous with luxury . From Duesenberg and Cadillac 16 now to Bentley and Rolls Royce (which are both German owned as we know) those vehicles had memorable impact in their day and the current leaders in the luxury segment have impact.
This doesn’t happen with 80% of effort. I remember when the current gen ATS and CTS were first reviewed it was very positive and great strides were made… but it was mentioned it was only 80% there and that still carries with me on. I agree with sentiment, it needs to be 100% and with that little extra.
Which leads to what you said.
Delivering on the product on all fronts is crucial. You don’t change minds with a one good product you do it with an exceptional one. And not just a singular vehicle but a line up. Those resources were given on some fronts they were restricted in others. Budget restrictions.
The hardest sell is to convince a company to narrow that profit margin, and the money side doesn’t see the benefit. But to have impact on a brand in a luxury market you need it. The most difficult thing I feel with Luxury Marks is the concern of money. Profit Margins. Risk. Cadillac needs to take that risk and do it intelligently and spend the money where it matters.
That’s all Cadillac had to do. Improve on the direction they were taking.
Now they’re talking about chasing Tesla.
Now the CT6, the best Cadillac in recent history, is facing cancellation.
Now the CUV lineup takes a play from the early 90’s as slightly nicer Buicks.
But hey, the DTS is the best Cadillac ever, right?
Marketing is the least of Cadillac’s problems, I mean where do I start?
Short of a buy out by Geely or another affluent Chinese Company, Cadillac needs a good & proper shake up and a CEO with backbone to purge out the GMness from them … Someone like the late Ferdinand Piëch.
The product planning team, the interior designers, the marketing team and the accountants all need to replaced by talented people outside of GM’s sphere of influence & school of thought. Just look at the way the Hyundai group has transformed itself in the past 10 years while Cadillac kept running in a circle.
I could go on and on, but it all falls on deaf ears and frankly this particular topic raises my blood pressure.
I hope no American car company would be bought out by the commies! Us and the Europeans have already given them so much technology.
Cadillac makes some nice vehicles, but so do numerous other companies, and those other brands have more brand cachet and better qualty & dealer networks. It’s an also-ran brand and nothing about their new strategy suggests that will change anytime soon.
You can’t market yourself as a leader in technology if you don’t make that technology widely available in the type of vehicles people want.
Nice analysis, mainly for the late Cadillac’s reply on the EV market. However, If the future BEV3 platform would be equipped with solid-states batteries (like the latest US grant to GM proves it). Then , maybe, there will be a little hope. They also should launch an electric SUV endowed with solar panels. In addition of a good reliability and quality, the carmaker which will have the better range, the better charging times and a good charging network will be well-postioned!
Make the Cadillac the most comfortable cars available with comfortable cushioned seats, wider inside cabin space so your legs don’t feel cramped and hit the doors, good leg room in front and back, best-in class user interfaces, good views out the window, the latest technology, etc. so you WANT to take them on long trips. Caddys used to be extremely comfortable (albeit too big) and that’s why people liked driving them. But recently GM has been trying to put too much effort into performance and handling, hard seats, tight cabins, etc. like the Germans and that strategy isn’t working too well. Make building the most comfortable luxury car the priority, and I think they could find a new niche.
It is so simple to fix Cadillac.
Start by offering Top Notch best in Class interiors and Tech.
Then, for the love of God rid all your engine Bays of the Corporate 3.6 HFV6 in favor of the So Called “Cadillac Specific” 3.0TT
Stop using FWD based Platforms. It really is very simple. GM is just not willing to play the Long game with Cadillac as VW did with Audi.
Cadillac outside USA does well, inside USA it has that “old person” label still. They just need people to get in the showroom and the cars sell theirselves. We are mid 30s and have two caddies so i hear what people think of them around my age. But once they get in them or see them, they change their attitude. No one i know knew anything about supercruise, they all assumed that when i said i bought a self driving car it was a Tesla. And i mean say out of 100 people who i have talked to about this, all 100 assumed Tesla. That shows where they stand regarding tech.
Build more Escalades. Build more V8 powered V series cars.
That’s we see here down south. I don’t men old folks, I mean hot country club wives and dancers! If Escalade is their best seller or the one that get’s all the attention then follow that formula:
Big
Flashy
Powerful
Comfortable
you know, what Cadillac used to be!
Build V8 cars for $60k, not $90+ with rides like trucks.
Great plan…let’s sell to strippers.
“I have seen the enemy and he is us”.
I’m sure he meant ballerinas.
LOL GM has been trying to figure Cadillac out for decades and they still don’t get it. The very definition of madness is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different outcome. A different CEO and car company would be the only answer. Otherwise Barra and the bean counters will continue running it into the ground.
The most interesting thing about the NYT’s piece to me were the comments. It was interesting how many regular, non-GM fans pretty much see very clearly what the problems with Cadillac are; they are surprisingly perceptive. If we understand, and the common folk out there understand, then how can Mark and Mary be so clueless?
I said yesterday and will repeat today that I believe the best hope Cadillac has at this point is for GM to sell the brand to another automaker. Rolls Royce was sold to BMW and Bentley to VW. Jaguar/Land Rover was purchased by Tata. Volvo is now owed by Geely. All have thrived under new ownership and produce better, more authentic products. Even Opel is doing better out from under GM. I think an outsider, not part of the GM culture, like all of us here, would understand the quintessential Cadillac qualities that made the brand great and just like BMW did for Rolls would re-infuse the brand with its own DNA (not BMW’s and not Tesla’s) and invigorate it.
One would think the people at General Motors could do that themselves but they’ve been trying to reinvent Cadillac for 40 years now and have failed over and over again so I think it is time for them to give up and sell the brand. If they don’t, the bean-counters in GM’s finance group will make the case to their Board that the brand needs to be cut-loose Oldsmobile-style and the Board will vote to approve that plan and that will be it. Suddenly, quickly, and with little outside input, it will be dead. At that point, there will be no turning back, no saving it. Then we truly have a sad day for any red blooded American and especially for those of us here.
It might sound lofty and melodramatic to say but an America without its iconic aspirational car brand would seemingly render us less American; less striving, less of a nation always aiming higher. As I see it, historically speaking, Cadillac is more than another US car brand, they are/were the maker of dreams. They are a symbol of the American ethos that says hard work and determination will be rewarded in the end. Although Cadillac long ago ceded the “Dream Car” ground in reality to foreign makes, I think deep within our collective psyche, they still occupy that space; especially for those of a certain age.
Selling Cadillac is the best of the two bad options. Mark Ruess has pretty much already alluded to what is coming by saying “We don’t have any chances left with taking Cadillac to a really new place. This is pretty much it.” and we know Cadillac has already tried the electric car thing with the ELR and failed; why will this attempt be different?. To be clear, GM selling Cadillac is not what I want to see. Absolutely not, but I have no remaining hope that GM can rebuild Cadillac on their own.
For years we’ve heard about the upcoming product offensive and the launch cadence of a new product every six months. Most of those new products are here now and none of them have been particularly impressive. There are now more FWD corporate platform CUVs wearing the Cadillac crest, there’s another “Tahoe in a Tux” Escalade coming, and a fleet of RWD sedans in small, medium, and large that are decent but aren’t looking like class leading vehicles. This is obviously the best GM and their much heralded former Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen could come up with. They also appear quite proud of their work so I think, they just don’t get it. To the rest of us, what they’ve come up with is clearly not good enough and not sufficient to save Cadillac. Perhaps someone else can.
Cadillac has to offer luxury vehicles that make them money.
The days of “halo” cars are over.
Blue Potato,
How do you see the new Corvette need ?
Honest question.
That car development had to cost come $$$$$.
And what are those sales going to be, do you think ?
You honestly don’t thing if GM spread that $$$$ out over Cadillac that GM would not make more money than the Corvette over the years ?
Because to me that new Corvette is a ” halo ” car, I think its a great vehicle, but still, I think that money would have been better spent making 6 Cadillacs better, and that would have brought in more $$$$$.
Cadillac shares too many bits and pieces with other General Motors vehicles as you’ve got to laugh when someone buys a Cadillac Escalade instead of a Chevrolet Suburban; Cadillac spent a ton of money for exclusive engines yet there are very few Cadillac vehicles with an exclusive Cadillac engine.
Cadillac up till the early 70s had an aura and image comparable to Rolls-Royce, especially outside the US.
I fully agree with the comments above that it is part of America and part of what people understand with the “American Dream”. Cadillac used to be the epitome of technology, of comfort and of reliability, next to performance and class. It was the very best GM brought on the market, at a time when GM was among the biggest corporations in the world.
Even if going after BMW was perhaps not what should have happened, at least Cadillac did manage to out-do the Germans, with a world-class platform (CTS) that got praise from the automotive press all over the world. Even if sales did not follow immediately, at least a goal had been reached. That is the moment where you need to stick to your strategy and use marketing to make your success known to the world. However, marketing this achievement never really happened.
Going away from this strategy, to try yet another recipe (which already failed with the ELR, as someone mentioned above), is the worst possible approach GM could take. Building an image on a certain strategy in the automotive world, takes in average 30 years. Look at Audi and BMW – BMW in the 50s was synonymous with the Isetta, a small mini-car. It took them more than 30 years to build the image they have today. Same for Audi, which was all dead after the 2nd WW.
Cadillac initially went the German way with the STS, as from 1993 (Seville Touring Sedan). They give up on that strategy just as they are being recognized for their chassis engineering (think CTS and CT6), and now they have decided to go the Tesla way – which will again take years, just to play catch-up.
The biggest irony is this: while traditional buyers associate Cadillac with large luxury sedans, and the press recognizes Cadillac for its luxury performers (V-series), they have decided to part with CT6 (= no large sedan any more) and with the traditional V-series (which is now synonymous with just “sporty”, as we have seen with the latest CT5 and CT4 V-series).
This being said, the latest Corvette shows that GM can build something world-class (even if the engine ideally should be more technologically refined, but at that price more than I expected). So why can’t they do a world-class approach for Cadillac? Why is it that Mercedes can make the S-class and BMW the 7-series and Bentley and Rolls-Royce each build “wow” cars but Cadillac – with a larger corporation behind it – can’t?
Mike,
That’s the unanswerable question. By comparison, BMW was a tiny carmaker. How were they (and Mercedes) able to wrestle away the mantle of America’s premier automotive status symbol from gigantic GM?
A couple of years ago on Netflix, they had the entire collection of the TV show Columbo which stars the late Peter Falk as the seemingly bumbling Los Angeles detective who gets assigned all the high-profile murder cases involving LA’s most wealthy and influential people. I had never seen the show but watched all the episodes which span from 1968 to 2003. I couldn’t help but notice in the early episodes, the wealthy villains drove mostly Cadillacs; usually a Fleetwood or Eldorado. It was interesting to see those cars in their contemporary setting rather than as part of history. It was also interesting that as the show progresses, the parade of Cadillacs begins to fade as we see Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and eventually Lexus become the automotive stars. The show clearly reflected what was happening on the streets in those days as GM slowly lost the US luxury car market they once owned. In watching the show as I did, over the course of a few months, one can see easily what happened to Cadillac over a 25 year period. They went from domination to obscurity and Los Angeles California was at the leading edge of that sad story.
Cadillac and all of GM’s declines are a result of the penny pinching decisions –etc no turn signals on outside mirrors on a Cadillac ???? (every cheap import has them–cheap hard plastic interiors — same engines as other divisions . the same dumb decisions over and over again I thought this new reign would do better but it is getting worst –the result we saw was Pontiac – Saturn – Oldsmobile what will be next .
My XT4 looks better than any other comparable brand on the road. I’m always checking out all types of vehicles wherever I go because I enjoy them, and each time I return to my XT4 it always comes off as very pleasing.
The great recession taught GM how to focus on fat margins but nothing about growing volume by developing desirable autos. Lutz had already, pre the crash, and focused on fit and finish, and minimal design and reliability standards, but nada has happened since then aside from diminished market share.
Cadillac will fade away much like Buick but do alright in China. GM will one day merge with either PSA or Honda due to high R&D and reduced scale. It’s very lame!
I was waiting to trade my XT5 on an XT6 with Super Cruise. Then I learn that Super Cruise is not available on XT6.
Amazing–the CEO of Cadillac doesn’t sound too confident that the brand is going to make it–never thought I would hear it–love my CTS–but article sounds a little gloomy–heck–after reading this–put Lutz in charge quick–and Mary B stay out of his way for a couple of years–maybe last hope.
I have the CTS4 and the demise of the car is indicative of the confused state of mind that Cadillac often operates with. The XT6 is a disappointing upgraded Chevy. The company keeps making similar mistakes made in the past.
They do make world class cars on paper…until the bean counters intervene and cost cutting ruins a good thing. And it’s a shame because the CT6 is a gorgeous piece of metal almost ruined by plasticky interiors. They destroyed their reputation years ago and haven’t been able to recover from their fall from Grace. They throw products out there like sticky widgets on a wall. And like the entire family of GM, as soon as they get it right, they drop it. Maybe do it right first? Frustrating to see this, but their downfall is no one’s fault but their own.
GM could easily build a competitive luxury vehicle- no doubt about it. With that said, if you think people like Reuss and Carlisle have one shred of luxury feel in them- guess again.
MTB talks a lot about accountability and “owning it”. The current Cadillac portfolio is the by-product of Mark Reuss and Steve Carlisle (in his previous position as head of product portfolio planning). For many who have left Cadillac, this is a bittersweet irony.
To put Cadillac’s woes on the ever changing brand work- I think this is nonsensical. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the mediocrity of the product. With few exceptions (CTS-V), the portfolio has been mired in mediocrity. The Escalade is a complete unicorn- lucky timing.
Until Cadillac is truly a stand alone brand that doesn’t answer to the greater Machine, little will change.
If benchmarking’s the chosen path, why not benchmark Bentley? Performance, luxury, stately presence and great customer service.
The best days for Cadillac seem to be when they didn’t benchmark though.
Every GM brand except GMC is stuck in time. Every GM make lacks strong identity, branding and all four US brands at times compete for the same buyer–Enclave Avenir and XT6 as an example.
FCA was smart to give each brand a strong core mission with Dodge dedicated to muscle and Jeep committed to off road “excitement” & so on.
Cadillac will carry on as one of GM’s SUV brands and turn a profit off Escalade and XT4. if you Because Cadillac is a tiny brand not even offering a coupe, wagon or convertible, it should carry on as a less mediocre Lincoln in the US and China.
I don’t see much hope for GM aside from mediocre Chevrolet and AT4 GMC varients in the US. The big question is whether GM wishes to keep investing in Cadillac or if the purchase of a brand like Lucid might not be a wiser move.
So they’ve given up on creating sophisticated sports luxury vehicles? What, they thought they would nail it on their first try so now they’ll just give up and go do something else, which they’ll give up on after they fail to nail it on their first try?
Where does GM find these weak-minded fools who run their divisions?
The author seems to be a bit out of touch: Cadillac HQ has already moved back to Michigan, from NYC.
My Chinese wife’s best friend recently bought a Cadillac XT5. She lives and works in the HuNan Province of China.
I recently rode in this car, in China. Very nice. Buick’s and Cadillac’s in China have a great brand image.
For the China market, Cadillac EVs make perfect sense.