Former Cadillac executive Melody Lee has been appointed chief marketing officer at Mercedes-Benz USA. Lee’s appointment was announced at the annual Mercedes-Benz dealer meeting held in Vancouver, British Columbia last week. Lee will take on her new role on July 1st.
Former Cadillac Marketing Director Melody Lee
Per a report from Automotive News, Lee joins Mercedes-Benz USA after leading brand strategy for the Herman Miller and Knoll brands at design company MillerKnoll. Prior to MillerKnoll, Lee served in two executive roles at Cadillac over the course of a six-year period, including brand marketing director.
Lee was also responsible for the development and launch of the Book by Cadillac subscription service. First introduced in 2017, the Book by Cadillac allows subscribers to pay a monthly fee for access to a range of different Cadillac vehicles, with a chance to swap vehicles upwards of 18 times per year. The service also included insurance coverage, maintenance, detailing, white-glove vehicle delivery, and more. Lee was appointed Book by Cadillac global director in November of 2017, but left GM eight months later.
Book by Cadillac app
GM has filed to trademark Book by Cadillac three times over the last seven years, most recently on March 10th, 2023, per exclusive GM Authority coverage. It’s possible that Cadillac may be entertaining the idea of relaunching the service following its suspension in 2018.
Lee was also responsible for the development and launch of Cadillac’s “Dare Greatly” campaign, and served as one of the youngest-ever executives at General Motors. Lee is a Texas native and the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, and completed the General Motors Transformational Leadership Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business between 2015 and 2016, per Lee’s LinkedIn profile.
Dare Greatly ad campaign
Lee replaces Mercedes-Benz USA marketing head Drew Slaven, who previously served as the company’s CMO beginning in 2014 before departing the company this past February. Slaven also served as interim CEO at Mercedes-Benz USA, and oversaw the naming rights for Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Atlanta Falcons NFL franchise.
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Comments
I ask myself if is easy for those guys climbing in career, because sent more than 100 cvs to BMW, GM, Audi, Ford, Hyundai, VW etc etc and they only denied me… ahhhh of course, was born in Brasil, not in USA, so understand how world works. Understood, the woman was born in rich family, paid US$ 200 000 for Art College Pasadena California from a Rich Father … then invited direct as Design Director, so is easy. ELYSIUM FILM, all a kind of Uterus Money mother type, that is called no racism ethiny democracy among north-america, german, uk, france etc
I wish I can easily climb the corporate ladder within 5 years.
Female, non-white, and probably some extra skills. HR doesn’t want white males.
Any numbers to back this up? I’m going to guess no.
GM needs to start hiring the most qualified people to promote their great brands…people who know the history of the brand and what made it great. The most recent ad campaigns for Cadillac have been a disaster. Please bring the excitement of owning a Cadillac back to the ads. Anorexic 20 year old woke models won’t cut it.
agree… but … you do not need to write this for us at GMA readers, try to say direct to them in Detroit, you know the address better than me.
Cadillac, imo has always sucked when it comes to marketing. They produce excellent cars and SUVs that nobody knows about. How many casual car consumers even know what the V series is, but most know M series or AMG. The Blackwings are arguably the best sports sedans in the world, but nobody knows about them except for car enthusiasts.
GM has always had trouble keeping high-profile “outsider” hires, especially at Cadillac. Working with the entrenched lifers must be challenging. I liked what I saw during Ms. Lee’s time there.
She’s no dummy, she reads the writing on the wall, Cadillac no longer builds what their customers want.
She was another in a long line of poor hires at Cadillac. This is a division of the former “GM”, not a brand like perfume or a purse. Cadillac couldn’t show her the door fast enough. Why she was hired in the first place is inexplicable. All I can say about Cadillac is thank god they have Chevrolet to do their heavy lifting.
It seems that Mercedes has very low standards Ms. Lee has NOT done a very good job at Cadillac.