Showroom models caught in a brand trap

The quickest way you can destroy the integrity of your brand is to promise one thing while behaving in a way that is totally contrary to this promise. General Motors is experiencing the biggest crisis in its history, which will either see it die in the next few months or be bailed out by the US government. Ford and Chrysler are not far behind and will be eagerly awaiting the outcome. As far as they are concerned one less competitor will give them a market advantage, but on the other hand, if the bail out money goes to GM, will there be any left to guarantee a future for Ford and Chrysler? One possible scenario will be that a Chinese company will buy them, in similar fashion to the purchase of MG in the United Kingdom; or Land Rover and Jaguar by Indian auto giant Tata.











Back to the brand. GM is to be admired for investing heavily in its Volt electric vehicle, hailed as a ‘response to today’s and tomorrow’s energy and environmental challenges’. Here we are witnessing an attempt at a brand makeover – the rebirth of the GM brand as a caring, environmentally focused, world conscious car manufacturer at the forefront of a new era in automotive trasportation. This beggars belief however when you visit the GM website with an array of vehicles that definitely don’t look as though they have economy in mind – dominated by Hummers, Cadillac Escalades, GMC Yukons, Chevrolet Suburbans – a whole fleet of monster gas guzzlers and polluters that would have those nice chaps at Top Gear in the UK slashing their wrists. What were they thinking? Did they think it would go on forever? Surely there must have been one tree hugger in the product development division brave enough to suggest enough is enough?

As regards brand naming – General Motors’ dual values of the moment make the ‘General’ part of the name rather appropriate. Quite ironic really. GM’s Holden Division here in Australia, while having a more balanced model offering, still persists in churning out V8s to satisfy the petrol heads. And guess what? In the Sydney Morning Herald on 19 November is the headline ‘GM Holden to halve car production’. Chilling stuff, particularly for the poor people on the production line and their families.

GM Holden is to be criticised for not having sufficient foresight and not responding fast enough to changing conditions, particularly in the knowledge that it takes a long time to design, test and gain approval for new vehicles and change production lines.

As far as the GM Holden brand is concerned, it doesn’t alter the fact that it can’t be taken too seriously in these troubled times having a Volt on display in one showroom and a Hummer in the next. A conflict of brand values perhaps?

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and joint founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.

View some of Heywood’s work on www.heywood.com.au

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