Lutz: It’s better to have fewer brands and models and market the hell out of them

Posted: Dec 13, 2008
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Outspoken General Motor’s executive Bob Lutz (who has been pretty quiet during the congressional hearings) has been pretty vocal about the company’s future as of lately. Lutz said that if GM wants survive its financial crisis, it will have to eliminate brands, reducing models and spend massively on marketing each vehicle.

“It’s really much better to have fewer brands, do it well and then market the hell out of them,” Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Automotive News.

GM’s new restructuring plan puts Saab and Saturn under review and calls for reducing the number of nameplates from 48 to 40 and cutting a total of 1,750 dealers by 2012.

As far as Hummer goes, Lutz said that GM is looking to sell it as fast as possible. He declined to comment on what’s going on with Saturn and Saab but said that business is for the two brands is really bad. “They’re under strategic review,” he said. That’s the corporate code, Lutz said, for: “We realize they’re not working, and something needs to be done.”

Eliminating nameplates will allow GM to cut the cost of product development and marketing. Lutz said that GM spent about $500 million to develop the new Chevrolet Malibu and $200 to $300 million marketing.

Makes a lot of sense but we really have to say here: “Should’ve done that a long time ago General.”


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  • zermatt

    GM is fighting for survival and it is nice to see Bob Lutz taking a position that will be out of step with what many GM fans believe. GM is selling about the same number of cars as Toyota, but with a quarter of the dealers and less than half the number of brands.

    Bob is right in saying that a leaner GM would be able to devote attention to the remaining brands and models. Keeping the best and brightest engineers and designers will put GM in the best position to become competitive again.

    Limiting the brands to Chevy and Cadillac is the way to go. Maybe add Pontiac as a mid level product line, but not Buick with the geriatric following that brings buyer longevity into question.

    Enough talking about what to do and it is time to execute the plan.

  • Justin6477

    Axe pontiac as a brand and retool it as the high end peformance version of the Chevrolet cars, much like a BMW's M badging. Just make sure to completely drop chevy from the name when they make the switch or else some absurd named car like a Chevrolet Pontiac Maliby will be born. Give pontiacs somewhat unique cars to the other brands, the Solstice should be reborn as a baby 'vette and the G8 ST needs to be the El Camino again and the regular G8 can be the Chevelle (granted the Malibu is supposed to be the Chevelle successor and the name began as the luxury trime Chevelle).

    I personally believe that pulling an image change on Saturn is easier than any of the other brands considering the stigmas and cultural statuses they hold…. so they should be kept and marketed as the niche brand with new and trendy things to test the market.

    Cadillac should absorb Buick… or at least the Enclave and to compensate for lacking a near luxury brand, Chevrolets should have a higher trim level on flagship models to bridge the gap. Saab should be sold and if necessary throw in Hummer to sweeten the deal… or vice versa.

    Not sure what to do with GMC though, a part of me thinks they should become a strictly industrial brand…. although phasing out the higher trims of the Silverado and dropping the avalanch altogether from the Chevy lineup and making GMC the defacto truck arm also seems good.

    However they go about it, GM needs to cut the fat and kill badge engineering.

  • Dodgeyaussie

    Proof read much?

    GM’s new restructuring plan puts Saab and Saturn under review and calls for reducing the number of nameplates from 48 to 50 by and cutting a total of 1,750 dealers by 2012

  • http://www.egmcartech.com egmCarTech

    good catch dodgeyaussie… thanks for the correction

  • rawbux

    The problem is NOT how many brands, it's the Government needs to leave all the American car companies alone and get the hell outta there way because they don't have a fricken clue about cars. Government is telling them to invest in building certain cars that people want ot buy but, the problem with that is that most people don't want to buy the cars the government says they want to buy. Car companies need to build what Americans want to buy NOT what the government says they want them to buy. How would you like it if you owned a company and the stupid government came in and said you have to do research and build this whole new deal from the ground up and spend your OWN money doing it!! If you want expierment with something from a company you should have to pay them to build it!! Most people don't want so called green vehicles. I sell cars and 90+% of the people car less about so called green vehicles. The whole global warming thing is a big scam just for the government to get more control over the people and businesses and I can;'t believe we are falling for this crap!!! WE all have our heads in the sand, and when your head is in the sand guess where your ass is!!!

  • Bobmarley

    lol!
    in other words let the free market decide aka the consumers aka capitalism. All this BS about the government needing to spend trillions to save the economy is idiotic! SOCIALISM SUCKS!!!!

  • Bobmarley

    All they should have is Chevy and Cadillac.

  • rawbux

    The problem is NOT how many brands, it's the Government needs to leave all the American car companies alone and get the hell outta there way because they don't have a fricken clue about cars. Government is telling them to invest in building certain cars that people want ot buy but, the problem with that is that most people don't want to buy the cars the government says they want to buy. Car companies need to build what Americans want to buy NOT what the government says they want them to buy. How would you like it if you owned a company and the stupid government came in and said you have to do research and build this whole new deal from the ground up and spend your OWN money doing it!! If you want expierment with something from a company you should have to pay them to build it!! Most people don't want so called green vehicles. I sell cars and 90+% of the people car less about so called green vehicles. The whole global warming thing is a big scam just for the government to get more control over the people and businesses and I can;'t believe we are falling for this crap!!! WE all have our heads in the sand, and when your head is in the sand guess where your ass is!!!

  • Bobmarley

    lol!
    in other words let the free market decide aka the consumers aka capitalism. All this BS about the government needing to spend trillions to save the economy is idiotic! SOCIALISM SUCKS!!!!

  • Bobmarley

    All they should have is Chevy and Cadillac.