Filed under: Products and services, General Motors (GM), Marketing and advertising, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)
GM (NYSE: GM) now has eight car brands. Since some models are built off similar platforms, a sedan from Saturn might not be much different from one sold by Chevy. The problem is GM may not be taking sales from Toyota (NYSE: TM). It might be taking sales from itself.
Last year, GM introduced three crossovers, according to The Wall Street Journal– the Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia, which are all but identical, and the more luxurious Buick Enclave. There are, of course, only a limited number of crossover buyers. Strong sales for the GMC crossover may injured Buick.
GM thinks it can manage all of its brands but in a falling domestic automobile market there is little evidence to show that the company’s plan will work.
It is time to kill some of GM’s brands, save marketing money, and stop most of the competition among cars built by the same parent company. The firm’s weakest brands by sales and falling units are Buick and Saturn. Most of their models are matched by automobiles in the Chevy, GMC, and Pontiac lines.
Shutting down brands is hard, an admission of defeat. But it is time for GM to let some of its model lines go.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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