The Death of an Iconic American Legend

Cadillac was once the envy of American industry and the unambiguous reference for excellence across all industries.

The brand was so synonymous with being the best that people made it an adjective and referred to anything that was the best as the “Cadillac” of . . .

It was the unquestioned global leader in automotive technology, automotive styling and automotive experience.

Today it is not even top ten in any.

Sales, shares, profits and all other KPIs have declined steadily since we were young.

Cadillac sales in the U.S. peaked at 300K cars in 1986 and were only 150K cars last year.

Cadillac’s glass is definitely half empty.

And it’s sad, not just for General Motors, but also for America.

But one thing is clear – much of this pain is self-inflicted.

The first law of marketing is being true to one’s self and Cadillac doesn’t appear to have decided what or who it is.

Worse yet, their answer to that question has been consistently inconsistent.

Cadillac today is in what we call a death spiral, trying to catch up. They should leave the catsup to Heinz, because Cadillac has been trying to catch up with German luxury market leaders for years, and they never will.

Admittedly, the product is not market leading in SUVs, electric cars, etc.

Even the once revered Escalade has caught a severe case of Lincoln Navigator envy.

But look around you in the streets and in parking lots.

The product is simply not that bad.

In fact, from an engineering performance and features perspective, most would consider it pretty good!

We worked on the Chrysler turnaround decades ago.

Lee Iacocca inherited an absolutely inferior new product called the K-Car. But rather than wait three to five years for a product that would still not be competitive, he created the 5 year/50,000 mile warranty and turned around a failing brand and company.

During the great recession, Hyundai launched the buy back guarantee for anybody who lost their job and it became the only car brand to grow U.S. sales throughout the recession.

A little bit of creativity will go a long way to compensate for mediocre product quality.

Ditto dealerships.

Clearly Cadillac has too many, too old, too unfriendly dealerships.

In the absolute and relative to Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus, etc.

But, if that hasn’t changed significantly in the last five years, it’s not likely to change much in the next five.

This is a challenge we’ve dealt with for decades in retail, hospitality and even restaurants where the time and cost of reengineering and remodeling the customer experience is dear and often of little interest to the owner (read, dealer).

But it can be alleviated with concierge services (Four Seasons), VIP spaces (Centurion Lounge) and home delivery (from Goldman Sachs to virtually every restaurant).

Today Cadillac continues to have extraordinarily high brand awareness and very low intent to purchase (or even visit a dealership).

That can change in days/weeks with superior influencer and advertising messaging.

Cadillac spends hundreds of millions on major events with mediocre messaging.

At the same time, another old legacy American luxury car brand identified an aspirational driver/presenter who turned around falling sales almost immediately.

Think Matthew McConaughey for Lincoln (Lee Iacocca for Chrysler or Chestah for Cheetos, there are more).

Doesn’t have to be a celebrity, but does have to have credentials.

What the brand needs is a “Consumer Engagement Overhaul”, not another expensive commercial shoot.

And the message has to resonate.

If you visited a Popeye’s restaurant last month, you likely found a line out the door waiting to buy a chicken sandwich despite the fact that Popeye’s is an old legacy brand and the restaurant you visited was not likely to have been remodeled for years. But the product was pretty good and the messaging was creating lines in second-tier locations for a second-tier brand owned by second-tier franchisees.

And then there’s price, oh that!

It’s hard to find a Cadillac ad, website, POS, you name it, that doesn’t talk about how cheap it is to own a Cadillac.

Cadillac, cheap?

We don’t recall McConaughey, Iacocca or Chestah focusing on price.

Nor do we think most premium/luxury brands reinforce their quality by constantly discounting.

Net, Cadillac and most other legacy brand managers who think they’re in mature categories are really just suffering from mature thinking. Steve Jobs (re)inherited an old brand in a mature category and chose to “Think Different”.

Stop whining, open a bottle of Opus One, leave the wining to Mondavi and play the hand you’ve been dealt differently, rather than waiting to be dealt an inside straight (the odds are rare).

To return the brand to relevance, and ultimately reclaim leadership, Cadillac must again become the technology, styling and experience leader. All of that takes time and investment.

The time to plan Thanksgiving dinner is not when the patient is bleeding profusely on the operating table.

Cadillac must immediately stop the bleeding, which is a marketing challenge.

So it’s not surprising that one of our partners who does not (yet) work in our automotive practice threw down the gauntlet and challenged us to turn around Cadillac. Like Lincoln (the President, not the rival car brand), we spent four hours sharpening the axe by diagnosing the problem and two hours solving it.

First, it must define who it is, what it stands for, and why that matters.

Second, it must identify those current owners and prospective buyers who are receptive to those definitions and communicate with them honestly, memorably and persuasively.

Third, it must tell that story creatively, aspirationally and consistently . . . over an extended period of time.

The good news is that America is rooting for Cadillac.

We love our heroes.

And we love it when they win.

Witness the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team.

It’s not too late.

Go Cadillac!