Upping V-dub’s sex appeal
Posted on July 31, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Building a plant in Chattanooga will be huge in helping Volkswagen take on the U.S. market, but its pending tie-up with Porsche will add the sizzle.
“VW’s image in the U.S. could benefit significantly from Porsche,” says Jürgen Meyer, a fund manager with SEB Asset Management in Frankfurt. “Americans don’t know Audi, but they know Porsche as a premium brand and that will rub off on VW. They could possibly use the Porsche brand name to create a group of premium models like we see today with Audi, but with better brand recognition.”
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Low-fidelity consumption
Posted on June 22, 2009 at 8:04 amA study of Americans’ household basics shopping habits shows we aren’t nearly as loyal as we used to be.
For the average brand, more than half of all loyal consumers in 2007 did not remain loyal in 2008. Just as worrisome for marketers, the overall level of consumer loyalty appears to be declining year over year for many brands in the current recession, not only because of churn, but because new loyals are not being added fast enough to replace these switchers and defectors.
Saturns made in Smyrna?
Posted on May 5, 2009 at 11:38 pm
A day after auto dealer and racing team owner Roger Penske said he’s interested in acquiring the Saturn brand, Bloomberg News reports that Nissan officials are interested in teaming with Penske in an interesting arrangement that might borrow from the latter’s approach to distributing the Smart in the U.S. – and unite the two auto brands most closely tied to Middle Tennessee.
Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn may want to put Nissan’s North American factories to work producing vehicles under the Saturn nameplate after Nissan and Infiniti sales in the U.S. fell by a third.
…
Unlike most other vehicle-distribution networks, Smart takes customer orders and deposits via a Web site, allowing dealers to keep fewer cars in inventory. Penske executives refer to such a vehicle distribution method, sidestepping the traditional U.S. franchises in which only dealers can take retail orders, as “plug and play.”
Eyeballing GM’s planned dealership closings
Posted on April 27, 2009 at 2:41 pm
UPDATED at 10 p.m. to include Murfreesboro and Dickson dealers.
General Motors this morning said it will kill off the Pontiac brand and sell or phase out Saturn, Saab and Hummer by the end of this year, which is more quickly than planned. Locally, those four badges account for the following 11 dealerships, most of which are attached to other brands’ outlets.
Crest Saab, MetroCenter
Crest Hummer, MetroCenter
Beaman Pontiac, downtown
Dunn Pontiac, Broadway
Franklin Pontiac, Madison
Cunningham Pontiac, Springfield
Rockie Williams Pontiac, Lebanon
Alexander Pontiac, Murfreesboro
Faulkner Pontiac, Dickson
Saturn of RiverGate, Madison
Saturn of Cool Springs, Franklin
In all, GM now plans to trim its dealer network from more than 6,200 a year ago to 3,600 by the end of next year. In January, the company had said it was looking to get to 4,700 dealerships.
Ciao Countrywide
Posted on at 11:48 am
Bank of America is spiking one of the brands that we’ll look back and associate primarily with the housing boom.
Lewis expressed disappointment at consumer surveys conducted by Bank of America showing a rapid disappearance of the goodwill attached to the Countrywide name.
“Even when we bought them, they tested well,” Lewis said in a recent interview. “But the negative press, just time and time again, took it down. So they went from first to last” in the surveys.
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Circuit City looks to unload its brand
Posted on April 13, 2009 at 11:37 amVia Huffington Post:
Circuit City is looking to sell its brand, trademarks and e-commerce business to Systemax, the same company that purchased CompUSA’s intellectual property in 2008.
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Duck Head brand on the block
Posted on March 31, 2009 at 9:25 am
As part of its winding down, retailer Goody’s is putting up for sale the storied Duck Head name – which was founded in Nashville in 1865 – and other IP assets.
“Goody’s intangible asset portfolio represents over a century of brand building at its finest,” said David Peek, Goody’s CFO. “Goody’s is one of the most recognized family clothing retailers in the Southeast, and is uniquely positioned in smaller towns where budget-minded shoppers seek both quality and fashion. The acquisition of these brands represents a unique opportunity.”
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Keeping your brand’s integrity in slow economic times
Posted on December 15, 2008 at 10:31 amFaisal Laljee discusses:
Indeed, American brands like Southwest, FedEx, Aflac and Nucor claim not to have laid off a single person from their staff in over 3 decades? Of course the definition of a lay-off may vary from one company to another, but if this is true, then I truly wonder what these guys are doing right in terms of long-term planning, retention and headcount that they can sustain the right productivity and avoid handing their employees the pink-slip in tough economic conditions. Why can’t more of Corporate America be like them? Nucor has had some serious ups and downs with economic climate shifts over the last 30 years but has yet to let that impact their workforce. How is it that Southwest is able to remain the only decent airline, with consistently lower fares, good customer service, and keep their workforce while their competitors like United and Delta keep changing their tune?
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