Cadillac distances itself from GM name

Cadillac, the luxury brand General Motors Co. acquired in 1909, is distancing itself from the Detroit-based automaker to avoid the stigma of the parent company's $50 billion U.S.-backed bankruptcy last year.

Cadillac is erasing the GM name from its marketing and dealerships, changing e-mail addresses to @cadillac.com from @gm.com and exiting companywide promotions such as the Red Tag Event, said Nick Twork, a spokesman.

"Cadillac, which has really turned itself around with new levels of quality and exemplary products, doesn't want to be associated with something that will drag it down," said John Grace, president of marketing consultant BrandTaxi LLC in Stamford, Conn. "With GM's bankruptcy comes lower credibility in the ability to build quality products."

Bolstering Cadillac is central to Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre's effort to revive GM, which is shedding half its U.S. brands as part of a post-Chapter 11 plan. Cadillacs such as the SRX sport wagon start at $33,330, a 47 percent premium over the Chevrolet Equinox, according to researcher Edmunds.com.

The recession and GM's slide into bankruptcy helped cut Cadillac's 2009 U.S. sales by 32 percent, compared with the drop of 30 percent for the biggest U.S. automaker. Cadillac's 14 percent gain this year is the worst among GM's four remaining brands and less than half of their combined 31 percent jump.

GM plans to boost Cadillac's U.S. sales by 28 percent to 140,000 units this year, said David Butler, general manager of Suburban Cadillac in Ann Arbor and Troy. Annual Cadillac deliveries last rose in 2005, climbing 0.3 percent to 235,002, according to Autodata Corp of Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

Instead of joining the annual year-end sale featuring discounted prices and cash rebates, Cadillac will run its own ad campaigns that probably will include lease promotions more popular with luxury buyers, said Twork.

A new Cadillac ad campaign will debut later this month before a model introduction at the New York International Auto Show on March 31, Twork said.

Cadillac is critical to GM's turnaround, said Jeff Schuster, a J.D. Power analyst in Troy. "Certainly from a profitability standpoint, it's important. But if you can raise the image of Cadillac, that will also buttress the GM brand." detnews.com