Cadillac's Director of Brand & Reputation Strategy: "We Don't Want To Be An Automotive Brand"

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

Photo courtesy of General Motors

In an interview held at Cadillac’s new business headquarters in New York City’s trendy SoHo district with Fortune, Melody Lee, ‘director of brand and reputation strategy’ for General Motors’ luxury brand, had some interesting things to say about the move to NYC, about the brand, and about herself. Other than to say that it’s just quite possible that outstanding product is a little bit more important to a company’s success than Ms. Lee seems to think, I’m not going to comment on her remarks because I think they speak for themselves and, frankly, I think they don’t bode well for the brand. You can read them and offer your own commentary after the jump. The engineers and designers at GM have given Cadillac the best products that it has had in decades, but automotive history has many examples of fine vehicles that were crippled in the marketplace by the very people trying to market them.

Thus spake Melody Lee:

“I’ll often say, ‘Well, do you want a millennial’s perspective?’ You have one right here.”

“Everyone in New York is always just a little bit ahead of everyone else and we need to be the brand that stands for that.”

“I don’t buy products, I buy brands. I don’t use Apple computers because they are the best computers, I use them because Apple is cool. We need to show drivers what the Cadillac lifestyle is all about.”

“We want to be a global luxury brand that happens to sell cars. We don’t want to be an automotive brand.”

Hat tip to Pete DeLorenzo for spotting the interview with Lee.

The floor is open for your discussion now.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

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  • Otterpops Otterpops on Jan 05, 2015

    “I don’t buy products, I buy brands. I don’t use Apple computers because they are the best computers, I use them because Apple is cool. We need to show drivers what the Cadillac lifestyle is all about.” Everything wrong with consumer capitalism in one paragraph.

    • Panzerfaust Panzerfaust on Jan 12, 2015

      Yeah, it makes you think Ms. Lee hasn't sold her college textbooks yet, this sounds like so much blather from a PhD who teaches marketing but hasn't gotten within a garage sale of selling anything himself.

  • Panzerfaust Panzerfaust on Jan 12, 2015

    Cadillac produces great cars that except for the Escalade, no one really wants. The edgy styling and the massive grille is dated, if you want a cool looking sedan look at a Tesla S, or a Fisker Karma. Cadillac's brand screams 'old' or as they used to (and may still do say) about Buick, that the average age of their buyers was deceased. You're not going to be able to deceive the consumers into thinking Cadillac is cool until you transform the product.

  • ToolGuy @Matt, not every post needs to solve *ALL* the world's problems.As a staunch consumer advocate, you might be more effective by focusing on one issue at a time and offering some concrete steps for your readers to take.When you veer off into all directions you lose focus and attention.(Free advice, worth what you paid for it, maybe even more.)
  • FreedMike What this article shows is that there are insufficient legal protections against unreasonable search and seizure. That’s not news. But what are automakers supposed to do when presented with a warrant or subpoena – tell the court to stuff it in the name of consumer privacy? If the cops come to an automaker and say, “this kid was abducted by a perv who’s a six time loser on the sex offender list and we need the location of the abductor’s car,” do they say “sorry, Officer, the perv’s privacy rights have to be protected”?This is a different problem than selling your data.
  • Bd2 Excellent, Toyota has been caught with bad news again. Rejoice!
  • CKNSLS Sierra SLT There are small/midsize Chinese made trucks all over South America. Many South American countries are on "favored trade status" with China.
  • Slavuta "The accused companies include Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Kia"May be I am paranoid but all the manufacturers here are from US vassal states occupied by US forces. And I believe, this is not a coincidence.
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