George S. May Business Blog

General Motors making a big change in the production of their cars and trucks — “Mark of Excellence” will be no longer

General Motors Co. has decided to start removing the “Mark of Excellence ” logo from its vehicles.

GM spokesman, Terry Rhadigan, said that the automaker would be phasing out all GM logos on cars and trucks, but leave the GMC, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Buick logos.

“We really want to elevate the prominence of our four core brands,” said Terry Rhadigan. “It’s really going to be an intense focus.”

Actually, the decision to remove the logo was made earlier this month but executives have been rumbling about such a move for the last two months.

“What we’re seeing is the GM brand gets dinged big time in terms of considering a GM vehicle,” said Mike DiGiovanni, GM’s executive director of global market and industry analysis, during a monthly sales conference call in April. “But when you look at Chevrolet, Cadillac and our other brands, they haven’t changed.”

While the justification of the move, on behalf of Mr. DiGiovanni and Mr. Rhadigan, sounds sensible I must mention one other factor. The fact is, removing the production and placement of the logo will save them a ton of money in production costs. Yes, in the long run, the move to “elevate the prominence” of their four core brands definitely could create better brand awareness and dominance on the roadway, thereby providing more General Motors visibility, in effect. But, GM needs money now and this could definitely be a “quick fix”, relatively speaking.

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