New brands for old
One possible obstacle to the restoration of General Motors, apart from its lack of solid product lines, its myopic upper management, and its beyond-myopic upper-upper management in Washington, is its name: it’s just too twentieth-century, maybe even nineteenth-century, and doesn’t speak to contemporary buyers.
So how about GenMo?
A shortening of the current name, tailored for today’s shorter attention spans. Preserves the equity of decades’ worth of branding, while making it that much easier for disgruntled customers / employees / creditors to spit out as a curse.
Hey, it worked for FedEx.
I note that Japan’s most successful automakers, Toyota and Honda, are named after their founders. (Toyota messed with the spelling a little bit, but no one complained, nor did anyone gripe at Mazda either.) Perhaps GM should be renamed for Billy Durant. And given its current state, it should be Durant’s middle name.
Lisa Paul »
14 June 2009 · 9:53 pm
Or how about an InterWebby sort of name: Caaaargle. Or Car-hoo!
CGHill »
14 June 2009 · 9:54 pm
GMSN?
McGehee »
14 June 2009 · 10:34 pm
With its new management and ownership, I think the correct new name for GM is “history.”
But then, owners of GM product have been predicting that for at least a generation.
CT »
15 June 2009 · 10:47 am
I actually preferred Admiral Motors.