Brand conversations: That was then, this is now.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. The second-generation Autoextremist Brand Image Meter is still percolating in my head because any time I talk about brands and brand image wrangling in this column it always leads me to other thoughts, which is why this column follows last week’s topic (scroll down to “next 1 entries” at the bottom of the page to read “The Autoextremist Brand Image Meter II” – WG). And today, that means thinking about the fundamental transformation that has taken place in this business and in this market, and the effect that has had on the brands in play.

In ancient times, back let’s say in the late 50s through the mid-70s, Detroit and the domestic automobile business was a far different place, needless to say. The action was confined to the major domestic players Chrysler, Ford, GM and to a lesser extent, American Motors, as the smaller domestic players had finally withered away from the scene.

This was the heyday for what is known now as the “historic” domestic automobile business, when GM dominated half the market, Ford was the feisty player that confounded and countermanded GM just enough to make things interesting, and Chrysler went its own way because, well, that’s what Chrysler always did back then.

It was a time when giant, larger-than-life personalities roamed the earth in this business. When to be a general manager of a division of General Motors was akin to being the potentate of a small country. When Henry Ford II could shake the international racing establishment to its core just because Enzo Ferrari pissed him off. When the domestic automobile companies controlled 85 percent of the U.S. market and the imports were merely irritants that didn’t know when to go away.

It was a different time and a different era times a thousand.

But as we all well know, everything changed. It wasn’t just the arrival of Toyota and Honda and the German imports that shook Detroit to its foundation, it was the country that was fundamentally changing, too, and at a dizzying pace.

(I’m always amazed when I encounter people either involved in the business today or with a passing interest in the industry, and how little they in fact know about the history of the business and how they bristle at the suggestion that it matters. Anyone who dismisses historical context in this business will ultimately pay dearly for that parochial view, because as hard as it might be for some to believe, everything happening today has its roots in what has come before.)

And now here we are 40 years later. The nice, cozy domestic automobile industry is gone forever, turned upside down by the onslaught of global competition that has driven this business to become a 24-hour slog, an up at dawn, pride-swallowing siege (thanks, Cameron Crowe) with players big and small fighting to the death - or elimination, whichever comes first - for every last decimal point of market share.

With all that in mind then, let’s take a walk through some of the brands in play currently to understand what they once were as opposed to what they are today.

GM of course was The Juggernaut before all other subsequent juggernauts and the straw that stirred the drink for an entire industry. It dictated every part of the business, from design and product segments to content and in some cases even the colors that were available. But GM isn’t a brand. A corporate monolith and part of the American industrial fabric, yes, but never a brand. But you can’t have a discussion like this without mentioning one of America’s leading old-school corporate enterprises. You just can’t.

And what about GM’s current lineup of brands? Chevrolet grew up in the 50s, but it wasn’t until that memorable “See the USA in Your Chevrolet” ad campaign that Chevrolet’s raison d’etre was etched in stone. They’ve had memorable campaigns since, “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet,” the soaring “Heartbeat of America” and Chevy Truck’s “Like a Rock” campaign, which was powered by local boy Bob Seger’s memorable tune (watch for its return this summer with the launch of the new Silverado) and now, it’s “Find New Roads.”

What that last ad theme means is “a developing situation” as they say, but it’s a clear departure for Chevrolet because it has been decided that since the iconic brand of Americana is now slated to be a global brand, anything overtly to do with any red, white and blue overtones will be swept under the rug in favor of the neutrality of a muted gold bowtie.

Is this progress? Not necessarily. But it’s a strategy certainly consistent with this country’s current malaise and burgeoning epidemic of correctness. Watch for GM to project Chevrolet as its global brand with the kinder and gentler tones of benign neutrality, while retaining vestiges of its former persona in this market. Brand dilution at its finest? Yes.

How about Cadillac? The Standard of the World is now the Standard of the World again, or so they say. Back “then” Cadillac was America’s showpiece luxury brand, proudly unapologetic, at times exuberant and flashy, but always desired. Now? America’s luxury fighter and GM’s dagger against Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc. The problem? GM is late to the realization that they will never, ever be talked about in the same breath as those competitors no matter how great their cars are. The die has been cast. Fair? No, but it’s the reality. The Problem II? GM shouldn’t be worried about it anymore and they are. No, make that obsessed with it. Let Cadillac be Cadillac, as I said last week. Too bad that seems to be over the heads of the stewards in charge of the Cadillac brand.

What about Ford? Talk about American industrial legacies, Henry Ford may not have started it all, but he certainly took a budding enterprise and made it into an industrial icon for the world. And the essential ingredient that remains today is The Family, which, unlike very few auto companies in the world, still remains engaged and involved in every part of the business.

Ford is a corporate entity, but it’s also a brand unto itself. In the old days Ford was always the feisty player who refused to allow the corporate financial weasels running GM to have their way. Ford had some monstrous product hits of their own and built some of the most memorable American cars ever seen, and because of that there was mutual respect between the True Believers in the two disparate camps who actually did the heavy lifting of designing, engineering and developing the machines.

But at the top their was a deep-seated loathing for all things GM, and the overriding reason for this was that the family members who held the reins of the company openly despised the bean-counting tools that ran GM like their own private widget enterprise, and it rankled The Family and other Ford corporate executives to no end. (They didn’t call it the “soulless enterprise” for nothing, and Dan Akerson has stepped adroitly into that role with aplomb, but I digress.)

Today, The Family has gotten over that (for the most part), because they realize that if Ford is going to remain a global player in this industry for decades to come then they’ll have to be smarter and savvier than at any other time in their history. And that means that they won’t hesitate to go outside the company to get help if they deem it necessary. And the “new” Ford is definitely an of-the-moment, contemporary enterprise because of it.

As I said last week, Ford is the quintessential American brand that went from being a scrappy fighter that refused to let go of its soul to a purveyor of shockingly competitive cars that impress with their design vision and detailed execution.

What about Chrysler? The other American car company that is also a brand was the march-to-a-different-drummer, engineering-focused company that proudly went its own way in the 50s and 60s to notable success, and then survived a near-death experience in the late 70s only to be resurrected by the Ford corporate refugee and consummate salesman, Lido Iacocca.

Today, it’s no longer, succumbing to bankruptcy and purloined from the U.S. Government by master manipulator/opportunist Sergio Marchionne under the auspices of Fiat. The old-school legacy of the company’s glory days still remains intact in the True Believers at work at Chrysler today, the ones whose backs Marchionne rode to stardom in its current renaissance. And somewhere those same True Believers have Chrysler’s soul under lock and key, buried deep beneath the Auburn Hills headquarters in a room only three people are privy to, somewhat akin to The Blues Brothers’ briefcase full of blues. But Chrysler is now Fiat-Chrysler, or just plain Chrysler, a division of Fiat.

Back in its heyday, Chrysler took its march-to-a-different-drummer persona seriously. Its engineering shined with inventive details, its styling was, uh, different too, shall we say. But it was an integral part of what was quaintly known now as the Big 3, and a proud player to boot.

Today, Chrysler the brand exists at the whimsy of Marchionne and his espresso-fueled minions. Smugly and cynically wrapped in an “imported from Detroit” ad theme, Chrysler is still stuck in glorified brand neutral, somewhat feisty but largely confined to its own little world of self-congratulation, upcoming new 200 sedan, or no.

You can refer to last week’s column and compare notes to where the brands once were as opposed to where they are now. Some are easy to figure out, while other brands have been so muddled and lost in their own incompetence that they’ve never had a brand image to begin with.

It’s an interesting exercise though. Let’s consider a few...

Alfa Romeo – Old: Stylish sports car that embodied every Cote d’Azur/Mrs. Robinson driving fantasy. New: An inglorious cog in Marchionne’s mainstream volume machine.

BMW – Old: The iconic inventor of the sport sedan. New: So ubiquitous it’s bordering on becoming the German-accented Chevrolet.

Honda – Old: The creative, march-to-a-different-drummer motor company. New: The creative, march-to-a-different-drummer car company trying to rediscover its inner self.

Mercedes – Old: Purveyors of deliciously conceived German technical excellence at all costs. New: The all-things-to-all-people brand with a German accent.

Toyota – Old: Blandtastic transportation appliances for those that demand exactly that. New: Blantastic transportation appliances wrapped in the Emperor’s New Clothes, satisfying a burgeoning demographic demanding just that.

You get the idea.

Sometimes what’s old is new again in the brand-imaging world. If a car company’s brand image has survived intact through the decades, chances are they’ve managed to keep a grip on what matters.

Then again some things never change. And if a car company’s brand image is muddled and vague or lost in a Twilight Zone of indecision and hand-wringing, chances are they haven’t found a shred of a clue in a good long while.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.