General Motors is moving Cadillac marketing chief Deborah Wahl up the food chain by appointing her as its global chief marketing officer — a position which has sat unfilled since 2012.
The previous CMO, Joel Ewanick, was removed by former CEO Dan Akerson over a costly Chevrolet-Manchester United sponsorship deal blew up in his face. Officially, General Motors said Ewanick “failed to meet the expectations the company has of an employee” and left the position vacant, distributing its duties among other other employees — primarily Chevrolet’s now-retired CMO Tim Mahoney.
Wahl, 56, joined Cadillac in 2018, helping the brand further distance itself from the botched “Dare Greatly” advertising campaign. However, we’re not yet certain its freshened marketing materials are truly a cut from a different cloth. Several of the new spots carry over the same vague messaging, just with a bit more focus on product. Then again, perhaps the highbrow content is simply going over our heads.
“After some careful thought and consideration, we felt it was best to take our name back and be unapologetically Cadillac again,” Wahl said earlier this year. “In our newest brand campaign, ‘Rise,’ we have decided to allow the Cadillac name and our crest speak for themselves and continue to tell the story of our reinvention.”
According to Automotive News, CEO Mary Barra announced Wahl’s corporate ascension in an internal memo posted on Thursday. “By aligning marketing across GM under Deborah’s leadership, we will build stronger brands while ensuring more effective, efficient and agile customer engagement,” Barra said. The document also included a handful of other high-level staffing changes.
From Automotive News:
The executive changes also included moving Travis Hester, 47, president of GM Canada, into a newly created position: global vice president of customer experience. Hester will be responsible for maximizing customer engagement across the company, Barra said in the memo, reporting to both [Barry] Engle and GM President Mark Reuss, according to a GM Canada statement.
Scott Bell, vice president of sales, service and marketing for GM Canada, will replace Hester as president of GM Canada. Sandor Piszar, director of Chevrolet truck marketing since March 2014, will replace Bell.
Before moving to Cadillac, Wahl worked in the marketing departments of Lincoln-Mercury, Lexus, and Toyota. She also spent a year as Chrysler’s CMO before putting in some time as McDonalds’ marketing chief. She’ll report directly to Americas head Barry Engle. Meanwhile, marketing leadership at Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, OnStar, and GM Financial will all report to Wahl. Melissa Grady, director of Cadillac media and performance marketing since September, will become Cadillac’s new CMO.
[Image: General Motors]
Let’s be clear. The “Dare Greatly” campaign was a flop because the product failed to deliver on the claim. Cadillac put out concept after concept which absolutely floored the industry, only to produce ho-hum designs which were neither daring nor great.
The whole campaign was stupid.
So, I m up in Buffalo all week at my sisters. She has a new XT 5. I get in the passenger seat. My shoulder and upper arm are in full contact with the ‘B’ pillar.
Now that is a good size car. Yet I was squished in. The rental accord had much more upper body room.
Oh yeah. Indecipherable HVAC and radio and Touch screen.
Horrible car. And it is what – 50 large.?
How do they sell ANY OF THESE?
redapple
So what you’re saying is you are too fat for a Cadillac XT5, and too stupid to use the HVAC & Radio controls.
Got it!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists
FreedMike
If Honda’s infotainment system Isn’t good, and the XT5 is one of the more spacious vehicles in it’s class.
Which makes red apples comment complete B.S.
This is a GM article. You guys are the trolls here!
KYRIE
YOU NEED TO MODERATE THIS DUDE PETER G.
NOT COOL.
redapple
Honda compared to Cadillac.
If you want an intelligent response come up with a better comparison.
It speaks volumes the two most fervent Cadillac apologists on this forum are a shitposting 50ish Chicagoland incel, and Norm.
“So what you’re saying is you are too fat for a Cadillac XT5, and too stupid to use the HVAC & Radio controls.”
If fat idiots quit buying Cadillacs, isn’t the brand pretty much done?
I haven’t been in the XT5 but have been in the predecessor SRX that is barely distinguishable. I mirror the sentiment that it’s not made for humans to sit in the rear. I was left floored how something so basic on a minivan was overlooked. Further questioned why these vehicles even sell. God help me in a wreck, the airbag would take my head off.
Hummer
Different vehicle riding on a different platform.
Well why the heck do they make it look exactly the same as the predecessor, the blob look is not attractive and it certainly doesn’t do the brand any favors even if it sells well.
Hummer
Can’t tell the difference between the SRX & XT5. How very WOKE of you.
May I suggest Subaru, the brand for people who can’t tell the difference.
The concept cars were spectacular….shame they never made any of the, and we go the boring third gen CTS and the indistinguishable CT6. A Ciel for $150k would have been a real statement. The Elmiraj was a beauty as well.
Hey, maybe they can come up with a marketing direction for Buick now.
Then again, that assumes Buick has a direction besides “dead brand walking.”
How about “Buick: We’re big in China!”
They’ve come with length!
FreedMike
70,000 miles on my 2016 Buick Regal GS. The cars been perfect. Has only needed oil changes. Love the car. Would buy it again in a heartbeat.
Buick will survive the next resession. Infiniti, Acura, Genesis, Mini, Fiat probably won’t
Buick sells 3 flavors of forgettable minivans that can’t be distinguished from any of the other amorphous blobs in the segment. Oh and a couple cars all on death row.
I’m not saying any of the other brands you listed have much of a future, but with Barra at the helm GM as a whole is poised to disappear in a theoretical recession, at least in 2009 they had some value still attached to the company.
Hummer
Your line of B.S. quit being funny when people started losing jobs.
Hummer
Your line of B.S. quit being funny when people started losing jobs.
Peter,
Beware – buying a Buick is sometimes the first in a long line of poor decisions, dooming the individual to a lifetime of mediocrity.
P.S. People lose jobs when their employers don’t take care of their customers. No one said this was funny.
“She also spent a year as Chrysler’s CMO before putting in some time as McDonalds’ ….”
I worked for a big railroad and the CMO (Chief Mechanical Officer) used to tell us worker-bees that if we didn’t fix all of the broken $hit, we’d end up at McDonalds; sounds like the same thing happened to her too.
Seriously, I hope she’s got more going for her than Susan Docherty, a true lost ball in high grass; I have initial doubts however:
“In our newest brand campaign, ‘Rise,’ we have decided to allow the Cadillac name and our crest speak for themselves and continue to tell the story of our reinvention.”
Not exactly confidence inspiring, sounds more like lipstick on a pig. I’d forget the crest and fix the cars, make them into something that their supposed target market really wants to own instead of watching their market share continue to shrink and slip through their fingers.
Cadillac has been “reinventing” itself seemingly my whole life. The Seville, the Cimarron, the tiny ’80s cars, the Northstar, the CTS all arrived with similar “reinvention” hype, yet Cadillac continues to slip further.
McDonald’s is a hugely successful corp. Being an upper executive there would look good on a CV. (Burger flipper, not so much)
Well, the move gets a big thumb-up from Peter M. DeLorenzo over at The Autoextremist. He doesn’t give those out very often, so maybe this is a good thing.
“Editor-In-Chief’s Note: After an interminable seven long years, GM has finely (sic) seen the light to appoint a Chief Marketing Officer. Deborah Wahl, who had been functioning in that role for Cadillac, now becomes the first CMO for General Motors since former CEO Dan “Captain Queeg” Akerson railroaded Joel Ewanick out of that position in 2012. Wahl, who has worked at McDonald’s and Chrysler in her past CMO lives before her Cadillac assignment began last March, now takes the reins of all marketing at GM, something that has been so desperately needed and so long overdue that it stopped being even mildly amusing six-and-one-half years ago. Deborah is exceedingly smart and and one of the best and the brightest, and I see great things in GM’s marketing future across all of its divisions. This is a big-time positive move for GM -PMD”
http://www.autoextremist.com/on-the-table1/2019/9/2/september-4-2019.html
First move? Scrap Chevrolet’s “real people” campaign.
^THIS ^
Nausea inducing. I cant watch them.
^THIS^
NAUSEA INDUCING.
I CANT WATCH THEM
dukeisduke
Chevy’s crossover/SUVsales are through the roof. Chevy is also the most popular brand with younger buyers.
The “real people” campaign works.
The Chevy real people adds have been running for about 4 years. Toyota has had Jan around for 10. Don’t you think it’s a bit hypocritical to be complaining about Chevy?
Peter, you have got to be trolling, no one can look at Chevrolet’s lineup and believe they’re standing behind a good product. I’ll give the C7, Tahoe, Suburban all props for being good, unfortunately all are due for replacements and their successors are having very mixed reactions. Everything else they sell is a load of crap that I wouldn’t be caught dead in.
Stop selling image. Start selling cars.
Or…Sell image for now, until the cars are fixed, if ever.
RE Wahl
Sure moved around a lot. A LOT.
She is either
1 really good.
2 job hopper with all the buzz word jive down COLD.
I suspect #2
If she is #1 she ll be gone in a year or 2. GM is a crazy place to work. (I was there for 8 years. An Assy Plant and a Powertrain plant)
Sane – good people cannot work there long term.
Which bring up my next question. Where s DEADWeight?
I second this. I WANT DEADWEIGHT.
Give me Deadweight!!!
While I generally despise car ads and think they contribute little to actual sales, a notable exception is Subaru. Cadillac/GM should hire the Subaru people.
Personally, I find the Subaru ads far more vomit-inducing than anything GM has made.
@FreedMike: you might not be Subaru’s target audience ;)
I am into women, so perhaps I’m halfway there.
“Peace. Love. Cadillac.”
No I don’t think that will work as a tagline.
Poor wording by me. I personally hate their ads, but they seem to be effective for the target audience.
I would call it (Subaru ads) sugary, like in sugary drinks. Americans love sugary drinks, blind people and dogs (I prefer cats though and local wineries). Americans also love actors but hate ordinary people.
As gag worthy as Saturn’s homey, sickly sweet crap and of course the recent Prius ads: “A Prius for you A Prius for me….”
Ugh!
SCE to AUX
A large part of Subaru’s success is because the other Japanese brands have gone light weight. Thin doors, lots of cloth & hard plastic.
Wait a minute: You’re suggesting Subarus have the advantage of a reputation for higher-quality interiors over the years?! I need air.
Is marketing the biggest problem GM faces? Or is it the product quality, dealer experience, product reliability, etc and how those metrics compare to Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai, etc?
Wahl could be Steve Jobs, but if she’s marketing below average products, it won’t matter much.
So they didn’t appoint Buickman to the job?
Yawn…
>>General Motors is moving Cadillac marketing chief Deborah Wahl up the food chain by appointing her as its global chief marketing officer <<
because that was such a raging success
does the "Peter Principle" apply? or is there another name for failing up for non-males – not that the Cadillac debacle should be laid at her feet
Cadillac used to mint money for GM, I suspect Cadillac has been a real drag on GM for at least a decade. just imagine how bad it would be w/o the Cadillac Edition Suburban
Cadillac and Corvette are halo brands or names. How does Acura pad Honda coffers these days?
I have no idea if she’s brilliant & mercurial, or just another resume-polisher with fancy patter like Melody Lee.
GM has swallowed up lots of talented people over the last 50 years.
Wahl’s got the same problems facing any GM executive:
1)GM’s convoluted infrastructure
2)Over-priced and over-hyped products that don’t deliver
3)Two generations of buyers who won’t even consider much of their product line
4) A dealer body that still wishes and acts like it is 1978
There is only so much that smart marketing can do to overcome that.
Wahl may or may not last, but so what? When you got nothing, what have you got to lose? Personally, I’m rooting for a remarkable success story!
@BklynPete – #1 and #4 are the only two that mater.
And they act like its 1968 not 1978.
I wish Deborah Wahl all the best as General Motors’ first real CMO since 2012. I will have to read up on her accomplishments inside and outside the auto industry, whatever they might be.
GM is the U.S. Senate of big companies. It’s where Dreams Go To Die. Its circumstances even swallowed up Bob Lutz, though he wasn’t at the peak of his talent.
If Wahl has a good BS detector and isn’t afraid to use it, that will be a huge asset to GM dealers, consumers and shareholders — for however long GM Management lets her last!
All I can say is give her a clean slate for 6-12 months. Whatever happened at Mickey D’s or other car companies really doesn’t matter if she can rise to the opportunity.
Could this mean the death of the “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” type Buick ads ? No more “Real People” ?
Or something more sinister since “Rise” was what the Manson girls wrote in blood on the wall of one of the victim’s homes?
Helter Skelter, GM.