Posted on 06/12/2009 7:35:16 PM PDT by traumer
ValuJet was reborn as AirTran. Philip Morris rechristened itself Altria. Blackwater became Xe.
Would a name change work for beleaguered General Motors?
It would mean casting aside a brand that stood for almost a century as a symbol of American industrial might, but some marketing experts say it might be just the thing to help the once-mighty automaker make a fresh start.
"If the goal is to try and put this company on a massive diet and just turn it into a smaller car manufacturing operation, I'm not sure there'd be that much harm in rebranding," said Jean-Pierre Dube, a University of Chicago marketing professor.
"The brand isn't in good shape," he said, "so they have little to lose."
With GM tarnished by its bankruptcy and its reputation for building cars no one wants, wiseacres have had no trouble coming up with new names.
There's Groveling Motors, after GM's appetite for federal bailouts. And General Moneypit. And, perhaps most popular, Government Motors -- after the taxpayers' major ownership stake.
With GM still righting itself, "it's just too soon" to think about a name change, company spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said. But she acknowledged the idea is part of discussions within the company.
"We know we want to reinvent the company and want to build it so that it's something that will show that GM is going to be the company of choice," she said.
In April, not long after taking the reins of GM from its ousted former leader, CEO Fritz Henderson was asked about the possibility and said it was "not something that's high on my list of things to do."
"Actually I haven't spent too much time worrying about the name of the company," he said. "We've only got so much time on our hands trying to get
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
PMC (People's Motor Company)
I'll be fahrfromnbuying.
Ghetto Motors, cadillacs with spinners and few Hi-riser models.
With a new slogan.
Like Amtrak and your state's DMV.
HaHaHa, I actually owned a Lada when I lived in Toronto back in the early 80’s. It was like a soapbox derby car with a garden tractor motor.....and transmission.
Gotsta Move
Goofy Moto
Titanic. Deck chairs.
“The new name should be BO.”
Good idea. I hear the reason this all happened is that even though he’s a president now, Obama has always secretly longed to design really cool looking cars. In fact, he’s always felt like a president in a car-designer’s body.
So he bought himself a car company. Or, rather, he had us buy him a car company.
Government Motors - Home of the Chinese imports.
Midgets. What about the midgets?
You thoughtless, insensitive cad, you. How can you be so heartless?
So you gotta run with that old Obama standby as an inspiration for whatever the new name....
Gov't Sow Motors, BGP (Bailout guzzling pig)...etc.....
It's my conservative side. At least, that's what I've been told ; )
ROFL!
I think it's absolutely the right thing to do and something we can get them do out of pure vanity: by having a new name, there is a complete separation from GM. The statists will love the idea of naming their new baby. Meanwhile, we'll have an easy time identifying the disaster they created and will rob them of their usual trick of blaming everything bad on the previous management.
Gestapo Motors
Envirocrap!
They should sell off all their greatt brands and start new with only one car the Envirocrap, a dog drawn skateboard.
comes complete with a lifetime supply of dog diapers.
I think youre right...
gmO! ....Govt motors OBAMA!
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