In a move to deemphasize the parent company and increase focus on the brands themselves, GM will no longer affix the little silver logos to the sides of all its cars that identify them as GM products.
"We are just really focused on the four core brands and this provided us with another opportunity to make sure they were at the forefront," GM spokesman Terry Rhadigan told The Detroit News.
The absence of the logos will begin with the 2010 model year and was decided earlier this month by GM's new executive committee. Whereas GM began putting the logos on all its cars a few years ago to emphasize the fact that they were all GM brands, not standalone companies, the company is now moving in the opposite direction and placing the focus on the brands instead.
The reasons for this move are obvious. According to Rhadigan, GM's research indicates that people outside the Midwest don't always make the connection between GM's individual brands and the parent company. And that's just the way GM wants it. After the company's well-publicized bankruptcy, dealer closures, brand closures and sales, layoffs, and that $50 billion loan from the U.S. government, GM would rather not emphasize the fact that Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC are its brands and instead let them succeed or fail on their own merits rather than customer perception of GM as a whole.