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Customer LoginsQuestion: has the U.S. brand count gone up or down?
If you were asked whether the total number of car and light truck brands in the U.S. has gone up or down during the past ten years, what would you say? I would say it has gone down. After all, GM and Ford both have recently discontinued brands, with GM's total cut in half (though Saab was sold and not discontinued). However, I was wrong as the number of brands on the market has actually remained the same (see table).
But, while the number of discontinued makes has been offset exactly by the number of makes launched in the past decade, the type of brand in each category is different. Among the eight brands dropped, six are domestics including such once-high-volume makes as Oldsmobile, Plymouth and Pontiac. And, the domestic brands are generally mid-level brands that were part of Alfred Sloan's "ladder" brand approach devised almost 100 years ago. The other discontinued makes are Asian makes that never established a solid foundation in this country.
In contrast, the eight new brands are dominated by niche makes with a specific audience in mind, sometimes an audience not exclusively targeted in the past. Scion is the first make aimed at the youth market (though it has appealed to other demographics), Tesla is the only make with an all-electric line-up, and Smart is a unique brand/vehicle appealing primarily to the urban commuter. Mini, Smart, Tesla, and Fiat all emphasize fuel economy, something rarely promoted by the discontinued domestics. Also, the new makes are anything but mid-level, at least in pricing, with Smart and Fiat at the very low end and Maybach up in the stratosphere.
While the number of makes has remained constant, a look below the surface reveals that the new brands as a group are more aligned with today's new vehicle landscape than the discontinued makes.
Posted by Tom Libby, PolkInsight Advisor, Polk (12/10/2010)