Cadillac

Cadillac has done an outstanding marketing job in reorienting its program toward its dealers. The marketers at Cadillac had a serious problem. Cadillac had taken its nice, old, conservative, and highly differentiated car and made it look like an Oldsmobile - and, at $ 10,000 more. True, Cadillac was previously purchased primarily by older people, and yes, it had an image problem. But to make it look like an Oldsmobile was foolish.

Cadillac marketers recognized their mistake and did not want to show their new model on TV, telling everyone how great it was. There was no point in trying to fool the public by saying that the Cadillac was still a well-differentiated product. Instead marketers gave promotion money to local dealers so they could run programs that would be effective in their local areas. I don't know how Cadillac sales are doing, but using push marketing through its dealers was a smart decision in face of a poor product decision.

Ford

Ford has had two major thrusts over the last few years. The first is "Quality is Job One," and the second is that Ford builds cars "with the shape of things to come." In other words, Ford is building cars which are ahead of its time, and Ford is an innovator. In both instances, Ford gives the impression that it is a company that really knows the car business. These thrusts are simple, meaningful, and effective.