Cadillac Wants to Become a “Pure Luxury Brand”

Right now, Cadillac is somewhat under-performing, with its ATS and CTS models’ sales faltering after a price hike compared to 2013. Nevertheless, the automaker’s marketing chief is confident that a number of changes will reinvigorate the brand.

Uwe Ellinghaus, who joined Cadillac in January from Montblanc International and has previously worked at BMW for more than 10 years, told Autonews that all that time he has done “foundational work” to create a brand-new theme for the brand’s marketing that will part with “me-too” comparisons.

“In engineering terms, it makes a lot of sense to benchmark the cars against BMW”, he said. “From a communication point of view, you must not follow this rule.”

What Ellinghaus wants is to transform Cadillac into a “pure luxury brand” that also happens to manufacture cars. “That sounds like a joke”, he admitted, “but we’re serious about it”.

“When I recruit new people, I do not need petrolheads. We have more than enough petroheads. I need people with experience in other industries but with luxury brands”, he said.

What GM’s most exclusive nameplate needs is to exude confidence: “Firstly, if you need to say you are luxury, you are not luxury”, he explained. “Louis Vuitton does not say they are luxury. They simply are.”

Both Ellinghaus and CEO Johan de Nysschen plan to distance Cadillac from mother company GM and the first step in doing so will be moving its headquarters from Detroit to New York.

This will coincide with the flagship CT6 launch in April at the New York Auto Show. Ellinghaus also commented on the change in Cadillac models’ naming.

All sedans will have a CT prefix, with “C” standing for Cadillac and “T” for Tourer, followed by a number that will indicate the model’s place in the automaker’s portfolio. Likewise, SUVs will get an XT designation along with a number.

There are two exceptions, though: the Escalade and the ELR. “The Escalade name won’t be touched”, said Ellinghaus. “That’s a brand in its own right”. He didn’t comment on the ELR but we guess the same reasoning applies for the plug-in hybrid coupe.