Cadillac separated its commercial team from the General Motors headquarters in Detroit, formed a stand-alone unit and moved it to New York City in late 2015. This move was not driven by organizational and business considerations, alone.  In fact, a key objective was to shift and elevate Cadillac’s position culturally.  Away from the rest of the US car industry and right into the Global, taste-making epicenter that is New York – SoHo to be precise.  The objective is to weave the brand into the creative and entrepreneurial fabric and get it (back) on the map in more than one way.

Opening Cadillac house – a pop-up shop cum expo- cum art space with its own hip coffee shop, free wi-fi and elegant public spaces to lounge, work and even have meetings  was one important, highly visible step in that direction, as JP illustrates in the video below video.   This is about un-selling – no cars are sold at Soho house – and up-lifting the brand by associating it with art, entrepreneurship, fashion and the free thinking, creativity… and hip people that surround them (their Ueber-Target, as we call them).

Sources and further reading:

To read more about modern ways to elevate your brand – ‘Ueber-Branding’ – check out our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding.” And if you need help elevating your own brand to Ueber-Brand status, then contact us.

If you want to hear the interview we did with with Cadillac CMO Uwe Ellinghaus, then head over to this podcast episode.

Here is how the New York Times reported on the brand move in 2015.