With Cerberus Capitol Management as the new owner of Chrysler, one of the first things they did was bring back the Pentastar logo originally created in 1962 when Chrysler Corporation President Lynn Townsend decided the company needed a new symbol to represent all of the corporation’s brands. Townsend wanted a symbol with a strong, classic look that would be instantly recognizable, but was universal—without written words, so apparently Cerberus feels the logo will hearken back to the heyday of Chrysler while ironically referring to the company as “The New Chrysler.” The name change will take effect on October 4th.
Clearly it will take a lot more than a name change to reverse the $680 million dollar losses in 2006 and more than $2 billion in losses in the first quarter of 2007. The future of vehicles built on Mercedes platforms like the 300 and Crossfire will have a lot to do with the turn around, as will new product development. But perhaps the most interesting thing will be to see what having private ownership of a major manufacturer for the first time in half a century will bring to the market.
It’s interesting to know that in Greek mythology, Cerberus is the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades, so I suppose one can infer a lot from that, or maybe nothing. The question is how well Cerberus will guard the gates of Chrysler now that they have control.
From Toyota comes news of a three-pronged sales strategy focusing on attracting young people to the brand, stressing green technology and trying to make the buying process more pleasant. That seems to exemplify the Toyota mantra of their “customer first” philosophy and the never ending pursuit of leading the market by listening to consumers.
Another area that Toyota is working on is making available in their vehicles the technology that the younger demographic is so enamored with. With products like the Scion xB, which offers customers myriad levels of accessorizing their vehicles, Toyota has taken a giant step towards garnering more that their fair share of the 2.3 billion dollar 35 year old and under market. The also realize that this demographic has very little patience to sit around a showroom for 3 to 5 hours to buy a car, and they certainly want the experience to be fun rather than stressful.
Having spent a lot of time with Toyota testing and evaluating their vehicles, I was, if not surprised, interested in a comment from Toyota Executive who was the moving force behind the development of the Scion brand Jim Lentz saying, “it’s time to change our image from an industry that drags its feet to one that runs on innovation.”
I’ve always seen Toyota as a leader in the industry, and with a philosophy like that, maybe that’s why and something the American Manufacturers can learn from.
