When “Diversity” isn’t Our Strength

Sometimes, “diversity” is not our strength – as GM is finding out.

The Chevy Silverado pick-up is now number three – behind the Ram 1500 and the best-selling (and number one) Ford F-150.

This is alarming news for GM – assuming it still cares about making money as opposed to demonstrating how “committed” it is to “diversity” (see here) which is an odd preoccupation for a car company.

For example, Out With Chevy – which wasn’t a big brothery slogan ginned up by someone who doesn’t like the bowtie but invented by Chevy product PR people – to celebrate “coming out” in the you-know-what-it-means sense . . . which has what to do with trucks or Chevys I have no idea.

People who buy trucks want to know about the trucks – not what people are doing under the sheets, or with whom. Nor lectured about it, either. Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $25.00 (as of 06:10 UTC - Details)

Well, while Chevy was establishing its “commitment” to “diversity,” FiatChrysler was jamming out Ram pick-ups  . . .  and selling them. Almost 37,000 more of them than Chevy has found buyers for over the past ten months.

And counting.

This is huge news all by itself because Ram trucks – formerly Dodge trucks – have historically lagged way behind both Chevy and Ford, the two major hegemons of the full-size truck market.

It hasn’t even been close . . . until now.

Especially painful – for Chevy – is that the Silverado is “all new” – and so ought to be more rather than less popular. The old Silverado outsold the Ram.

The new one is having . . . problems.

Arguably, because of a different kind of “diversity” afflicting GM’s ability to be competitive.

GM’s brands are too “diverse.”

There is the Chevy Silverado . . . and the GMC Sierra. Both essentially the same truck and sold by the same corporation under different labels. Which means duplication of effort as well as marketing expenses as well as in-house competition in addition to and prior to competing with Ram and Ford.

GMC once sold heavier-duty trucks than Chevy trucks and so there was a difference and so a justification for GMC. But that was decades ago. Today, everything GMC sells is a priced-up version of what Chevy sells. This makes Chevys seem “low rent” – and not just relative to GMCs.

At the same time, GMCs are too expensive – relative to Rams and F-150s – especially since they are just repackaged Chevys.

It would seem to be sounder policy to sell just one truck – under one label.

Of course, getting rid of GMC would make GM less “diverse” as a brand – and that is probably why GM isn’t doing it (dealers would squeal) and probably won’t do it until it is forced to do it by painful economic realities – which is what it took to get rid of Potemkin Village brands like Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn and Hummer last time around.

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