Another bad move by GM?

Yesterday GM announced that they are going to axe the Pontiac brand.
My guess is that it won't take long for two things to happen:

• GM will notice that it no longer has a "sporty" line.
  
• GM will increase the line-up of Chevrolet cars to compensate for not having the crazy variety of vehicles they currently sell.

That is to say that the Chevy line (entry-level family cars) will suddenly have more sporty cars. Existing models will be supplemented with new models. The Buick line (um ... upscale family? ... really, what does Buick stand for? ... what the hell are they thinking with keeping that alive?) will suddenly have more sporty cars. The Buick line-up will get bigger. The Cadillac line (snobby luxury, which is just what it ought to be) will have cheaper sporty cars added to it, perhaps as an "entry level Caddy" (anyone remember the Cimarron? Watch for an instant replay). In every case my money would be on GM growing the line-up of each of these brands. In the end, they won't narrow their focus and win the markets. They will extend these brands to death.

GM has lost touch with their brands. I don't think they need to cut their sub-brands as dramatically as they need to cut hard at the models in each of those sub-brands. What they should do is carefully and tightly define what each of their main sub-brands is all about, then hack out everything in the brand line that isn't inside the very tight definition of that brand.

GM needs to apply the "Keep it Simple Stupid" principles. There are two things that really define a company. The first is the brand - what does the company stand for and how do they support that on a daily basis. The second is the basic business strategy - cost leadership, segmentation, or differentiation.

At this point, I'd recommend that the GM management team should read:

• 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding by Al Ries, and
• Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael Porter.

Then again, I think it's too late. Maybe they should be reading What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles.