The General Motors automaker is considering changing their iconic Buick tri-shield logo the company announced late yesterday at the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards.
GM's North American President Mark Reuss confirmed these speculations to a group of reporters at the award ceremony according to The Detroit Free Press. Reuss stated that the logo hasn't been upgraded in over a decade and it may be time to change that.
No one from Buick has denied the rumor as of this morning. Nor is it clear the motivation behind the rumor, but experts believe the company is feeling pressured by the Chinese car market to make a drastic change to try improving car sales.
"There's people who can look at the badge of a car and know exactly what they are and what time period they're from," said Jeremy Dimick, curator of collections at Sloan Longway's Alfred P. Sloan Museum and Buick Gallery in Flint to The Detroit Free Press.
Changing the company logo is more of a complicated process than one may imagine, and could have consequences no matter what the company decides to do. Making a logo switch could turn off older customers who appreciate classic companies and buy from them for that reason. At the same time, if they don't make the switch new customers may be less likely to consider buying from Buick and more intrigued by companies that have reinvented themselves.
"I don't really know what benefit it will be unless they're thinking they will capture even more of the Chinese market by doing this," said Peter De Lorenzo, a former auto industry marketing executive who now blogs at Autoextremist.com to The Detroit Free Press.
GM sold over 60,500 Buick vehicles in China for the month of October, up almost 8 percent compared to this time last year. The number was 24 percent of GM's total sales in China as well.
Along with a design change, the company has yet to deny that they could also change the color scheme of the logo, getting rid of the all-chrome appearance for perhaps a more colorful one.
"You look at the car and know it's a Buick for sure," Dimick said. "Any future logo you would think would retain components of that. The brand identity is so wrapped up in that."
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