15 June 2009 /

Wally Olins on resurrecting GM

by Wally Olins at 10:07 am 15 June 2009
Filed under: Home Page

Everything about bankrupt is a mess. Including its brands. All that remains after the fire sale will need very quick and clever management. Here are a few thoughts on what could be done.

11 June 2009 /

GM

by Wally Olins at 2:39 pm 11 June 2009
Filed under: Branding

Everything about bankrupt GM is a mess. Including its brands. And everything has been a mess for a long time.  I first wrote about GM 20 years ago, in 1989. In my book Corporate Identity (1989) I admiringly described how Alfred Sloan created GM’s branding structure.

Round about 1918 Alfred Sloan, the commercial genius who managed the growth of General Motors, was alarmed by the overwhelming dominance of Ford in the market place. Ford had one car – the Model T – which until VW’s Beetle was the world’s most ubiquitous automobile. General Motors, on the other hand, had a multiplicity of makes and models  which defied description or analysis. It had grown simply by acquiring every automobile manufacturing and component company in sight. So, although General Motors was a vast company, it was – in the words of Sloan – a ramshackle business.  Read more…

10 June 2009 /

Jacob Benbunan on The Monocle Weekly

by Ben Knapp at 4:16 pm 10 June 2009
Filed under: Home Page

Jacob’s on the weekly audio digest. He discusses some of Spain’s most well known brands and how they’ve become so remarkably successful.

10 June 2009 /

Jobs well done

by at 4:09 pm 10 June 2009
Filed under: Home Page

Business School recently awarded Bankinter, Repsol and R their prestigious Brand Centre Award. Jacob Benbunan, CEO of Saffron, was personally involved in each of these projects – Bankinter while at Saffron and Repsol and R while at Wolff Olins.