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December 21, 2009

SAAB Car Naming and Branding Up in the Air

The saga around the SAAB brand name is pretty sad. It looks like the
company is history, the car is history, and perhaps only the name will
remain to be sold to the highest bidder.

The blogosphere is full of bitterness about this, with one engineer commenting 'This is as if a bad guy [GM, current owners of SAAB] watched someone die and then snatched his ID card to sell it.' Ouch.

There are tributes galore about the little car - an offshoot of the airplane industry - while a last ditch effort is made by Dutch luxury car maker Spyker to acquire the name from GM. Right now, GM is "winding down" the brand name.

But all is not lost, sort of. Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Ltd. (BAIC) has the technology for two SAAB models and might - might -make an offer for the name.

I feel this would be a real coup. The SAAB name has so much equity that if the cars are good enough, people would be prepared to buy them from Chinese sellers. Don't believe me? Just look at Land Rover, which was owned at one point by German automaker BMW and then Ford and now Indian car giant TATA.

Land Rover is to English car making as, well SAAB is to Sweden. Yet buyers keep buying Landys, no matter who builds them.

I would hate to see the SAAB brand name die and do hope that somebody acquires it. Soon. A Chinese SAAB? Well, why not?

Technorati Tags: General Motors, SAAB, BMW, Ford, Tata, Automobile Brand Name

Posted by William Lozito at December 21, 2009 9:09 AM
Posted to Automotive | Brand Naming | Branding | Naming | Naming Rights

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