The story of Porsche and Chrysler ignores their history. These brands don't exist in a vacuum. Customers aren't approaching these products only by looking at

The story of Porsche and Chrysler ignores their history. These brands don't exist in a vacuum. Customers aren't approaching these products only by looking at features and prices. 10 or 15 years ago, there was a clever Porsche commercial where a kid goes to the dealership to check out the latest 911, and gets a business card, and says "I'll be back in 20 years". I thought that perfectly summed up the Porsche brand. There was something special about Porsche that stuck with you -- all they do is make the best car in the world. When I first heard that Porsche was making an SUV, I remember thinking the brand was dead. It was now just another car company. I no longer have any desire to ever own a Porsche. Their new sports cars are technically impressive but the cachet is gone. (I suspect the Cayenne works today because the target audience grew up in the Porsche golden era. It's comparable to an X5 or Q7, but noticeably more expensive. Will it continue to sell well in the future, when their market doesn't consist of people who grew up dreaming about the 911?) The Dodge Dart (clearly the Chrysler subject, though not mentioned here by name) was advertised in its commercial as "under 16 grand", which is a perfectly reasonable price for a compact car. What price would the author of this article have recommended instead? What really sank it in the market, according to the reviews, was reliability. I don't associate the Chrysler brand with reliability, and I didn't believe that "kicking out the finance guys" would solve that overnight. (Had the car sported a Honda badge, and the same price tag, I truly believe it would have sold like hotcakes.) You can see the same effect in some other recent car commercials. They take a car, strip off all the logos, and ask "normal people" to review it. They ooh and aah, and wonder if it's the newest BMW. Surprise: it's American! What I don't understand is: if the biggest liability of American carmakers is literally their name and logo, why do they stick with them? Why do they continue to try to find clever ways to change our minds about things that they know everybody has already made up their minds about? In any other industry, when a brand is no longer valuable, they change it. I know there are older people who will only ever buy a Ford/Chevy/Dodge, but the latest hybrid subcompact or hot hatch is not being marketed to those people, anyway. The Germans did it right: they had a brand name that people valued highly, so they put it on something these people were buying anyway -- and were willing to pay a premium for. (There's a whole "Porsche Design" subsidiary selling knives and pens and such.) The Americans did it wrong: they had a brand name that wasn't highly valued, so people didn't want a product with that brand name, even at a good price. Brands are mostly immutable. It takes a long time to change anyone's mind.