General Motors debates ditching Daewoo brand

General Motors (GM) is considering ditching the recently relaunched Daewoo brand in favour of Chevrolet.

GM, which rescued the Korean car marque from b

ankruptcy last year, is launching the cars with the Chevrolet brand in its European markets and is refusing to give a long-term commitment to the Daewoo brand.

GM’s strategy has been for the Daewoo factories in Korea to produce cars for a number of brands in its portfolio. While it has initially retained the Daewoo brand in some parts of Western Europe, including the UK, and in Korea and Australia, the same cars are already sold as Chevrolets in the Americas, India, Thailand and Singapore.

A GM Daewoo spokesman says: “Chevrolet is a value brand with similar brand equity. We will see how Chevrolet does in the markets where we are launching and will be watching carefully.”

In June, GM Daewoo appointed Patricia Messar as its European director of brand and marketing, replacing Janet Eckhoff who oversaw the reappointment of DFGW as the marque’s lead European advertising agency (MW June 26). In February, Rob Smettem was hired from Jaguar to become Daewoo’s first UK marketing director (MW February 20).

After the GM takeover, GM Daewoo dropped its previous direct selling model and is rebuilding distribution through independent dealers. It also redesigned its corporate identity to align it with the GM stable, which includes the Vauxhall, Opel and Saab brands in Europe (MW May 28).