Re: IML: odd LeBaron/branding question

["Bill Watson" <wwatson5@xxxxxxxxx>]

It all comes down to marketing - what image do you want the public to have
of your product, and what comes to mind when the public thinks of a name or
sees a symbol.

Chrysler wanted people to think of the LeBaron as an upmarket vehicle -
basically a mini-New Yorker.  The New Yorker had taken the Imperial body
styling and made it a profitable proposition.  It was obvious the car itself
was not the problem.  So why not take the LeBaron name and the eagle and
place them on the new smaller Chrysler sedans?   Just as with the New
Yorker, it worked.  The M-body LeBaron was a success from day one.

At the time the LeBaron was coming to market Chrysler had no intention of
using the Imperial name again.  Somehow or another, during the development
of the second generation Cordoba, the idea popped up.  But by that time both
the LeBaron name and the eagle were firmly entrenched in the public's mind
as Chrysler's small sedans.  Actually, very few remember the Imperial, but
with the LeBaron, the opposite is true.   I got a parking ticket a few weeks
ago and the person who wrote the ticket put the make of my car as "Mercury".
Figure that one out.

Bill
Vancouver, BC



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nat Hall" <nathall@xxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 11:55 PM
Subject: Re: IML: odd LeBaron/branding question


> [...]
>
> >model, right back to 1951.  In 1973 the ring became a wreath and appeared
on
> >the last full-size Imperial in 1975.  It would not appear again until the
> >1977 Chrysler LeBaron and, as a result, was not used on the 1981-83
> >Imperials. It appeared for one final round (so far) on the 1990-93
Chrysler
> >Imperials .
> >
> >Bill
> >Vancouver, BC
>
> [...]
>
> OK, what you said makes a lot more sense. I was just about to quesion the
> whole "LeBaron" thing since, as you pointed out, *ALL* Imperials used this
> symbol as the division "logo" for a long long period of time, LeBaron or
> not.
>
> But my quesion still remains: why was this symbol used on the 77-81
> *Chrysler* LeBaron? I am assuming simply because there was no Imperial
line
> at the time, and the LeBaron was formerly an Imperial model? Maybe
Chrysler
> was trying to attract customers to it's "new" LeBaron, based on a familiar
> logo used on former LeBarons? Perhaps that's the case, but that seems a
> little like GM discontinuing the Cadillac division (albeit unlikely) and
> then reintroducing a former Cadillac nameplate, say, the Cimmarron (for
> those of you who remember it) or Catera as a Chevrolet model but using the
> old Cadillac wreath and shield logo on the car instead of the traditional
> Chevy crosshairs. The whole thing seems very silly to me.
>
>
> -------------------
> Nat Hall
> 1982 Imperial Coupe
> 1987 Chrysler New Yorker
> http://newyorker.digital-forever.com
> -------------------



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