owned, and marketed by General Motors. Under famed chairman Alfred Sloan, GM not only pioneered many management processes for large, centralized corporations; it built powerful consumer brands, such as Chevrolet and Cadillac, and industrial brands, such as Delco and Detroit Diesel. Today, however, GM faces the same challenges as     other firms-the need to represent, relate to, and influence the culture in which it operates. Years ago, brand managers at Chevrolet evaluated Americas core culture to guide marketing and advertising themes. They determined that hot dogs and apple pie were the cultures comfort foods, and baseball its national pastime. The resulting musical slogan-hot dogs, baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet-connected brilliantly with Americans in the post-World War II era, as did the boat-sized cars GM produced. Chevy represented and connected with the culture, eventually influencing the mass-market psyche of an entire genera- tion. Rather than focus on smaller customer segments, Chevy and most GM divisions targeted the mass market. The jingles, products, and images werent cutting edge or fashion forward-but then, nei- ther were most of the divisions customers. As America emerged into more segmented markets, so did Chev- rolet. One constant in the past decade has been its "Like a Rock" campaign, which uses the Bob Seger classic hit to represent and com- municate with customers and drive home the brand promise that Chevy trucks are built rock-tough. The theme and the music are highly relevant to both the work and leisure values of a core market segment, whose members are often young or rural, or both. More recently, Chevrolet commercials have included the music of Smash Mouth reaching for newer, younger market targets. But music has its limitations. Though it makes the brand memorable, cultural rele- vance makes the brand enduring. To reinvigorate some of its brands, GM would have to enter reinvent mode, starting at the top of the line.     The Cadillac of Brands   During the latter half of the twentieth century, firms strived to be called the Cadillacs of their industries and people strived to own a Cadillac Fleetwood, the status symbol of the 1960s and 1970s.* Hol- lywood and the glitz and glamour it represents furthered Cadillacs