GM’s founder, William C. "Billy" Durant, had wanted to call the company the International Motor Company but learned that the name had already been claimed for potential use by investment bankers at the House of Morgan (now Morgan Stanley). Durant called the new enterprise General Motors instead, and the core of the company’s logo -- the block mark with the letters GM -- has remained the same ever since.
Durant had the innovative and visionary idea that several carmakers combined under one company would have more growth potential than one brand on its own. When General Motors was born on 1908-September-16, his vision was dismissed by most of the business and financial community. Yet by 1916, the General Motors family included the legendary Chevrolet, Oakland (later Pontiac), GMC, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac brands.
Under Durant's successor, Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., (often called the father of the modern corporation), GM adopted the ground-breaking strategy of "a car for every purse and purpose," which divided the market into distinct price segments ranging from low-price to luxury and offered distinctive brands and models in each segment.
During a hundred years of growth and change, the GM mark has been the umbrella for the world’s largest family of car and truck brands, each of which has its own distinctive and globally recognized logo. Today, as GM enters its second century of progress, the GM family of brands still offers customers around the globe a full line of vehicle choices, including FlexFuel and hybrid cars and trucks.
In the 1920s and 1930s in particular, GM either acquired or created several non-automotive as well as automotive brands that are now laregely forgotten. Some, like Frigidaire, were divested but live on. Others have adopted new names over the years. The core automotive brands, however, are now recognized around the globe.
The evolution of the GM global family of brands:
1908
Buick
Oldsmobile
1912
Buick
Oldsmobile
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Oakland
GMC
1929
Buick
Oldsmobile
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Pontiac
GMC
Marquette
Viking
LaSalle
Vauxhall
Opel
2007
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Pontiac
GMC
Saturn
HUMMER
Vauxhall
Opel
Holden
Saab
GM Daewoo
ACDelco
GM Goodwrench
OnStar
Written by William Pelfrey
