BRAND CHANNELING, DNA, AND RWD.

John Larson, general manager of Pontiac-Buick-GMC at General Motors, touts the success of GM's three brand "channeling" strategy in Automotive News (see http://www.autonews.com) .

Channeling permits GM to trim redundant models and provides Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealers a broad product mix.

In other words, the three brands are permitted to become more focused on their essential "DNA."

Previously, Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman of global product development, outlined the targeted strategy: luxury sedans for Buick, sporty and performance cars for Pontiac, and Trucks for GMC.

Each segment tracks with the historical image for the various brands. Buick was long known as GM's "Doctor's car," just a slot below Cadillac. From the days of FoMoCo alumnus Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen, Pontiac has aggressively persued a performance image. And ever since its Grabowski and General Motors Truck origins, GMC has been about serious trucks.

Of more interest to enthusiasts, "Larson confirmed that Pontiac will offer mostly rear-wheel-drive performance cars, but he said he would not rule out an SUV-like product" or "a Chevrolet Camaro-type product for Pontiac possibly to replace the GTO."

All Speedzzter can say is that it's about time.

Of course GM won't have the discipline to channel all medium-priced RWD performance to Pontiac (e.g. Corvette, Camaro), but the channeling strategy makes more sense than the duplicative efforts encouraged as Alfred Sloan's brand hierarchy broke down in the 1960s.

Contrast this clarity to the reigning confusion in FoMoCo's Glass House.

FoMoCo only has three domestic nameplates in two divisions (Ford, Lincoln-Mercury), but it doesn't have much of a plan either to mesh them with the foreign divisions (Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston-Martin).

Given the declining prestige of Lincoln and the irrelevance of Mercury (J.D. Power reliability rating anomalies notwithstanding), FoMoCo could stand to gamble with better segmentation and increased three-brand channeling.

Each brand needs unique product.

Mercury is particularly well situated to take lower-volume risks.

A "Bold Move" would be to make Mercury the turbo-diesel and hybrid brand at FoMoCo.

Or to tap into the brand's "deluxe Ford" DNA, Mercury could take on the role of SVT to produce "in-house" tuner versions of Ford products and, perhaps, other sporty RWD products.

Or Lincoln could return to its traditional "up-market" true luxury place and the brand diluting near-luxury vehicles could be exclusively Mercury territory.

Any of the foregoing strategies would be better than making Mercury merely a collection of badge-engineered Mazdas, Volvos and Fords at a $500 higher price point.

As things stand now, Mercury will get squeezed out as Lincoln heads downward and the Ford brand creeps upward.