GM's bling strategy

Perhaps you’ve bought a new car. Probably picked a few options and maybe you’re thinking of ordering a few accessories.

The purchasing process doesn’t suddenly stop when you take the keys and drive away in a cloud of new-car smell. Accessory sales generate significant profits for car-makers, but there’s more to it than that.

In the case of General Motors, accessory design, development and marketing are handled almost as a separate brand division.

How many zeros do we use to describe the value to GM? “Let’s just say it is a lot and it is growing," says Todd Parker, GM Director of Design, Exterior Components and Accessories.

"What you’re seeing now and how excited we are about the stuff we’re showing, it is only going to get better and we’re going to get more.”

Parker and his team design and develop accessories in timed step with the vehicle’s design and development. In effect, a range of accessories is rolled out as the newly designed vehicle is rolled into showrooms.

Parker is quick to credit Australian Mike Simcoe, Executive Director GMIO Design, whose influence reaches into every corner of the GM vehicle empire.

“Mike Simcoe is actually the one who started us on this whole path [more than a decade ago]. To be honest with you, this [accessories] was really important to him from a design standpoint. And that was new. It wasn’t something that we’d had from our design leadership in the past. Simcoe saw the value in accessories.”

It's no coincidence that Simcoe, while design director at Holden Design, was involved with the management and rise of HSV. Few brands leveraged accessories, performance and visuals as well as HSV.

If it worked for HSV in small volumes, it should work for GM in US volumes. GM sees dollar signs in accessory sales.

Obviously, Simcoe’s design pencil is also fairly sharp when it comes to accounting. The bottom line is GM plans to continue to push accessory design, development and sales into new segments from sub-compact cars to full-size trucks.

“Trucks are big for us; they’re really important for us across the board from selling to accessories," said Parker.

"Corvettes and Camaros are huge for personalisation and accessories. Even the Malibu and the Sonic -- we’re offering more and more accessories because that’s a different customer."

The recent trend in truck accessory sales is toward performance, he claims. “We’ve always been really heavy into bedboxes and assist steps and cargo management type stuff.

"But more and more there’s a call for exhaust systems, intake systems and the huge six-piston brakes that we’re offering for the trucks which is a huge upgrade. Trucks are becoming something more unique than what they’ve been in the past. That offers up new avenues for us to sell stuff.”

Whether accessories developed for US buyers will be offered in Australia through Holden and its dealer network for platforms and nameplates shared across the Pacific such as Colorado, Cruze, Barina (Sonic) and Spark is yet to be seen.

Parker adds: “From the top level of the company, they recognise the potential of accessories and they’re leaning on it hard.”

He’s talking of former Holden bosses Mark Reuss, Executive Vice President of Global Product Development, and Alan Batey, Executive Vice President of North America.

“These guys really understand the accessories, the personalisation and the performance parts. They really get it.”