Everyone knows what Volkswagen does, right? Well, not so fast.
Volkswagen recently surpassed GM and Toyota to become the world’s largest automaker, with three cars in the Top 10 list of the best-selling cars of all time. It makes 245 models of passenger cars, trucks, and 10 brands of buses.
Yet Das Auto company itself is not so sure its message is getting across.
What Does VW Stand For?
Back in the Sixties, VW told car buyers to “Think Small.” In the 1990s and 2000s, the positioning went like this: “On the road of life, there are passengers and drivers. Drivers wanted.” Today, VW is Das Auto (“the car” in German) and touting “the power of German engineering.”
Yet, according to Vinay Shahani, the new VP-marketing at Volkswagen of America, U.S. car buyers still do not have a firm grasp on what VW is all about. Interviewed by Automotive News, Shahani says his goal is to do a better job at communicating VW’s core messages to American consumers: “I think there’s a distinct opportunity to improve awareness, and specifically the familiarity with, the brand. I think it’s pretty clear that many consumers really don’t have a clear sense of what we stand for.”
Super Advertising
Shahani remarked on his favorite recent marketing messages from VW, and why they were favorites:
“Certainly, the Super Bowl ad from 2011 — the Darth Vader one — was great. But the non-Super Bowl ad that stands out the most to me is called ‘Spanish.’ It’s a story about two friends that go on a road trip in a Passat TDI. It’s a typical VW story. They get in a car, and it’s a very human moment; a lot of people can relate to going on a road trip. But the underlying message is about the range of the vehicle, which is enabled by the TDI clean-diesel technology. And these guys are in the car for so long, and they don’t have to stop for gas because of this engine, that they learn Spanish [from an audiobook] on the way.”
The car company that has made a virtue of consistency (after all, VW built the Beetle for 65 years), also has no plans to change its current tag line.
Getting the Message Right
The VW marketing plan is to keep doing great work and place greater emphasis on its core message points. Said Shahani, “…it’s fine to carry the torch, and to improve upon the consistent, simple, cute human stories. Keep doing that, but at the same time, raise the bar in terms of what we’re actually saying about ourselves. We’ve got German engineering. We’ve got clean diesel technology, with the majority of the market share in the United States. Those are fundamental things about VW that we need to do a better job of communicating to consumers.”
Lesson for Small Business
Small business marketers would do well to follow the example of one the world’s largest and most successful brands. Don’t ever assume your customer understands your business or product. Keep focusing on the fundamentals: make a consistent product, then clearly communicate what it is you do.
