Cars as a gateway for learning Advertising + Marketing
Cars are a true gateway for understanding Advertising + Marketing.
Let’s start with Volkswagen Group and its mass-market brands:
Audi. Volkswagen. Seat. ŠKODA.
They’re all the same car.
Yes, an Audi SUV is different from a Seat hatchback.
But then an Audi SUV is also different from an Audi hatchback, isn’t it?
However, in each of their respective “weight classes”, they’re the same car.
An Audi hatchback is a Volkswagen, Seat, and ŠKODA hatchback.
A ŠKODA SUV is a Seat, Volkswagen, and Audi SUV.
Same car. Different shell. Same mechanics. Different aesthetics.
If you don’t believe me, it’s all online.
So, what are the learnings for people in Advertising + Marketing?
01
At the top of the conversion funnel, get the features out of the way.
No one cares about the cup holders.
Or the “really clever” additional storage compartments.
People care about the story the brand allows them to tell themselves and others.
About who they are, and how successful they are.
People want to be accepted and admired first, and self actualise second.
How does the brand help that happen?
How does it make them the hero in their own story?
But note, this must be born from a kernel of truth, from within the business.
You can’t just tell people they’ll be ‘cock of the walk’ and dust off your hands.
This is where most advertising, particularly car advertising, gets it wrong.
i.e.
“We see a man driving a car. On roads. That’s where you drive cars. He orders a matcha latte. He puts some farmer’s market oranges into a tote bag. He’s 43. Buy it. Buy the car. Now. Please”
Oranges don’t make me the hero in my own story, friends, they just don’t.
So…
Say something true. It helps if it’s new, but it doesn’t have to be.
What does have to be new is how you say it.
Audi might tell you it’s for people who believe in “[beautiful] things that work”
Vorsprung Durch Technik.
It doesn’t mean ‘beautiful things that work’. But that doesn’t really matter, does it?
“Wait”
I hear you scream.
“What about that ‘clowns’ film they did? That was all about parking sensors and collision avoidance technology, those are all features.”
Yes. I suppose they are.
But then, they also displayed 5 different models in the film.
A coupe, saloon, SUV, SUV hatchback cross, and luxury saloon/ limousine…
Effectively, laddering up into a message about the entire brand.
And giving you the reason people will accept and admire you if you drive an Audi:
You’re not a clown.
ŠKODA might say “the road less traveled” crowd will accept you for driving their cars.
Because it means you’re Driven By Something Different.
But this is brand. This isn’t product. Because the product is identical.
Sure…
Great, effective automotive advertising and marketing has been done on features.
I’m not suggesting it hasn’t, or can’t.
But now more than ever…
There are micrometers between features on a product like a car.
Features are great in principle and great on paper.
They might even earn you a What Car? Award.
As the “Simply Clever” features and outlandish boot space often do for ŠKODA.
But in practice, creating meaning, affinity, and aspiration for your brand wins.
Wins you prime time on a show like Top Gear.
Wins you more video coverage on a channel like carwow.
Wins you brand-dedicated Instagram accounts like Auditography.
And guess which brand people want to belong to?
So, distance your brand from competitors by telling me:
-who it makes me
-how it makes me the hero in my own story
Just make sure what you say is true.
02
In the mind of the target customer:
Believing other people will think you’re INSERT-DESIRABLE-QUALITY-HERE …
Is actually the sell.
When someone drives past you in a Ferrari…
There’s a chance part of their purchase is the hope you’ll think they’re cool.
But your mind, as they drive past, doesn’t do that. It actually skips that step.
It jumps straight to*:
“Wow. If I had that car, people would think I’m so cool.
Especially if I paid £5000 for the upgraded 22" alloys.”
Even though, while driving the car…
You’d spend 100% of your time inside it.
And wouldn’t even be able to see them.
Not even a single inch. Not even 1 out of all 88.
Ah. But other people would, right?
And when you park it…
They’d also see you walking away from it, in all its 88 alloyed inches glory.
And you’d get to enjoy that view when you walk back to it.
And enjoy other people seeing you get into it.
And that matters.
*It may also jump to: “I feel that man is compensating for something.”
03
People post-rationalise “limerance” with cars.
If you've been in the market for a car, you know the experience well.
You've got your checklist, got your Excel sheet.
All the features, functions, and luggage space it needs.
But then, you see "the one".
Then, “the one” conveniently starts to check everything on your list.
Except for a few things.
"But those weren't really that important, anyway, were they?"
You dissuade.
“What's more, we've managed to bag a bargain with this."
You qualify.
Emotion. You wanted it. You had an intense love affair with it.
Then, you rationalised that emotional urge until the completion of the sale.
Back-wired logic. You made the glove fit.
04
Perception brings people into the brand, reality dictates if they stay
People belonging to the Volkswagen brand might buy from it because it's "reliable".
"German efficiency" is the term Brits love to throw around.
But Volkswagen hasn't topped the reliability charts for a while.
On data gathered from over 300,000 vehicles, covering from 2000 to 2022...
It sat at 22 out of 24.
4 of the top 5 were Japanese. (Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Honda.)
My guess is that for the price, Volkswagen is reliable enough.
Enough that you don't feel Volkswagen has lied to you.
Audi sits at number 6.
Again, that’s likely reliable enough that you don't feel Audi has lied to you...
What Volkswagen and Audi do have going for them is history.
Through decades of advertising around reliability, and being well made...
They've built emotional stock in your brain.
Enough that you perceive them to be reliable.
And combined with feelings of aspiration, this is powerful.
But, here's the important part:
they have to stay reliable enough.
And entertaining, and aspirational, and helpful, and polite enough.
As soon as they're not, your brand promiscuity will take an upward turn.
Perception can hook someone into a brand.
But meeting the cold winds of reality will decide if they stay.
So. Yup. Points 1-4.
An Advertising + Marketing crash course.
Well, the top-of-the-funnel stuff, at least.
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