Old Trends In Car Retailing: The Naked Truth In Advertising (NSFW)

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Placing females on the hood of cars has always been a tried if tired tactic in car selling. Putting money on the hood usually sexes up sales faster than scantily-clad vixens. The Chinese car industry is in fast growth, and in puberty. So it goes for – women.

Carnewschina found a Volkswagen dealer in Daqing in China’s Heilongjiang Province who thought that his sales charts could use some excitement. He hired some girls to stand around the cars in bikinis. Apparently, this stratagem did not quite work out as planned. Further drastic savings were called for:

The bikinis had to go.

Hit the jump only if you are home alone, or if you can prove that you are studying trends in car retailing, and that it’s all in the name of science. You have been warned …

“I wonder what the Germans think of this,” writes Tycho over at Carnewschia.

I can tell you. They will complain that the Daqing dealer still uses the old Corporate Identity, and that the new manual demands that the yellow in the back has to be painted white, and that there has to be the regulation blue “welcome banner.”

They’ll say: “Wo ist das gottverdammte blaue Band, lernen die’s denn nie?”

Knowing my former Wolfsburg colleagues, they will further complain that the lady needs a more Teutonic Formensprache, and that the picture lacks the required logic: “Why cover something if nothing is there?” Waste of scarce resources.

Next, someone will hand in a Reiseantrag, stated reason for the trip: “Dealer training: Effective use of showroom display material.”

Mumbling, “muss man denn alles selbermachen?” someone is heading to Hanover airport.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Shaker Shaker on Aug 29, 2011

    Photo 1: YUM... YES... WOOHOO... (Say, didn't I see you beat up a sailor in an alley in Shanghai?). Photo 2: Frosty, here's a hundred, take a coffee break. Photo 3: The scourge of Macular Degeneration; get your exam TODAY! There's a VW there?

  • Eldard Eldard on Aug 29, 2011

    Pic #2 looks like Sadako with bangs.

  • MRF 95 T-Bird These 164s, as documented by its owner have to be constantly sorted, as they say. They are nice drivers. I’d rather find a, under the 25 year rule nice and easier to deal with Type 916 Alfa Romeo GTV/Spyder.
  • Jeff If VW offers enough of a pay increase and benefits then there will be no union. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have managed to keep from being unionized by offering wages and benefits slightly below the UAW. Seems that VW is either not doing that or just has management and labor issues they need to resolve. VW would be better to resolve any labor issues and be competitive in pay and benefits is they don't want to be unionized.
  • Google Maybe if the Toronto police weren't so busy falsely arresting reporters who were doing their job, they might have more time to protect the citizens of Toronto from these thieves. Of course its easier to pick on peaceful reporters than actually arrest criminals who may have guns!
  • SCE to AUX It's fun when liberal interests fight each other.
  • Varezhka Suzuki Jimny, Toyota Century, and I know it technically just ended production but Honda e.
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