VW Ditches Ad Agency in Bid for "Mainstream Relevance"
Ahem . . . Automotive News [sub] reports that VW is seeking a new ad agency, after four years with Crispin Porter & Bogusky. “Our goal of rapidly increasing our volume in a mature market requires the Volkswagen brand to evolve into a more relevant mainstream choice,” explains VW VP Marketing Tim Ellis.
The Volkswagen brand needs to inspire our base of enthusiasts as well as reach out and captivate those in mainstream America. Therefore, we are re-evaluating all areas of our business and after careful considerations have decided to take the necessary steps to ensure we have the right agency partner in place.
After all, VW is kind enough to dumb down its product line ( cough) for America’s benighted mainstream. The problem must be the ads!
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Just to pile on. 06 Passat. Wouldn't start in the cold a year and a half ago. Left my dad stranded in below zero weather. They had to replace the fuel rail TWICE. Automatic climate control failed. Airbag sensor failed. Wouldn't start again, about a month ago. This time it wasn't under warranty anymore. $1800. It has 70k miles. Volkswagen deserves all the bile that they get. You think reliability depends on the owner? BS. My dad is fastidious in taking care of his vehicle. Meanwhile, I don't do a damn thing to my car. 9k mile oil changes. No scheduled maintenance. I wash my car by backing it out of the garage during a rain storm and turning the wipers on. I've never had ANY problems with my Toyota or Mazda.
Hmmm I hate to pile on. The company has PLENTY of mis-steps. The CEO is clearly walking out of the people who loved the company. But there are all kinds of reasons why I wouldn't touch a VW. 1.. Ya don't advertise ya warranty, and how it covers everything for 4 yrs.. to copy MB / BMW... and make german comments in the ad about how expensive it is. Only to re-iterate that after the warranty up, the vehicle will be traded. They did a coupla decent ads (not the car crash scare ones..) not the condescending ads on the Toureg, but going back at least 10yrs, when they sang during the intro of the Jetta. Definitely not the Un-pimp-ze-audo. This IS DEFINITELY not the company to buy a sporty car from.. (witness the Toureg / Routan / Tiguan). The company is confused, in its marketing, its vehicles and definitely in its reliability. And as someone who put 100k on a Accord from 00 IN 3 YEARS... I wont even touch a VW.
**********The winners of the >150k keepers? Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Acura, Subaru, Jeeps, Ford and Chevy truck platforms. The losers with the highest trade-in ratio with less than 100k? Saab, Suzuki, Land Rover, VW, Kia, and Jaguar.********** To hades with JD Power, I'd love to see the raw Carmax/Manheim auction data. This would make a great TTAC op-ed.