Friday 8 January 2010

The sweet, romantic Beetle is here!

The VW Beetle... it does look cute... sweet yet strong and kind of very romantic car... I find it romantic car, I dont know why!... :)


The beginnings of the Beetle stretch way back to 1931, when a young Austro-Hungarian engineer by name of Ferdinand Porsche, when he developed a 'car for everybody'. Impressed by his treatment and understanding of real-world expectations from a daily transport vehicle, Adolf Hitler commissioned Porsche to make a 'Volks-wagen' - a people's car for Germany - a basic four-wheeler with a roof that would carry two adults and three children at contemporary freeway speeds - then pegged at about 100 km/h. And then there was the key rider - the car had to be sold at around the same price as that of a motorcycle.

The car brought the concept of an economy car to the United States in 1949. Within a decade, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Studebaker attempted to emulate the fuel-efficient compact car. More than 21 million Beetles were produced by 1992, breaking the Model T's 15 million production record. Japanese automakers Toyota, Honda and Datsun, later Nissan, followed VW's lead, with even better results.

Advertising Strategy:

(Adv of the 60s.)
The 1960s ad campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle changed the very nature of advertising--from the way it's created to what you see as a consumer today.

It was in this environment that DDB introduced the Beetle with a radical ad campaign that perfectly positioned the product and won the hearts and minds of the masses. What made the VW Beetle ad campaign so radical? Ads before it were either information-based and lacking in persuasion, more fantasy than reality, or relied on the medium's ability to deliver repeated exposure.
Beetle ads, though, connected with consumers on an emotional level, yet also conveyed a product benefit in a way consumers could relate to. Plus, the ads were breathtakingly simple.

Two famous print ads illustrate this. One featured a small picture of the car with the headline "Think small." Text highlighted the advantages of driving the small Beetle versus a big car.

The other presented just the car with "Lemon" in bold type. Ad copy explained that the chrome strip on the glove compartment was blemished and had to be replaced. The take-away was obvious. If this was Volkswagen's idea of a lemon, the Beetle must be a well-built car.

My Take on its entry into India: The car has already grabbed all the limelight. It comes with a price tag of Rs.20L something. Surely, it would appeal to bollywood industry more for simple reasons like... stars generally travel nucleus and not with complete family together, the style statement it provides... Cant ignore the parking and congestion issue in mumbai/ Delhi. Among the owners would be bollywood actresses, high class college going girls would get as Bday gift and sweet romantic couples may be in the age of 60s... :)

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