Up late last night, I got into a discussion on Twitter with Al Krueger (fellow Milwaukeean and very smart fellow) about branding. He tweeted about the new Volkswagon ads, featuring Brooke Shields promoting VW’s new minivan, the Routan. He wondered if the mere fact that VW even offers a minivan was detrimental to the brand.
He’s right. To me, the VW brand has stood for fun, free-spirited, driver-oriented cars that were relatively affordable. When the VW brand had its renaissance in the late 80s and early 90s, it positioned itself as the car for twentysomethings who wanted vehicles to haul their mountain bikes, surf boards, snowboards and other toys.
Following their success of the 90s, VW made a number of product moves that varied in their adherence to the Gen X brand they had established:
- The Beetle was universally lauded as branding genius.
- The Touareg, an impossible-to-pronounce, me-too SUV.
- The Rabbit, which harkened back to the pre-Fahrvergnügen 70s and 80s.
- The Routan, VW’s entry into the minivan market a mere 20 years late.
Of the above, only the Beetle and the Rabbit reinforced the brand VW had established during my college years. The rest simply round out their lineup to appeal to a broad range of customers. There’s no question that VW’s brand, like many others, especially in the automotive industry, has become somewhat homogenized. Unfortunately, I think that was inevitable.
As VW has grown, they likely have found it necessary to offer products for nearly every customer at every stage of life. This sacrifices some of their brand identity, but does it help them survive, long-term? One need only to look at Harley-Davidson to see the potential pitfalls of being a large brand so strongly tied to a single brand identity.
Or do the few performance-based products in their lineup (they also offer a GTI and I’ve heard rumors of the Sirocco coming back) do enough to preserve at least some of their core brand roots?
VW has become a global giant with factories to keep open and stakeholders to satisfy. I think once you get to be a certain size as a company, there is only so much branding you can do. You no longer have the luxury of being able to appeal to a niche audience. The more egregious branding crime was committed by VW’s cousin, Porsche, with the introduction of the Cayenne. A Porsche SUV? Really?
That’s the beauty of smaller or more specialized companies. They can afford to be very targeted with their branding. In fact, you could argue that they can’t afford not to.
As for Volkswagon, a brand beloved by people my age, it seems they’ve crossed over into big-brand territory. It’s kinda like growing up. You don’t know when it happens, but one day you’re living in the city and partying every night, then you wake up with kids, a house in the suburbs, a mortgage.
And a minivan.