TODAY, MARKETING IS MORE THAN CREATING A SHINY CAMPAIGN FOR YOUR COMPANY, OR LABEL YOUR PRODUCTS “NEW AND IMPROVED”. FROM THE CARMAKER VOLKSWAGEN INTERESTING ASPECTS OF THE ART OF MARKETING CAN BE LEARNT.
Yesterday, I visited my local supermarket to buy some toothpaste. While staring at the shelves, it struck me that something so simple can get so complicated: as a modern consumer you’re confronted with multiple choices everyday – toothpaste included: You have toothpaste with a whitening effect, toothpaste for sensitive gums, toothpaste with herbs, toothpaste with two or three colours, toothpaste with enzymes and so on. Luckily, I live in Denmark, with a much more moderate assortment than in for example England or USA.
I see the increased variety of toothpastes as good metaphor for some of the challenges modern corporations faces today. An increased competition, often
where local brands have had a tight grip of the local market, with
new, global players, thus creating a pressure both on the products
itself, and the way the products are marketed.
There has been a long discussion in Denmark of the risks of a
price-competitive strategy only, which where painstakingly clear with
the shutdown of a meat-packaging facility in Jutland some months ago.
The crucial question is, what we should compete on when more and
more companies produce more and more products, that look more and more
the same.
In search for an answer, two observable strategies become apparent:
Increased innovation on the products itself, based on insight in the
user/consumer need, wishes and situation (and here I refer to products
in a broader understanding, where a process, service or business model
qualify for “products” as well), or, finding new ways of marketing your
products.
An interesting side effect of marketing innovations is, that
marketing as a discipline will play a more vital role for the companies
innovation capability. Marketing will go form being about “pushing” a
message out of the ramp, to be about establishing of a dialogue with
the user and target group.
INNOVATIVE MARKETING - THE VOLKSWAGEN WAY
Imagine that you are responsible for the launch of a new car. Do you do
like always do, and invite the usual journalists to a one-day event
with free bar and cross your fingers for good PR? To ensure that the
actual target group gets something out of it, you give away free
sausages and soda’s for the ones that take the car for a test-drive…
Or, do you want to involve the target group directly, and build a
close connection between your product and the potential buyers?
Those where probably the thoughts Volkswagen had in mind when they
challenged the german event company EventLabs of coming up with a new
way of working with marketing of their new car Fox. The result became
Project Fox, a project that so-far have involved more than 1.000 people
and includes the total redesign of a hotel in Copenhagen, involvement
of 21 international artists, worldwide chef-students, creation of a
nightclub that practically newer close (every day there’s a new show),
establishing of a gallery, a shop and a handful of workshops where
young artists and business people can meet and discuss various aspects
of the convergence of culture and business.
The project fox is an interesting case, where the simple task of
selling more cars transforms into a massive total-experience event,
where the actual target group is involved directly and PR is almost
free.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN
Based on e-Types involvement in the project, a few important issues emerges for success with this type of marketing:
- Never try to hide what’s it really all about: The goal with
Project Fox is to sell more cars. But, the way it is realised tries to
give something for all involved: The artists gets publicity and a
creative challenge, (the artist themselves actually represents the
target group for the new car), the guests that will participate in the
various events gets new experiences, and of course Volkswagen
themselves that get PR and hopefully the Fox car itself will get rooted
as THE car for the young, urban creative.
- Do what you’re best at. Volkswagen have acted as a “good client”
understood in the way, that they haven’t tried to control all details
and direct the process to hard. The result have been a project that
practically have had its own life, and a sort of “controlled chaos”,
where new ideas have been extremely easy to realise.
- The balance between form, content and energy. It is obvious, that the
expression (“form”) need to match the underlying idea (“content”) that
wants to be communicated, but equally important is the energy that is
put into the realisation of the project. Project Fox could easily have
been a good-looking shell filled with activities, but with no soul. The
reason I doubt this would happen is the simple fact that so much
positive energy is pumped into the realisation of the project. Until
today, over 1.000 people have been involved, and huge efforts have been
made to involve Copenhagen’s creative scene.
- The projects trustworthiness for all involved: The press, the
participants, the artists involved, and for Volkswagen. The act of
carefully put together the right team. In this case the renowned
publisher Die Gestalten Verlag where chosen to curate the redesign of
the hotel and select the constellation of artists. In the same way huge
efforts have been made to involve the “right” people in Denmark to act
as ambassadors for the project.
- Ensure that there is a logical fit between the product that are being promoted, the target group and the marketing concept.
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e-Types have been chosen as the only Danish design agency for redesign
of the Hotel Fox, together with 20 other internationally known artists.
The whole event will start Saturday the 2’nd of April, and will go on
for another 23 days. Read more on the projects website:
www.project-fox.org