Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 09:56:13 -0400
Reply-To: Patrick Dooley <pdooley@GTE.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Patrick Dooley <pdooley@GTE.NET>
Subject: Re: Advertising & the Demise of the Westy, longish,
lite VW bashing
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
-----Original Message-----
From: GMBulley <GMBulley@AOL.COM>
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Thursday, April 23, 1998 8:39 AM
Subject: Advertising & the Demise of the Westy, longish, lite VW bashing
>In a message dated 98-04-13 22:30:59 EDT, s_j_wacker@JUNO.COM writes:
>
><< However, I don't see a company that sells millions of vehicles world
wide
>spending a lot of time catering to a thousand or so owners to 8-15 year old
>vans >>
>
>VW hardly caters to its prospective BUYERS, much less vintage owners. So I
>wonder: Does anyone know why VW _*barely*_ advertises in the US? This
>mystifies me. They have fantastic vehicles, but don't bother TELLING folks
>about them.
>
>There is an advertising technique, TOMA, Top Of Mind Advertising, that most
>companies use. It requires repitition and frequency. An ad firm develops a
>theme, and everywhere the prospective buyer goes, they hear or see the
theme.
>When I say "The best part of waking up..." your mind is dying to sing
"...is
>FOLGERS in your cup," because of TOMA.
>
>The airwaves are loaded with ads for Buicks; Saturn does a good job of
drawing
>interest from the un-Saturn-fied. Almost no ads for the new Passat, a few
for
>the Jetta/Golf Trek. And here is VW, with an unbelievable motor (the TDi)
that
>will go 700 well-powered miles on $12.00 fuel...have you seen or heard ONE
ad
>for the new TDi Jetta? Did you ever see a TV ad for the Euro-bago, ever? If
>you weren't VW savvy, you'ld never know about these things.
>
>Why do you have to go to the dealer to find out about a VW?
>
>I hold this lack of advertising greatly responsible for the demise of our
>beloved VW "Camper", be it Westy or other. By far, one of the neatest
vehicles
>ever built, the Synchro Westy, is virtually unknown to the car-buying
public.
>I'm VW savvy, and only learned through this list about VW's 4-WD camper.
Ugh!
>
>Currently, VW is missing a HUGE chunk of the car-buying population: the
folks
>that drool over SUVs. All SUV ads use the same theme..."Overworked in your
>horrible urban/suburban life? Buy our SUV and you can take Fridays and
Mondays
>off to stand in a stream, fly fishing in remote Montana."
>
>What they forget to mention is what a pain in the kiester camping is. Think
>you're over worked now: take up this new hobby, camping with your family
out
>of your Explorer!!! Sort, load, and tote all of your camping gear, get
where
>you are going on 12 mpg. Spend the next few hours setting up places to
sleep,
>cook, wash, etc. When you are done, clean, mothball, and store your gear
for
>the next time. Foggetaboutit. You can HAVE all the SUV's. Ugh.
>
>The VW Camper, was the salvation for this quandery. Self contained. Sleeps
>four. Goes almost ANYWHERE (New Lunagon goes even farther!). Looks nice.
Gets
>good milege.
>
>But God-forbid VW tell anyone about a great idea. Import it quietly, then
>scratch your German heads (Kopf?) when things don't sell so good. Then stop
>importing them, just when folks are finding out about them. Dumbkopf.
>
>A smart man once told me that starting a great business without advertising
>it, is like winking at a pretty girl in a dark room. So why doesn't VW
>advertise here???
>
>gmbulley
>cary, nc
>Prov.17:22
because vw believes their product will sell itself. they are partially
correct. the vr6 is a well known powerplant, the jetta is kickin butt. vw
lets the american public decide what they want and drop the rest. too bad,
we wind up with "majority cars" and not much special interest. of course,
I'm no marketing expert, this all conjecture.
| 
