Christmas Essay

lib card no: 07006051

word count: 1548

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Choose a print ad that you particularly like (and attach it to the hard copy of your
essay). Referring to theories of branding and advertising, discuss the strategy that
appears to lie behind the ad (e.g. the target audience, the positioning, the brand
essence), explaining what in the ad has led you to deduce this. Consider other suitable
media for communicating this message, justifying your choice.

Advertising is a “non-personal promotion paid for by an identified sponsor” (Marian Burk

Wood, 2007, p.246)
GTI is Volkswagen’s own tuning brand. They just tune Volkswagen cars before they are sold
to individuals. GTI got famous with the Golf, but nowadays they tune every Volkswagen type.
The advert for the Volkswagen GTI was created by the agency “Ogilvy” in South Africa. It
shows the vision of a driver in the style of a butt. This advertisement initially indicates the
speed of the car, as it compares the car with a bullet. The advert does not show the product,
which indicates that it is a reminding advert, in order to keep the product in the consumer’s
minds. However, there are a lot more things this advertisement says about the product and
the brand.

STP, (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) is the process of narrowing down from all
segments to one segment. It identifies the one segment, whose needs are met by a firm’s
product.
Market Segmentation is defined as “the process of grouping consumers or businesses within
a market into segments based on similarities in needs, attitudes or behaviour that marketing
can address. At that stage, everyone with a driver’s license can be targeted at. This is the
main segment that is relevant for the car market. After the segmentation is done the target
market has to be identified.
Targeting is the “determination of the specific market segments to be served, order of entry
into the segment and coverage within segments” (Marian Burk Wood, 2007, p.253).
Targeting involves the evaluation of the segmentation variable picked, and also to narrow it
down, thus identifying the target market. The Target Audience of the GTI can be clarified
when the advert is analysed. The advert is very simple structured with just two colours: black
and a very light brown, which appear like a little bit dirty white. This is against the newest
trends, in which everyone wants to have everything clean and white e.g. an IPod. The black,
which in most cultures represents some kind of evil or mystic events, indicates that the car is
“evil”. Thus the advert reflects that the brand is unconventional, young, and male.
Volkswagen’s overall target group is also very young. They try to concentrate on the 18-24
year olds (http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/). This fact is supported that the advert shows a
butt, which indicates that the car is as fast as a bullet. This appeals much more to men than
women, because they are more likely to drive fast, and are more likely to like guns. It also
indicates an aggressiveness of the driver. The fact that this advert shows a city indicates that
the driver is urban, which also fits that the size of the car itself is small and designed for the
city. The fact that it has a stronger motor than the normal golf, but looks nearly the same
indicates that the driver is rather inconspicuous, because he does not want to show the
power. The inconspicuousness is reflected by the advert, by not having a claim and just
using to stark contrasting colours. The fact that Volkswagen is a German car, and that
German products have the reputation to have good quality, can be said, that the driver
values quality. As there are many meetings of GTI drivers, it can be assumed that the
consumer is brand loyal. Brand loyalty is “Preference by a consumer for a particular brand
that results in continual purchase of it” (http://en.mimi.hu). In conclusion can be said, that the
Target Audience of the GTI is young, male with a drivers license, who is unconventional, an
aggressive driver, urban, discrete, loyal and values quality. These characteristics can also be
transferred to the Jennifer Aakers self-expression model.
Positioning is the “use of marketing to create a competitively distinctive place (position) for
the product or brand in the mind of a target market” (Marian Burk Wood, 2007, p.251). Thus
the adverts have to meet the needs of the identified target groups, and the products have to
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live up to expectations of the customers. The firm has to differentiate from competitors and
has to try to find a niche – a position in the market.

Brand Essence Analysis Quadrants

Functions Personality
Drive Sporty
Travelling Urban
Sports Emotional
Unconventional
Exiting
Authentic
appealing

Brand Essence

Performance Source of Authority

Inconspicuous sports car Sports car for the people Motor of the A3/A4
Good quality GTI fan meetings (youtube.com)
Hype around the car German quality (dw-world.de)
Everyone knows the car Car not shown in advert

The grid above shows the brand essence of the GTI. It is obviously very similar to the brand
essence of Volkswagen, just that it is much more “male-oriented” and emotional. The
function of a GTI is like every function of a car driving and travelling. Whereas Volkswagen
describes their personality as “authentic, human, clear, appealing and open” the personality
of the GTI is slightly different. It is more sporty and therefore more unconventional and
exiting than the normal Golf. The performance of the GTI is, that there is a hype around that
car, and that most drivers become completely brand loyal. The only thing that might be bad
in the brand essence is, that the GTI is an inconspicuous sports car. Inconspicuousness is
not favourable for sports cars, because most people buy them, to attract attention. The fact
that the car is not shown in the advert indicates that everyone knows the car anyway, so that
they do not need to.

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Brand Personality is the “collection of attributes giving a brand a recognisable unique quality.
May be the result of contrived marketing action or an accident of market
perception”(http://en.mimi.hu/) The Table below shows the personalities of the brand GTI:

B rand P ersonality

S incerity E xcitem ent C om petence S ophistication R uggedness

D ow n to E arth D aring R eliable U pper C lass O utdoorsy

H onest S pirited Intelligent C harm ing Tough
W holesom e Im aginative S uccessful
C heerful U p-to-D ate

The Brand Personality of the GTI in respect to the Self-expression Model can be identified as
sincere, exiting and competent. The GTI is sincere, because it looks like a VW Golf, which
was build more than 25 million times, a middle class-down to earth car, which is very
inconspicuous and can be seen in our everyday lives. This makes the brand to be down to
earth and honest. However, as it is the sports version of an everyday car, it is also exiting,
especially spirited and with new versions always up-to-date. The Quality, the GTI has the
motor as the Audi A3/A4, makes the brand look competent.

The strategy behind the advertisement is to remind the people of the GTI. The Advert shows
in an obvious exaggerated way the advantages of the GTI. The metaphor that the car is a
bullet, and the street is the butt clearly emphasises that the biggest advantage of the GTI
over his competitors is the speed. The pop art/comic design, which got recently very popular
again, indicates that it is a modern car with a long tradition. In the long run there could be
more images to extend the design and the differentiation.

There are ways to integrate communications to promote the speed of the car, and also
playing with the image of the butt. This is called integrated marketing communications (IMC)
and is defined as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by
a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and
consistent over time. (wikipedia.com)” There could be and online game, in which the player
has to shoot at butts, on which are images of streets. This would target the players of
“minigames” who play them during lunch break in the office, and would certainly increase the
awareness. They could also release a toy gun, in which the bullet is replaced by a GTI. This
could then be shot at a track, in the style of a “Hotwheels” game. This would target the
children, who like to play with cars, to promote the car to the next generation. For outdoor
promotions, they could rebuild the print advertisement by building the lines of the butt in a
half circle over the motorway, so that it looks like to the drivers that they are heading at a
butt. This would increase the brand awareness in the whole population and would especially
target the ones who own a drivers license. Another outdoor promotion could be to build faked
electricity pylons next to a motorway, that are very close to each other, a lot closer than real
ones would be. This would look like to the driver, when he passes the pylons that he is
driving very fast. At the end of the pylons a print advert in the corporate identity would say “a

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taste of the GTI feeling”. This promotion would promote the speed of the car. A TV advert
could be produced in the same style as the print advert. The audience would see through the
driver’s eyes, him racing through the city, which is drawn in the same design. The sound
would be at first the sound of a fired gun, and then the sound of a racing car. In the end the
screen turns black, and the GTI sign appears. This would support the print advert, as it is
done in the same style and does not use any words. Therefore it would help to increase the
brand awareness.

In conclusion can be said, that the advert successfully targets the target groups without using
any words. The brand GTI manages it to clearly differentiate from the mother brand
Volkswagen although the products look alike. However, due to the binding to Volkswagen,
will it be hard for the brand to attract a new target group.

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Bibliography:
• Essential Guide to marketing planning, Marian Burk Wood, FT Prentice Hall, 2007
• Principles of Marketing 4th edition, Philip Kotler, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005
• How Advertising works - the Role of Research, John Philip Jones, Sage Publications,
1998
• Avertising, Ray Wright, FT Prentice Hall, 2000
• Principles of Marketing 2nd edition, F. Brassingtion / S. Pettitt, FT Prentice Hall, 2000
• Marketing Communications Classics, M. FitzGerald / D. Arnott, Business Press, 2000
• http://www.volkwagen-marketing.com
• http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_aaker_brand_personality_framewo
rk.html
• http://en.mimi.hu/marketingweb/brand_personality.html
• http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/04/double_marketin.html
• http://www.sibagraphics.com/colour.php
• http://en.mimi.hu/marketingweb/brand_loyalty.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEGRCitGIvU
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Marketing_Communications
• http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3055219,00.html