- Transcript -
This morning while listening to the radio, I heard a talk show host discuss today’s announcement by Volkswagen that it releasing the world’s fastest car. With 1,001 horsepower and a zero to 62 mph time of 2.5 seconds, this absurd Bugatti automobile will sell for a million dollars and be sold through only a few Bentley dealerships throughout the country because Bentley and Bugatti are both brands owned by VW. The parting comment from the show host asked rhetorically, “Will anyone really buy a $1M Volkswagen?”
I like to look to the automotive industry for case studies on branding since some of the greatest successes and most miserable failures in brand strategy have taken place in this industry. From Ford’s Edsel to Chrysler’s near-death experience and rebirth in the 1980’s under Lee Iacocca to Toyota’s creation of the Lexus luxury brand to Honda’s complete transformation from its initial image as a cheap, small import brand, this industry provides us plenty of branding education.
A brand should offer unique value and promise an experience that cannot be found anywhere else in the market. When you get right down to it, brand strategy is little more than a philosophy toward how a brand should be designed, manufactured, distributed, sold and supported after the sale. The philosophy for each brand should be unique, offer a unique experience, and deliver on that philosophy each and every time.
In this case the guy on the radio got it wrong by asking the wrong question. This car is not a $1M VW or a Bentley. It is unmistakably a Bugatti.
Bugatti obviously has a completely unique philosophy toward its brand. It could never be mistaken for a VW nor will it be. The brands are very clearly differentiated.
I’m not so sure the same could be said about the Chevy, Buick, Pontiac and General Motors brands.
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