No, it's not my father's !#$%@&! Oldsmobile

BusinessPundit is shepherding an interesting debate on branding with links and nodes in all directions, go here for the collection.

Among the conversations, Business Evolutionist poses this conundrum, quoting Al Ries of Positioning fame

Every customer relationship has a "life" - if I can use that as an analogy... the first exposure or purchase might be thought of as "birth"... but how do you determine "death"? A customer leaving might be beyond your control, regardless of how great the experience is. For instance, consider this quote by Al Ries:

"When a guy gets promoted, he doesn't get a more expensive Chevy, He buys a BMW."

At first, I took that quote at face value. It makes sense. But, just because the person buys a BMW instead of a more expensive Chevy, does that mean that he is no longer a customer of Chevy? Might that guy buy a Chevy for his kid when they're old enough? Perhaps he tells others how much he loved his Chevy?

I'd say yes, to the "Chevy for my kid?" hypothetical, leaving aside the fact that we're talking about "Chevy" here. But elsewhere, the conversation advances to the moving target audience question relative to Volkswagen's new luxury drive, the Phaeton.

Tom Asacker commenting at BrandMantra:

But I believe that the Ries' quote is meant to convey his dated idea (my opinion) of positioning. In Ries' opinion, the word Chevy doesn't mean successful to his hypothetical car buyer. And Ries doesn't believe it ever could, because it already occupies a well-established place in the buyer's mind.

In my humble opinion, that's rubbish. Tell me: what position does VW own in the buyer's mind? Small, funky, youthful? Keep an eye on VW's new $80,000 luxury sedan - Phaeton. If it sells - and I obviously believe that it will - then I rest my case. If it doesn't sell, I'll send my apologies to Mr. Ries. ;-)

(In other words, Chevy thought they were selling "Cars." Chevy was wrong.)

Jon Strande - Business Evolutionist replies to Tom:

Tom,

Do you really think positioning is dated? I think it is still a valid concept - owning a place in the persons mind, it makes sense. Perhaps the VW position allows them to sell that car... I don't see it happening, but there are plenty of people out there driving a Passat, so who knows. Why would someone pay that much for the Phaeton when they can get a really nice Mercedes or BMW? I don't buy that it will sell. I also think that they are now trying to appeal to too many people... but, I'm not a marketing or branding person, so who knows.

Phew. Was that enough context for you?

It is an Interesting debate. But I haven't seen one specific and important point raised yet.

VW's market is a subtle "up", but "anti-market". Jettas and Passats compete with Toyotas and Hondas. Even though VW's been around since Dr Porsche was still frisky, since the 60s it's been positioned in America (with some stumbles) as a thinking person's alternative.

To what?

To what everybody else pours themselves into and blobs along in. Who's doing the blobbing? And in what?

"Drivers wanted" was resonance not a job offer. Benz, Lexus, Acura, Infinity, Cadillac (Ugh) are maturing brands of soon-to-be grandparents. The Phaeton has potential with younger professional trade-ups precisely because it's not the car their parents traded up to. Why? That's a tired old path, there are no new statements to be made there, the flags are all planted. It's the nation of Mom and Dadville.

Secondly, their target knows that a "luxury car-maker" resume means bupkis (see the above Cadillac.) That old "who'd pay 80 grand for a VW?" thing doesn't work because it's not a VW, it's "their car", one that expresses what "they feel." It also happens to be from the company that well-expressed what they felt about themselves as 25-year old broke graphic designers or office drones. And that just rationalizes the check-writing even more--although, by this point, the buyer doesn't need much more of that.

Britain's Rover (Not Land Rovers) had this problem in the seventies. What was a move-up, status car when you traded in your Ford Estate or Vauxhall Viva became the stodgy car, the one whose drivers invariably wore tweed hats, and drove at 45 MPH in the passing lane with their blinkers (turn signals) perpetually on. This was almost empirically true if you were observant... "Slow car ahead?" Must be a Rover? Yep. Mercedes had the same trouble in the early 90s. (I helped slightly, advertising-wise, on the earlier redefinition to where they are now.)

Tribal ethnography; generation-shift. I'm sure this is the strategy and sensibility behind the Phaeton. Let's just hope they don't tag it:

Unconventionaly-minded, financially-ascendant, won't drive what their parents wanted.^®

Given their marketing history, that shouldn't be a problem.