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Audi adjusts to American way
Carmaker wants to widen reach of its U.S. market with more provocative advertising.
WASHINGTON -- Audi of America is mounting an effort to reshape its image away from world-class German engineering to be "more American," its top U.S. executive said Wednesday.
Johan de Nysschen, executive vice president in charge of Audi of America -- the Auburn Hills subsidiary of German-based Volkswagen, said the company wants to reposition its brand as it targets two key growth areas: North America and Asia, especially China, India and Japan.
"The U.S. is not a province of Germany," de Nysschen said, saying the company needs to be "more American" in its marketing strategy -- more provocative and less about simply German engineering.
"We need to be a little more bold and little more American" and drop European reticence about self-promotion, de Nysschen said. "We need to punch him on the nose."
Last week, Audi held a first round of talks with advertising agencies and will hold a final round in Los Angeles next month. It plans to announce its choice of advertising agency before the end of the year.
Edward A. Riordan, a professor of automotive marketing at Wayne State University, said Audi's strategy is similar to what BMW has tried to do.
"BMW is the model for this campaign," Riordan said. "They've exhausted the German engineering shtick and the natural movement is to combine lifestyle with performance."
Audi plans to sponsor events like fashion shows as it emphasizes the lifestyle of Audi owners. Its customers are mostly self-made affluent people who are younger and more likely to have a college-degree than those of its well-heeled luxury competitors, he said.
"We know who our customers are; we just need more of them," he said.
Audi is a company run by engineers; there is even a "nose team" to ensure that new Audis smell like Audis should smell, he said.
U.S. Audi sales are up 4.1 percent this year and the company is on track to report its best-ever U.S. sales year, with around 85,000 vehicles sold.
The company expects to sell about 90,000 vehicles next year as it rolls out a second-generation TT among other new vehicles. Worldwide, Audi sales are up 8.7 percent, with 757,700 vehicles sold; it hopes globally to sell 1.4 million vehicles annually by 2015.
Between 2005 and 2007, Audi is introducing 19 new products. A decade ago, it had four models and four derivatives; by next year it will have eight models and 20 derivatives.
Audi is also opening Audi Forum stores to emphasize the experience of driving and owning an Audi; it opened its first U.S. Forum in New York City in October and will open one in Tokyo this year. It will open another 11 worldwide next year.
It also will introduce at least one more SUV and possibly a third, among several new models. Audi also plans to announce a new diesel vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month, with de Nysschen saying that diesel was a better way to end oil dependence than hybrids or vehicles that run on biofuels.
Source: DETNews
