Comments on: Parking as Positioning (from the Audi A4)

By: Stig Richards

Stig Richards — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:53:05 +0000

I admit to liking the response strategy and I think it likely the execution came from clean thinking but it had been done before (in the 80's, with the driest ever voiceover, an extra stunt or two, and no self parking competitor to contend with): Just for a bit of nostalgic fun: http://youtube.com/watch?v=LbSdF_bVgmE

By: Imethisguy

Imethisguy — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:10:04 +0000

There is also the Hyundai ad making the comparison with the Lexus.
The 'manual parking' and many thousands of dollars cheaper Hyundai zips past the 'automatic parking' Lexus, with the smug, rich executive type impressing his trophy wife (trophy mistress?) by having his car park for him. She's getting all gooey.
Lexus seems to be the target of choice these days. It used to be the Germans.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:20:58 +0000

Adam:

Audi's slogan was not "Progress Through Technology", but was the German original "Vorsprung durch Technik". It has been an essential part of their image in English-speaking countries that their slogan is written in German, and not in English; this marks the brand as German. I know how crucial this was for their positioning from having run focus groups in the 1990s on consumer attitudes to local and foreign manufactured goods, which found consumer perceptions of Japanese and German manufacturing quality well above those of other countries.

Moreover, as used in actual daily life in Germany, the word "Technik" in this phrase would be better translated into English as "applying technology" or even into that wonderful word of marxist political science, "praxis".

At least in Britain, Audi's slogan was much-parodied. For a long time, a civil engineering equipment firm had top-of-the-page ads in the London Financial Times, proclaiming "Vorsprung dirt Technik", and McDonalds UK ran a campaign about their salads with the tagline, "Vorsprung durch Tomato". It is an interesting reflection on McDonalds' own intended positioning that their strategists could imagine that their target demographic would understand a foreign-language allusion to an up-market make of car. But then, it never pays to underestimate the intelligence of your target audience.

By: Adam Richardson

Adam Richardson — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:53:46 +0000

As an addendum to my last comment, the car in front of the Audi is certainly a Lexus, and I think the one behind it is too. Cheeky buggers!

By: Adam Richardson

Adam Richardson — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:50:27 +0000

I love this ad, and not just because I own two Audis Audi's tagline for a long time was "Progress Through Technology" (but in German), and this positioning which you describe so well could be seen as going against that. After all, who wouldn't want progress of the car parking itself? But a more nuanced take on it might be that they are taking a stand on the very definition of "progress" – that a self parking car is not how Audi sees progress, that it is the application of technology in a frivolous way.

By: Tom Asacker

Tom Asacker — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:36:53 +0000

I don't know. I'd love to hear other thoughts. Are Grant and Ron onto something (fascinating and certainly much less costly than 24-36 months of automotive development). Or does Toyota truly know the consumer's true purchase motivations (it's the car, stupid!)

By: Ron Hurst

Ron Hurst — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:07:40 +0000

Grant You propose an interesting perspective on this excellent commercial and branding strategy. The image I have for the Audi brand is that of a high end luxury / sports car. Lexus by comparison by their own brand slogan "The relentless pursuit of excellence" is truely a luxury vehicle.

I should think that BMW affectionado's would be more taken by this advertisement than are Lexus owners. It seems a bit misplaced for me.

I love this commercial and think the stunt is very cool and compelling. I know how to parallel park and as such have no value for Lexus' promotion and find the Audi spot just fun to watch. How will others take it? I suppose it will depend on why they buy Lexus in the first place...

The concept of leveraging one branding strategy to increase your own is fascinating and certainly much less costly than 24-36 months of automotive development.

Great post

Ron

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:32:03 +0000

Grant, lovely post (I've linked to it), but there's a missing block of text that I assume read something like "It mocks the Lexus's" at the start of the paragraph that currently displays as "ability to park itself. " HTML coding problem or an incomplete thought?