For my brand project this semester, my biggest focus ended up being Audi's shift in positioning from marketing just to the power elite to also including younger, urban consumers. The Simmons data told a really interesting story about the shift in demographics toward this new demographic, with Audi's median age of 40 being one of the youngest on the American luxury car market. After researching Audi's brand messaging, it became obvious it was a conscious and successful effort to achieve this brand repositioning strategy. However, the manner in which Audi did it is pretty interesting to say the least.
It's no secret that one of the best ways to target younger consumers is to have an effective social media presence. Younger demographics are heavy users of this medium, and you would have thought that Audi probably forged a competitive advantage in order to help target affluent but young individuals. However, its social media usage is really conventional and not very differentiated from other competition, with the big focus simply being on the different models available and the highlighting of utilitarian features that make Audi a high-performance car. This can certainly be a safe but solid strategy, however it's not something that would likely turn a younger person's head. In fact, when viewing the social media metrics in the kodiak folder for Audi, their engagement is actually pretty underwhelming except for at one point: the Superbowl.
Audi has done a great job of launching high profile and captivating Superbowl advertisements that seem to resonate with younger viewers. Ads such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdwWONi2FrI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diU_09jb4bI are Superbowl ads that caused a positive stir after being aired, injecting a sense of excitement and inspiration to the Audi brand that was previously not as present.
What I find really interesting about this approach is Audi actually used a classic (and some might even argue outdated) approach to try and connect with a younger audience that tends to be more receptive of newer wave, digitally focused marketing tactics. Audi's increasing sales and decreasing median age just go to show that classic strategies can still work on the younger consumers that many companies have struggled to reach; as long as the right message and right execution are demonstrated at the right time.
Chris, this is interesting to me because for my brand (Mini Cooper) BMW also had to change their positioning in order to appeal to different consumers. Originally the Mini was marketed to the masses and everyone was able to afford it. But as BMW came out with a new model they shifted away from marketing a car to "the average joe" and towards those who could afford a more luxury model car. It is my assumption that BMW wanted to market the Mini as more of a status symbol in order to build up the Minis' reputation as a high quality car associated with the BMW name.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting, I know a lot of brands changed the positioning of their campaigns to target a specific target market. I think that Audi did an excellent job marketing to the power elite group. Their 2016 Super Bowl commercial targeted this market but also gained a lot of buzz from consumers outside of this market.
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