Volkswagen's 'Think Small' Marketing Campaign

This assignment examines Volkswagen's iconic 'Think Small' marketing campaign launched in the 1960s. It delves into the campaign's purpose, designed to differentiate the Beetle from larger American cars amidst a post-war automotive landscape. The analysis focuses on the strategic communication methods employed, including television advertisements and print ads with minimalist black-and-white imagery and impactful headlines like 'Think Small.' The assignment highlights how this unconventional approach successfully positioned the Beetle and contributed to its popularity in the US market.

Running head: BRAND MANAGEMENT
Volkswagen “Think Small”
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Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
“Think Small” Campaign................................................................................................................2
Purpose of the Campaign.................................................................................................................3
Main Marketing Communication Strategy......................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
Brand management is the most fruitful method of establishing a strong customer base and
achieving the competitive advantage. Volkswagen is not an exception in developing the unique
marketing campaign for the target customers. Currently, the company has been focusing on
improving the car quality, design, and specifications to improve the market positioning in this
competitive scenario (Couch et al., 2017). Therefore, the development of unique marketing
strategy is quite necessary for the company.
“Think Small” Campaign
Volkswagen, the renowned automobile company has been maintaining the fruitful
marketing campaign ideas to establish the commendable brand image (Volkswagen-media-
services.com, 2017). Such remarkable marketing campaign is called “Think Small”, which has
captured the attention of the target customers in a significant way. This marketing campaign is
considered as one of the best advertising schemes developed in 20th century (Holm, 2016). The
campaign provides the accurate reflection of the products that are to be offered to the target
customers. The ‘Beetle’ car is introduced in a black and white ad, which is considered as the new
type of simplicity. This ad campaign consisted of two major headlines, such as “Lemon” and
“Think Small” (Uncc.edu, 2017). The creative campaign set up presented the superior campaign
to beat the market position of DDB. The company concentrated on developing this campaign by
concentrating on three aspects, such as less explanatory, reflective of the products being
advertised, and more creative. The study would present the ideas about the purpose of adopting
this marketing campaign and the means of communication to develop such initiative.

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Purpose of the Campaign
The unique marketing campaign is the key to attract more consumers towards the brand
or the products. Volkswagen is not an exception in such regards. It has been observed that fifteen
years after World War II, Americans became much obsessed with the muscle cars that were
being built for the growing baby boomer generations and the families (Hortlik, 2014). It was
noticed that during the post World War period, the Volkswagen Beetle was slow and small in
compare to the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) and German Car (Scholz, 2014). The development
of this campaign helped in making it the reason of improvement in American automobile
industry. It is notable that the advertisement campaigns undertaken by the automobile industry is
mainly focusing on providing more information rather than persuading the customers to purchase
any specific products (Rebecca & Hanna, 2017). Volkswagen team found this unique campaign
more appropriate to present the car features to the target consumers and increase the sales ratio
accordingly. The “Think Small” campaign is developed much differently to provide the adequate
knowledge about the car features and attract the customers largely.
Main Marketing Communication Strategy
The company has selected the advertisement procedure for developing this marketing
campaign. The customers receive the information about the product features through TV ads and
creative demonstration strategy. This advertisement process includes the highlights of the one
featured and small picture of the car with an attractive headline, “Think Small” (Liu, Zhang &
Keh, 2017). These texts highlight the clear comparison between the Beetle and Big American
Cars. The television advertisement undertaken by Volkswagen is also quite impressive. The
attractive photography and the demonstration videos focusing on the car features are also quite
helpful marketing communication strategy selected by Volkswagen.

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References
Couch, K., Dilts, K., Ferguson, R., Fisher, L., O’Malley, S., & Uhlending, S. (2017).
Volkswagen Brand Audit.
Holm, N. (2016). 7 Art for Fun and Profit. Explorations in Critical Studies of Advertising, 97,
97.
Hortlik, J. (2014). International Communication Strategies of Volkswagen.
Liu, L., Zhang, J., & Keh, H. T. (2017). Event-Marketing And Advertising Expenditures: The
Differential Effects On Brand Value and Company Revenue. Journal of Advertising
Research, JAR-2017.
Rebecca, R., & Hanna, B. (2017). When integrated Marketing Communication Leads to Brand
Avoidance: A qualitative study on why consumers actively avoid certain brands because
of their marketing communication efforts.
Scholz, N. (2014). The People’s Car: A Global History of the Volkswagen Beetle.
Uncc.edu, (2017). “Think Small” Advertising Campaign | Visual Rhetoric. [online] Clas-
pages.uncc.edu. Available at:
<https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/visualrhetoric/projects/individual-projects/think-small-
advertising-campaign/> [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].
Volkswagen-media-services.com, (2017). [online] Available at: <https://www.volkswagen-
media-services.com/en/detailpage/-/detail/Live-every-moment--Volkswagen-starts-
marketing-campaign-for-the-new-up/view/

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3937328/6502d167d1a62bb5eaac2b391886d1b7?p_p_auth=xt3WpYGA> [Accessed 16
Nov. 2017].