Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign for Volkswagen Divorce Commercial

This report analyzes the integrated marketing communications campaign for Volkswagen's divorce commercial, including target audience, communication objectives, evaluation methods, and media channels.

Student number
Module name and number: Integrated marketing communications campaign
Word count
Campaign title: VW (Divorced) 1993
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Table of Contents
A. PROPOSAL........................................................................................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
Target audience and develop appropriate objectives..............................................................3
Target audience..................................................................................................................3
Communication objectives..................................................................................................4
Critically evaluate current multi-channel campaigns.............................................................4
Campaigns and channels deployed.....................................................................................4
Marketing communications tools, channels, media, and creative elements...........................5
Original organising idea....................................................................................................5
Media decisions..................................................................................................................6
The link across all communication channels......................................................................7
Creative solutions aligned to the campaign organising idea.............................................8
Methods for the on-going evaluation of the campaign...........................................................8
B. REFLECTION.......................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................12
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A. PROPOSAL
Introduction
Integrated marketing communication is referred to as a critical role in the area of
automobile marketing. The automobile purchase based on consumers over the product
qualities and features like reliability, price, durability, quality, brand image, and style. There
are many IMC tools offered to consumers that include all details (Završnik and Jerman,
2016). For Volkswagen, these tools of IMC offer the information and also help in developing
the image, which could appeal to the targeted audiences. Volkswagen applies every tool of
IMC to include the promotional mix for marketing vehicles (Završnik and Jerman, 2016).
The company also try to advertise magazines, TV, and newspapers with an aim to develop,
build as well as reinforce the brand image and awareness. Volkswagen also applies the direct
marketing tool to increase the interest of targeted audiences.
Direct marketing might cover the direct mail, like DVD’s, brochures, as well as
promotional offers to consumers. In this, the internet also plays an essential role in
automobile marketers. It is analysed that the internet has also become a significant IMC tool,
as consumers investigate the automobile queries and concern about the same on the internet.
Staying over the top of the marketing channels, Volkswagen is able to achieve success
(Završnik and Jerman, 2016). This report will analyse Volkswagen divorce commercial, came
in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaGgyCabPE and
will examine its object, target audiences, communication channels, and methods of
evaluation.
Target audience and develop appropriate objectives
Target audience
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Divorce is considered as the type of unhappy subject which advertisers like to ignore.
But in past years, divorce has come up as backdrop in marketers and advertising and is
identified by millions of couples all over the world, who want to dissolve their marriage life
(Autocar, 2015). Many advertising companies like Nissan Motor, Volkswagen, Volvo and
Ikea has applied the divorce in some of the other poignancy. Through the Volkswagen
commercial, the company target the couples of America who want to take divorce or has
chosen to feel good about themselves and be happy (Kidd, 2012).
Communication objectives
The objective of Volkswagen is to meet the considerable audience base by reflecting
the actual life as well as actual situations. For the company Volkswagen, this idea is to move
around the feeling of having new start or beginning by its 1993 commercial, which introduces
the Passet as mentioned by the spokesman of Volkswagen (Barth, 2013).
It’s a popular fact that there are around 43% of marriages which actually end up in
divorce. In context to this, Volkswagen has tried to make this whole situation light in this
depressing topic smartly (Barth, 2013). Through the company iconic advertisement, which
features Paula Hamilton as a model, who actually feel happy in disposing of her engagement
and wedding, her necklace as well as a fur coat.
But when she was about to throw her car keys, she realised that the Volkswagen car is
not something to ignore, as it’s something worth to go on the ride. This advertisement shows
the escapism of the model as well as a great pleasure (Ad age advertising century: the top 100
campaigns, 2018). This is something every person seeking a divorce can depend on, and all
this they actually need for.
Volkswagen, through this commercial, clearly shows the confidence of happiness by
its car. For a long time, this advertisement has come up with the tagline,’ if only thing reliable
in life, its Volkswagen’ (Volkswagen on D.I.V.O.R.C.E, 2017).
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Critically evaluate current multi-channel campaigns
Campaigns and channels deployed
The campaign was reached to mass audiences by the traditional mass media, which is
television as well as through an interactive channel, which is the internet. The selection of
media, as well as scheduling, has proven as necessary in the campaign case.
In the context of television like the communication channel, Volkswagen divorce
commercial has aired around two times: it was aired first time in 1993, which was just the
half-year before the launch of the product and next time it was shown only before Passat and
was shown to the public. Volkswagen divorce commercial was the highly watched
commercial in America each year, and it’s in reach of more than 111 million by the year 2011
(Volkswagen on D.I.V.O.R.C.E, 2017). The space of advertising during the event of the sport
was very costly every year, and the cost might go ten times more as compared to the normal
time spot. On the other sides, in spite of the huge factors, the quality of advertising is quite
high along with its volume; it is highly argued whether to recognise or recall the brands to get
suffer because of the increasing impact of clutter (Lauro, 2010).
This campaign went viral before it came on television. It made use of YouTube as
their online platform for four days, just before the commercial and this help the company in
generating around 12.4 million viewers before it got aired online. Nevertheless, this outcome
was not being able to achieve without communication with the viewer as well as with active
behaviour, as the internet content these days is hugely passed and shred over social media
networks, like Twitter and Facebook (Original Volkswagen beetle ads through history, 2010).
Still, this type of creative strategy of Volkswagen divorce commercial has the significant
effect over such kind of active public involvement since the ad messages hold the increased
capability to provide entertainment and attain success over the interactive internet
environment (Armitage, 2017).
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Marketing communications tools, channels, media, and creative elements
Original organising idea
The original idea behind this commercial was to tackle the taboo subject, and there is
no surprise that this topic was discussed with the involvement of the agency. The agency
involved in making the short film was remarkable about the divorce for the automobile
company, Volkswagen. It was a great piece of work, which is depicted beautifully and also
show sadness (Armitage, 2017). The commercial titled Volkswagen divorce also won many
awards in the same year 1993. Ikea also telecasts this type of commercial under their massive
advertisement campaign in their home country (Armitage, 2017).
Thomas Bjerg, who is the CRO of AdFreak mentioned about the Volkswagen
commercial that this type of ad campaign is usually tapping under the emotional truth behind
the cars, rather than showing the practical advantages or either feature (Armitage, 2017). The
same also indicates the real as well as appropriate human circumstances, which are taking
place in the world, whether the advertisers want to accept it or they don’t want to receive it
(Bülbül and Menon, 2010).
Media decisions
The Volkswagen marketers understand that people spend much of their time in
accessing the internet, and this has come up as the right tool for conducting the integrated
marketing as well as customers apply the same on internet to explore different items, and are
entirely aware of the items before making any deal to purchase it or inquire about it (Bülbül
and Menon, 2010). The advertisements are placed over the best websites as well as blogging
sites, where these small commercial are termed as Skybus, where this connection take
customers to the website of company and depict different details about the items, which
Volkswagen provide to their customers and depict various types of options, such as handling
with finances and dealerships (Bülbül and Menon, 2010). The web pages also include the
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interactive characteristics, such as selecting the colours and different option and extra
accessorises and cost of additional fittings (Bülbül and Menon, 2010).
Volkswagen also makes use of social media networks such as Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook for the purpose of social media marketing. This kind of marketing campaign offers
the extra benefits to the organisation as such promotions are not so costly when it’s compared
with advertisements shown on TV commercials and on YouTube. Gross rating points are too
high for these promotional, and GRP is estimated through multiplying the approach or
average of the targeted customers, who have viewed the ad just once with the high per cent of
frequency, it referred as the average number the targeted customers viewed the advertisement
within the guaranteed time slot. Other traditional marketing channels used by Volkswagen
were emailers, pop-up advertisements, online advertisements and social media platform like
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are among the popular one.
Marketers understand that the individuals who make use of social media platforms
like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, also make use of website each day (Feldman and
Dorsett, 2012). Other significant websites that are used by Volkswagen under the media
advertising campaign is the YouTube because all the advertisements that come over the
YouTube also try to yield the increase per cent of the GRP as the individuals that use
YouTube is going quite high.
The link across all communication channels
Volkswagen integrated communication plan is highly efficient in communicating the
brand value of the company and will help in increasing the relation with Golf and help in
fulfilling the expectations of the target market. In this POC schematic is applied for setting
the protocol through which advertisements are shown on media channels. The relation of
attributes with the brand/product is efficient in developing the product reputation (Fener,
2010). The company believe that promotional ways help in fulfilling the marketing objectives
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as well as help in driving high sales. The purpose of promotional strategy is mainly to market
the Volkswagen Golf, which relies on the company core values. Every tool support customers
in exploring the core value of the company; as a result of this, it influences both behaviour
and attitude. This is quite contrary to the present promotional strategy in emphasising the
offerings made by-products (Jeong, Kim and Zhao, 2011). While doing such things, this is
highly effective in attracting the inner self of customers and influence over purchase
decisions.
Creative solutions aligned to the campaign organising idea
Volkswagen has selected to invoke the right emotional and affective appeal instead of
demonstrated and informational appeal. Mainly this strategy can be explained like the
abstract effective, which means loyalty that induces the emotion, instead of strong concrete
emotions impacting the happiness or excitement, and it is also believed that it’s quite
effective in developing the behavioural intentions for an extended period as compared with
tangible impact or either rational appeal (Nail, 2017).
As per the case of Volkswagen divorce commercial, the core strategy of
communication was that ‘everyone deserves to have the best car’, the strategy of showing
human stories showed that. Such a story was quite simple, and the message is also on-sided
as well as close-ended. The technique of slice of life was applied by Volkswagen, in which
the story is initiated with real-life character and the item is applied or interacted, that means it
is honest and involves with the direct communication with customers of targeted audiences
(Percy and Elliot, 2015).
Methods for the on-going evaluation of the campaign
The campaign of Volkswagen has come up as quite effective, as it was able to
outperform it’s all objectives. As per the case of Volkswagen divorce commercial, it was
analysed that this commercial lead between all the campaigns of competitors in the context of
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a creative appeal, memorability as well as message and brand communication (Rogers, 2012).
This commercial was able to receive various awards as well as accolades through essential
rating services such as professional worldwide and commercials.org for identifying the
advertising awards and publications. It was mentioned by the common source that this
campaign attained success and was recognized as the highest viewed advertisement
internationally in 2011, with around 46 million viewers (Taylor, 2019). This advertisement
was the auto advertisement of all the time and was also shared over the branded videos with
approximately 4.71 million shares on the social media platform. This commercial even had
55.5 million viewers in 2013 on YouTube. Various other sources like the authority
ineffectiveness of advertising assist the statement and mention that commercial was quickly
able to come across the clutter of auto adverts during the launch of Volkswagen commercial
that same year and also managed to score around 10% more than average advert of car, which
was created during that event (Welch, 2010).
In the context of the sales objective, it is analysed that the campaign was entirely
supportive in increasing the actual launch target through around 22%. Still, simultaneously, it
also assisted in increasing the sales of many other Volkswagen models, which lead to an
increase of 24% in the first months of the year 2011 (Williams, 2011). This type of tendency
look to go regularly since the sales of Volkswagen in America, which increased by 26$ in the
two years and the Volkswagen car demand also increased.
Other brands, apart from rivals can learn from the advertising strategy of Volkswagen
and their campaigns on how to get involved with the targeted audiences by good storytelling
and application of different traditional and internet media in an effective manner (Wojcik,
2016). This campaign came up as an example of how the theoretical frameworks are not
appropriate in attaining the set objectives and as per Deutsch CEO the main reason why the
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customers purchased the Volkswagen model was that the company was not trying to sell their
products.
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B. REFLECTION
I believe that people make use of different language as the symbols for the purpose of
communication with others and for building the relationship. This identification came
through DR. Kidd lectures, which mention that identification result through common base
one explore when they communicate with each other and view the world. As per Burke,
there are three main possessions, such as philosophical, physical as well as experiential. The
author had mentioned that identification built when one selected to move around common
possessions. I believe that persuader is the one who explores and the one who want to follow,
and the one from whom we can take advice admire and copy their actions.
According to the ad theory the Volkswagen divorce commercial of 1993 started by
showing the lady who got the divorce, and is so happy that she wants to throw her necklace,
ring and her fur coat, but when she suddenly tries to throw her car keys, she realised that this
car is worth keeping, on which she can hang out and enjoy her happiness of coming out of
relation, which went meaningless with time. This ad depicted that the old social norms and
persuade the targeted customers, middle and upper-class families by showing that new
beginning is good, and all should happily accept it. This ad depicted the theory of Burke
identification, which includes possession which is the vehicle of sports utility, experiential
that depict divorce person; physical that shows inconvenience, as well as philosophical that
shows own happiness is important. Another theory of Postman distortion of reality is
implemented in more than 80% of the advertisements. It is assumed by the theory that
powerful media often create influence on the viewers. The theory is related to ads and not
just relate to social science theory, which is updated. The theory mentions that commercials
help in teaching the youngsters about three main things, such as that every issue should be
solved; problems can be quickly resolved, and technology can be made in use for solving the
problems.
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The advertisement tries to reinforce the stereotype of society that want people to stay
in relation, instead of breaking it. I have learned from the above report and the case that many
marriages are ending with divorce. In the context of this, Volkswagen has come up with their
ad that makes the complete situation very light. Through the iconic ad depict the model, who
happily try to dispose of her engagement ring. I believe that this commercial not only gains
success for the company but also pass on the important message in society to accept the
things and go for a new beginning.
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References
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Nail, J. (2017). Visibility vs Surprise: Which Drives the Greatest Discussion of Super Bowl
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