Re: [T3] Brand loyalty

[Steven Ayres <comwest@att.net>]

<x-flowed>MarkF=> Why would VW (or any other maker) want to support and
=> encourage your continued driving of an antique model?

It's a reasonable question, worth thinking about. I think the answer 
lies somewhere in the neighborhood of the antique concept of 'brand 
loyalty.'

My father bought his first Pontiac Bonneville in '72, and with one 
regretted exception has been exclusively loyal to that model ever since. 
I'd expect that he's the best kind of customer the automakers can hope 
for, and they work hard to create them.

Everyone who drives in America has seen the 'piss on 
Ford/Chevy/whatever' stickers on pickup trucks, etc.  Clearly automotive 
brands can carry emotional appeal beyond the specific products. Most of 
us on this list, I have no doubt, own articles of clothing and other 
paraphernalia carrying the VW logo. Would it be a stretch to infer that 
we are more likely to look longer at VW's new products and press 
releases? I don't think so.

It's clearly true that the usual expression of brand loyalty has changed 
since my father's generation, but manufacturers in every industry still 
work to cultivate it and adapt to this moving target. So I think it's 
far from a dead letter. I'd be willing to bet a buck that of the 
late-model cars owned by members of this list, a significant number are 
Volkswagens, and those VWs were bought in large part due to brand loyalty.

A large component of brand loyalty, I'm sure, is the consumer's image of 
the company as a whole; if it's seen as predatory or uncaring, it's 
easier to walk away, and if it's seen as friendly, 'on our side', it can 
inspire fierce loyalty. So I have no doubt that GM's approach to the 
old-car market is based firmly in economic self-interest. So we come to 
the question: why has VW decided differently?

If we accept that outreach to old-car owners is sensibly designed to 
create brand loyalty and new sales, we also have to look at whether 
we're the customers that VW wants. I think that answer is different for 
us relative to the GM muscle-car guys, for example.

Muscle-car guys are, by and large (and speaking as a muscle-car owner 
myself), spending for speed and image, and therefore more motivated by 
style and technology, they're mainstream in their tastes, e.g. NASCAR, 
and they're more likely to operate the old car for occasional fun or 
just tinkering.

By and large, we are pointedly iconoclastic, old-school and frugal. 
We're more likely to drive our cars daily, and we are loyal to the 
simplicity of our cars and the freedom from debt and dependency they 
represent. Not the best market for a new Jetta, I think.

We would all like it better if VW supported our cars better. But let's 
face it, to them we're a small, weird group in a foreign country, not 
unlike owners of '50s Dodges in Cuba. It looks like most of us just 
don't want what VW sells, so why bother? Given some organized effort 
nationwide to build a convincing argument that old VW drivers could be 
effectively brand-loyal to new VWs, that might change. But today's VW 
did not make our cars, indeed bears a name-only relationship to that 
company. I personally think we can do better on our own.

Steven Ayres, Prescott AZ
'66 KG1600

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