VOLKSWAGEN - THINK SMALL

Volkswagen - Think Small



Volkswagen - Think Small

Introduction

The “Think Small' ad campaign done by Doyle Dane Bernbach for the company of Volkswagen proved to be the most successful of ads of the twentieth century. The “Think Small” was an advertising campaign designed for Beetle car of Volkswagen. It was written by Julian Koeing and created by Helmut Kronefor at the Doyle Dane Bernbach (also known as DDB) agency in the year 1962 (Hiott, 2012, pp. 43).

This campaign not only brought success to the agency, but also changed the dynamics of marketing and the way advertisements worked back in the 1960s. Due to this reason, the ad did much more than drastically boost sales of the company; it created brand loyalty among customers (Hiott, 2012, pp. 105).

Background

The years that followed the end of World War II, transformed the United States into World's superpower, making it the world leader in consumer superpower as well. At that time, cars were built keeping materialism in mind and they were aimed at those who wanted luxury in their vehicles. The advertising agencies focused on showing audience what they could 'expect' from the cars, but all of that was not necessarily true (Hiott, 2012, pp. 201). They were just trying to please the customers because they knew that America was obsessed with muscle cars. On the other hand, a small and compact car was created at a plant built by Nazis in Germany. The small size of the car and the fact that it was manufactured in Germany were the facts that made the car challenging to sell. During that era, the traditional advertisements were focused on giving customers as much information as possible about the product, and following this strategy they emphasized on a fantasy world rather than a real one (Hiott, 2012, pp. 189).

Marketing Campaign - Think Small

The ads for this campaign were very carefully and intelligently designed as they mostly had blank space, with a small picture of the Beetle. This diverted the attention of the viewer immediately to the car, and brought its compact size in limelight. It challenged the concept previously held that the cars had to be luxurious and large in size (Dobkin, 2008, pp. 25). The message given through the ad was to tell the customer that the company was being itself, and was not trying to formulate the ad on basis of fantasy, luring customers to expect what was not there in reality. Thus, the most important lesson that can be learnt from this campaign is that companies should not try to sell products or services that are not real (Dobkin, 2008, pp. 79). Therefore, the top priority for companies should be honesty as it is for their customers.

Strengths

The most noticeable strength of this ad campaign lied in the strategy followed by DDB that the main aim of advertising is to persuade the customer and persuasion in itself is an art, and not a science. Following these lines, the agency broke the norms ...