DM also gets Opel going
Direct Marketing III With the Signum model and a new design, Opel aims to project a modern and dynamic image. MRM based its accompanying direct marketing launch campaign on this concept.
Direct Marketing III With the Signum model and new design, Opel wants to give itself a modern and dynamic image. MRM's accompanying DM launch measure was geared to this. "The new Opel Signum is waiting for you. And not just anywhere. But directly in front of your door", was announced to selected recipients of a mailing in the summer. It makes nice reading, but it's not the right thing to do in order to regain market share in the hard-fought and declining Swiss car market. Apart from that, GM's premium brand Saab already invited customers to a test drive in a similar campaign in 2001. This type of invitation to an experience suited Saab perfectly and made perfect sense in its niche because of the disproportionate advertising expenditure per car sold.
If the Swedish carmakers were primarily concerned with increasing the efficiency of their advertising franchises, the DM campaign carried out by MRM for the Signum starts at the image level: With the new model - a hybrid of sedan and station wagon - the marketing strategists in Rüsselsheim are going to reposition their solid but well-behaved mainstream brand. The goal at the end of the journey: Opel wants to win a proud 40 percent of new customers.
In order to advance to a dynamic, innovative brand (brand claim: "Fresh thinking for better cars"), the logistic
The DM measure in favor of the new Opel model for the number two among the car brands in Switzerland will be nothing more than a small matter. All the more so if you put it in relation to the model offensive - around 20 new passenger cars are to be realized by 2006 - and the prestigious, luxuriously furnished brand and communication center on Berlin's showpiece street Unter den Linden.
Opel, with over 30,000 new cars sold in 2002 and almost 400 dealers in the MRM portfolio, is an important customer for the Swiss relationship marketing agency MRM from the McCann-Erickson Worldgroup. The task was to support classic advertising media with a dialog campaign. The purpose of the exercise: to generate 500 test drives among the target group of 30- to 50-year-old men with upscale purchasing power throughout Switzerland. To support the premium idea, Group Account Director Martin Bauer agreed with marketing managers Jacques Hansel and Samir Saydjari at Opel in Biel to allow a 24-hour test drive. "Dialog measures often achieve a high recall value and make it possible to have a more targeted and personal effect on the potential customer," says Saydjari.
Complex DM campaignBetween July and September, 14 cars were made available along a "roadshow" route for the targeted 500 test drives. In addition to the usual brochure and price list, MRM added 30000 mailings, the online booking tool - including administration system - and the promotion teams as well as a follow-up mailing with a purchase voucher. On the trade side, MRM handled the prospect and test drive leads with the results of the questionnaire via email. Bauer looks back with satisfaction on the successful DM campaign, which is likely to have significantly supported the planned sales of 1,300 units by the end of 2003. At least in Biel, they seem to be convinced of this, because "the campaign will be repeated with new addresses in spring 2004," says Bauer.
DM in car choiceIn a recent study, the consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst Young examined the influence of different communication media on car purchases. According to the study, only 17 percent of 700 U.S. citizens surveyed were persuaded to choose a particular model by TV commercials.
move. Nearly three times as many (45%), on the other hand, reported moving from
Direct mail to have been influenced. Verbal recommendations perform best (71%).
30000 mailings were to push sales and the image of the Opel brand in Switzerland.
Luca Aloisi
If the Swedish carmakers were primarily concerned with increasing the efficiency of their advertising franchises, the DM campaign carried out by MRM for the Signum starts at the image level: With the new model - a hybrid of sedan and station wagon - the marketing strategists in Rüsselsheim are going to reposition their solid but well-behaved mainstream brand. The goal at the end of the journey: Opel wants to win a proud 40 percent of new customers.
In order to advance to a dynamic, innovative brand (brand claim: "Fresh thinking for better cars"), the logistic
The DM measure in favor of the new Opel model for the number two among the car brands in Switzerland will be nothing more than a small matter. All the more so if you put it in relation to the model offensive - around 20 new passenger cars are to be realized by 2006 - and the prestigious, luxuriously furnished brand and communication center on Berlin's showpiece street Unter den Linden.
Opel, with over 30,000 new cars sold in 2002 and almost 400 dealers in the MRM portfolio, is an important customer for the Swiss relationship marketing agency MRM from the McCann-Erickson Worldgroup. The task was to support classic advertising media with a dialog campaign. The purpose of the exercise: to generate 500 test drives among the target group of 30- to 50-year-old men with upscale purchasing power throughout Switzerland. To support the premium idea, Group Account Director Martin Bauer agreed with marketing managers Jacques Hansel and Samir Saydjari at Opel in Biel to allow a 24-hour test drive. "Dialog measures often achieve a high recall value and make it possible to have a more targeted and personal effect on the potential customer," says Saydjari.
Complex DM campaignBetween July and September, 14 cars were made available along a "roadshow" route for the targeted 500 test drives. In addition to the usual brochure and price list, MRM added 30000 mailings, the online booking tool - including administration system - and the promotion teams as well as a follow-up mailing with a purchase voucher. On the trade side, MRM handled the prospect and test drive leads with the results of the questionnaire via email. Bauer looks back with satisfaction on the successful DM campaign, which is likely to have significantly supported the planned sales of 1,300 units by the end of 2003. At least in Biel, they seem to be convinced of this, because "the campaign will be repeated with new addresses in spring 2004," says Bauer.
DM in car choiceIn a recent study, the consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst Young examined the influence of different communication media on car purchases. According to the study, only 17 percent of 700 U.S. citizens surveyed were persuaded to choose a particular model by TV commercials.
move. Nearly three times as many (45%), on the other hand, reported moving from
Direct mail to have been influenced. Verbal recommendations perform best (71%).
30000 mailings were to push sales and the image of the Opel brand in Switzerland.
Luca Aloisi
