The VW Transporter. “A Tradesman’s Most Valuable Tool”
Our approach to a direct mail campaign for the then new Volkswagen Transporter range had to combat some negatives.
Firstly, the vehicle’s higher purchase price, and secondly, its “foreignness”.
To your average electrician or plumber, the latest update to the famous Kombi was viewed as more suitable for a surfing holiday than transport for a hard day’s work.
The solution was to portray the vehicle as a sound professional investment, rather than an extravagance.
The hope was that tradespeople would see the VW Transporter as comparable to any of their professional-standard saws, power tools or wrenches – all items that they paid serious money for without batting an eyelid. To achieve this, the promotion’s key statement was:
“Choose your van the way you choose your tools”.
Using testimonials from fellow tradespeople and supplying hard information about the comparatively high resale value of the Transporter gave persuasive weight to this argument.
The result was a dramatic (over 400%) increase in test drives and a similar rise in sales.