Wesley Longman Case

1. Audi A8 L Case Study

Media Buget: 1-3million

Market Background and Business Objectives

Nowhere in the world is the number of high-net worth individuals (HNIs) rising as fast as it is in India. There is an entire generation of new money hankering after the most luxurious objects and experiences known to man. So it stands to reason that the best luxury carmakers in the world view India as the most important battleground for the future.

So it is ironic that even the crème de la crème of Indian society look for bargains in the luxury car market. Until 2010, the battle for dominance in the Indian premium and luxury-car space was keenly fought over by the historically dominant Mercedes-Benz and the most recently dominant BMW.

To lure the discerning luxury car buyers, both these brands resorted to discounts and other promo mechanisms. In such a competitive scenario, Audi sought to break this duopoly by introducing the new Audi A8 L, a premium sedan and the best example of Audis ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ (advancement through technology) philosophy.

The primary objective of the campaign can be broken down into brand objectives and overall business objectives:

Brand: establish a distinctive, desirable image as evidenced by the the significant growth of key brand tracking measure, thus creating a brand aura for Audi in India such as ‘aspirational’ ‘sporty’ ‘progressive’

Business: attain the sales targets set for the A8 L 2011

To generate a trickle-down effect, resulting in cumulative sales of 4500 Audi cars

Insight and strategic thinking

The Audi A8 had to communciate the fact that it has perfected the art of delivering new ideas to the road through superior technology, distinctive Audi design, quality and excellence. Thus the new Audi A8 could be portrayed as both an icon of technology and a prestige object.

At an international level, Audi communicates this through ‘the art of progress’. But to connect with the Indian audience they had to make this proposition culturally relevant, one where progress is about being one step ahead. The new Audi A8 L is, quite simply, the pinnacle of automotive luxury, so it stood to reason to turn to psychology to help position the car. They applied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model to reinterpret the luxury car segement.

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The positioning was in sync with the evolving Indian consumer – subtle and progressive. The ‘new money’ target group is all about being understated whilst still enjoying the new luxury. These are people who have reached the apex of social evolution, where the need to show-off their wealth no longer exists.

Hence, the consumer insight that they discovered for this campaign was: ‘High-fliers don’t chase materialistic pursuits, instead they seek greater meaning to life’. Creatively, they wanted to capture this feeling of self actualisation and it was best represented by the tagline: ‘Advanced state of mind’.

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