Legend speaks for itself

What makes the Force strong for a brand is its legendary storytelling with a character that’s familiar with the target group; and the smart use of internet

In marketing terms, products like cars are high consumer-involvement products since they are significantly sophisticated and expensive than other lifestyle products; which imply that potential consumers will be more interested in knowing the benefits of the car, the perceived risks of investment and its performance, over any other story that the brand tries to back up with it.

Typically, an automobile brand (and the advertiser) is supposed to concentrate on showcasing the look and feel of its new car, highlight its various functionalities, and if possible even demonstrate its outstanding features that will woo the consumers.

Instead, German auto-giant Volkswagen decided to break the straight approach and frame a communication that connects on a rather personal emotional level of a consumer.

While launching its new generation Passat in 2011, the brand launched its commercial ‘The Force’ that was a neat execution of the brand’s new strategy for the new target audience.

Before this, the brand was only trying to persuade youngsters and young ladies of the US, but with the new generation Passat, VW was targeting the mass market against the biggest competitors such as Toyota and Ford who were not only ruling the mass market but were also spending more on advertising than VW then. The need to devise a strong advertising campaign and attain stronger recognition was higher than ever.

The advert titled ‘The Force’ was themed around the worldwide legend – ‘Star Wars’. In the advert a young boy is seen dressed as the Darth Vader who is desperately trying to apply FORCE on objects, hoping for some magic to happen.

The boy is constantly disappointed, but does not give up, towards the end of the commercial, he tries to apply force on his dad’s VW Passat, and he succeeds (of course with a little help from his father behind the scene).

The ad worked great for the brand. The simply illustrated emotional approach and the closed-ended narrative invoked a rather emotional appeal among the target group and helped create an affinity in the mass market.

Adding the ‘Star Wars’ theme to the ad, worked great because it was a legend that the common American strongly related to; the brand did not have to say much. VW had its audience right from the first second of the advert when the ‘Star Wars’ theme music played in the background. ‘The Force’ is a classic testimony to how an advert with literally no dialogue or voiceover could very well communicate with the audience and make them go wow.

The question is how the brand managed to create an affinity by saying so little in its advert? Well, VW knew that the potential buyer would do thorough research before purchasing the vehicle, and since internet had become a very prominent source for almost any information, the brand decided to not bombard the technicalities in the ad, and focus on first grabbing their attention; because all required information was as usual made available online. Why waste time in bombarding information and specs while you can hook them to a narrative and eventually lead them to the information – well played VW.