Comm Strat Used & New Vehicles

© ck2003/102391/23 RippleComm Communication
©
PRINCES BENONI
Proposal for the
Communication Strategy and
Creative Look & Feel

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
RippleComm Communication have been invited to
undertake a mini strategic audit, with the view of taking the
„Princes‟ brand to the next level.
The strategic audit process consists of an evaluation of the current
communication platforms, the reception of the product and brand
in the market place, your geographic location and your

competitors.
At RippleComm, have positioned ourselves as a unique “facilitator of
dialogue, which endorses a relationship between your brand, and its
intended target market”.

We are not an advertising service provider…

 We have established ourselves as a cohesive, symbiotic, solutions-
driven organisation, whose partnerships stem from the creation
and formulation of solid, unwavering relationships – with the key
stakeholders, the brand and products.
 Our aim is to establish loyal dialogues between your brand and its
intended audience.

Our key competencies are:
 Brand & Product Architecture
 Brand Personality & Positioning
 Brand & Product Rejuvenation

 Strategy Development
 Experience Marketing
 Company Internal Marketing
 Acquisition & Retention Strategies
 Direct Marketing
 Customer Relationship Management Solutions
 Relationship Marketing Solutions
 Endorsement Campaigns
 Sponsorship & Alliance Facilitation
 Unique Ideas Generation Station

 What RippleComm Communication effectively do, is to create a
brand or product portfolio, or capitalise on an existing brand or
product, and develop a brand architecture.
 This essentially means that we audit the current environment,
including internal and external influences, and create a
„personality‟, versus just a product or brand.

 A brand is something that should „speak‟ to the intended target
audience, and „touch‟ them on an emotional level.
 This is the key differentiator between being „one of the
dealerships‟, as opposed to being a destination brand, which a
consumer would take personal pride in being associated with.
 Emotive marketing is an effective way in which to associate your
brand with the dominant drivers in a consumer‟s mind.
 (Please bear in mind that „emotive marketing‟ is not a „facet‟ of
marketing, it‟s a philosophy).
 The way in which you present and manage your brand, becomes
a crucial part of this process.
 This also means that you would ensure that your brand is seen in
the way you wish to position it, and in a positive light.
 Irrespective, everything still always boils down to the bottom line.
 We therefore always use this objective as our key focus.

IDENTITY
What‟s in a Name?
OBJECTIVES:
1. Create a sense of association
2. Must conjure up images of trust, yet advancement and
technology

3. Required to generate interest
4. This project is more than „standardisation‟.
5. This environment‟s character must, ‘emotively’,
 invoke immediate aspiration
 be marketable
 address the senses that stimulate the market
 be agile enough to realise both oblique and lateral growth
 inspire and „touch‟ a wide range of target audiences
6. The desired end result is that positioning of the brand
create a strong call to action (aspiration through
elegance and desire through design)

KEY STRATEGIC DRIVERS
 The primary strategic drivers is based on the ego.
 Ego is one of the strongest pull factors upon which you can
capitalise, in order to draw and engage a customer
 Your key strategic descriptors, in order for us to define the
environment‟s personality, could be:

 Pride (but not arrogance)
 Exclusivity (but not unattainable)
 Sexy (but not sleazy or sexual)
 Trust (but not conviction – “promise & delivery”)
 Safety (but with an edge)
 Interactive (but not invasive)
 Supportive (but not a crutch)
 Objective (in each customer‟s favour)
 By exaggerating and deploying counter measures in direct
opposition to the weaknesses of your intended competitors,
allows you to create your a unique selling proposition
 The big question:
 What are those weaknesses, if any?

KEY STRATEGIC DRIVERS
 The previous characteristics are what could describe the nature of the
name, but what do we want the name‟s key strategic driver to be?
 (Bearing in mind that your key strategic drivers make very little reference to
your product, but rather the desired target response... How does the
customer feel; when experiencing your brand, sampling your product,
buying it, and finally the longer-term experience)

 In the first person, “I may or may not be in a position, or need, to purchase
a car at the moment, but if I were, Princes would be my immediate
choice. I have seen their advertising and heard about them, and I believe
that I can trust them to give me the best deal on the right conveyance
that would serve my needs, as well as *instil a sense of pride, exclusivity
and well-being. They also instil peace of mind, by offering after sales
service on used equipment. I know it’ll be like owning a brand new
vehicle”
 This said, there is no advertising that could remotely, as effectively,
compare to that of viral marketing
 With the development of a personality for your brand, it should start
„speaking‟ for itself”
Instil is a synonym for entrench. We cannot make anyone feel anything. The operative process here is to
find the mechanisms which are naturally inherent in everyone, trigger it, and measure response.
This could be any desire, status or image-driven state of need... Everyone has it.
It‟s up to us to find the trigger mechanism to solicit the desired response.

POSITIONING
 Believe it or not, the business isn‟t driven by the retailer or brand, but by the
customer‟s desires, and how you are able to position yourself in the market
place – in order to fulfil that desire.
 By identifying your key strategic driver/s of the consumer, it will enable us to
develop the following strategic requirements:

 Primary Target Consumer
 You cannot be everything to everyone
 If there were a specific customer you would like as your ideal customer, who would they be?
 Demographically
 Where the live
 How much they earn
 Living conditions
 Psychographically
 Leisure
 Entertainment
 Prefered brands
 Lifestyle-enablers

 Unique Selling Proposition/Central Buying Idea
 Nothing is unique
 Everyone can find the equivalent anywhere else
 What can we create/use, that will differentiate use from our competitors?

 Positioning
 How do we want to be seen by the consumer?

REQUIREMENTS

 Your Brief
 Review strength of „Princes‟ brand, in consideration
of weight of emphasis on Matercars
 Revise look and feel entirely

 Increase geographically base visibility
 New design template for existing publications
 Branding options for current bases

 Our Audit Recommendations
 Creation and maintenance of the Princes brand
 Unification of the Springs branch as part of an umbrella brand (and
imminently, the 3rd branch)
 Review Communication channels
 Urgent design, development and implementation of Electronic
Medium
 Initiative campaigning (social responsibility, community networking,
suburban endorsements & ownership, etc)

REQUIREMENTS

 Please note:
 All of your specific requirements will be addressed in this
document
Should you wish to pursue our recommendations, a strategic


session would have to be set up and cost parameters defined
 If you decide to proceed with modifications (window dressing)
of current ads, you will be adding to the problem, not resolving it
 You have to assess what it is you want, who you are, who you
ideal customer would be, the experience and processes
 Finally, create a cohesive strategy that will see you consolidated
and focussed for at least 3 years
 Please bear in mind that these are „quick fixes‟ and the benefits
and results will be short term
 In order to develop and maintain a brand correctly, you do
require the services of a brand custodian (someone who
understands the value of a brand and manages the equity, as
the asset that it is)
 This responsibility may reside as an internal or external resource

BRANDING
 Please understand that none of what is to follow should be
viewed as criticism, merely valid strategic observations
 There is absolutely no consistency
 It must be determined whether you have the creative licence to change
the look and feel of “Princes”

 The publications who currently design your ads have no concept of what
your brand requires, and how best to present it
 By offering you „free design‟, they are not offering you additional service,
instead, they are illustrating a disservice
 They are basterdising the Princes brand, with only a vague understanding
of „Mastercars‟ specs and requirements
 Princes is becoming diluted (and, if I dare say, it ill continue into obscurity
 There is absolutely no standardisation; i.e. from upper case, to sentence
case, from bold to plain, sometimes with Benoni and sometimes without
 Your brand is an asset, it‟s your goodwill and your identity
 Don‟t let it become a faceless Mastercars brand
 The name „Princes‟, in the consumer‟s eyes is extremely fragmented and
obtuse
 Some believe it‟s „Princess‟ and some believe it could be a deliberate error
(these are not thumb sucks, but media and colleagues‟ perceptions)

BRANDING RECOMMENDATIONS
 Revisit a whole new look & feel for the Princes brand
 A brand equity profile has to be created
 Anyone who works with the brand must adhere to these standards
 There are 4 fundamental changes that we would like to recommend
1. The colour

2. The Font
3. A graphic element
4. Inclusion of an apostrophe
Rationale
 Plain and simple – The brand must learn to stand on it‟s own and still be
recognisable – without its Masterbrand (excuse the pun)
 It has been mentioned that Princes are considering selling other sub brands,
besides VW and Audi (the brand should be able to carry you there, without
the crutch)
 Create ownership
 There is concern about the obscurity created between Benoni VW and
Princes
 By defining your brand, you resolve this issue

BRANDING RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The colour
• Variation on a theme
• Don‟t reinvent the wheel
• Use current assets
• Enable high visibility
• Stand apart from VW & Mastercars brands
• We have selected blue

2. The Font
• We have selected a font similar to that of the existing font (slight variation)
• Once again, it‟s about creating definition
• If selected, this font must be adhered to, at all customer and stakeholder touch points

3. A graphic element
1. Graphic elements allow you future enhancements to enable the use of a well known graphic as
identification, as opposed to the wording (why spell out the obvious)

4. Inclusion of an apostrophe
• As mentioned before, no one has a clear idea of the name
• We are definitely not recommending hat you change the name, but rather adding a
grammatical symbol
• What will this do for the name:
1. Creates ownership
2. Allows pre and post definition
3. If there is a clear understanding of the origin of the name - to the owners - it has not made
itself apparent to the public
4. It makes sense!

ADVERTISING
 There is a lot that can be said about the current look and feel that is
being portrayed in the marketplace (I‟ll touch on a few)
1. Mastercars takes top billing
2. Princes becomes VW Benoni (that‟s the one they‟ll remember):
• High visibility

• Strong support
• VW fully endorsed
• Mastercars fully endorsed
• „Owned‟ and „Run‟ by VW

3. Your advertising currently looks like theirs (and every other VW
dealership)
4. This has just been validated by speaking to a media rep, who
when he heard the Princes name, his exact words were, “they
don‟t need external design, we know what we are doing, we
follow the exact Mastercars/Lidsey Saker model”
5. What has to be addressed, is that Princes needs it‟s own
identity, in order to enable identification and top-of-mind
awareness
6. If the status quo remains, you become part of the pack, with
no clear definition

IMMEDIATE VICINITY VISIBILITY

 Mention has been made that Princes on Great North,
due to the recess of the building, makes visibility of the
dealership difficult
This alone validates the branding issue mentioned on the


previous pages
 Current circumstances prevailing, Princes is a dedicated VW
dealership – according to the only visible signage
 The lack of visibility may also play a huge roll in top-of-mind
awareness, in that “Out of sight, out of mind”
 If the customer does not have a clear picture of your brand in
their mind, when the time comes for a change in vehicle, you
are the last brand they‟ll remember
 Like the name of a brand or product, it should conjure up an
image
 There is currently little association with location

VISIBILITY RECOMMENDATIONS
 Mobile
 Our primary suggestion is for mobile and portable signage
 In this way, you can utilise these elements at shows, events, etc
 Banner Flags
 Tear Drop Banners

 Fixed
 Street Pole Ads
 Currently at local magisterial discussion
 Estimated at approximately 3 – 6 months

 Signage
 You will have to determine the lengths you wish to embrace
 Our recommendation is relief signage, which is either semi-transparent
coloured Perspex, lit from inside OR
 Raised metal cut-out signage, backlit

WEB PRESENCE
 This is integral to your business!
 It will allow you to measure responses
 Gauge where these responses are being generated
 Collect data

 Sales
 Synergistic media (logical)

 RippleComm‟s suggestion is to implement a plan of
action as soon as possible

 This would be a phased approach, and costs will be
supplied, based on requirements or modules.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
 Some of the value that we would add to your business,
through our recommended strategy:
 Manage your customers
 Cross sell
 Up sell

 Manage and understand media channels
 Recommend novel media channels
 Excitement through messaging
 Utilisation of uncommon (and cheap) mediums
 Customer acquisition
 Customer Retention
 Reactivation

 RESULTS!

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