Um, I invited VWAG to TDIFest 2004...

Betzel

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Seeing no real opposition to the idea in another thread, on 3/25 I sent the following email to two Corporate Communications Officers for VW Group in Germany (my apologies to those 20-something folks in the Club):

Hello Dirk and Hans,

As diesel fuel quality increases in North America, the Volkswagen brand will be in an ideal position to sell a large number of TDI powered vehicles. As fuel prices rise, sales potential will climb even further. We want to aid your success in this emerging and dynamic market by proposing a marketing opportunity.

As a group of extremely loyal and enthusiastic owners of TDI vehicles in Canada and the USA, we will get together for TDI Fest 2004 in Boston. We have been around for 7 years and want to help VW combat the "anti-diesel" image that needs to be changed to pave the way for increased sales. With this in mind, we would like to invite VWAG to attend our TDI Fest to draw more attention to VW's leadership in fuel efficient vehicles and boost the VW TDI strategy for North America and the world.

We are primarily professional men and women in our late 30's and early 40's who have met each other through a common interest in the VW TDI. We enjoy cooking on the barbeque, good beer, discussing and engaging in diesel motorsports, and also hold contests to see who can get the farthest on the least amount of fuel. We are http://www.tdiclub.com and we want to work with you to help sell the vision here.

As communications leaders at the VW group, we felt you were the right people to contact. Please let me know how we can help.

Very Respectfully,

Karl Von Betzel

(Just kidding, I was respectful and used my name)

==============================

Several days later, I got the following in my inbox from a guy at VWOA, so I think I made the cut to at least get a response, which was more than I expected. I can only hope the email was more widely circulated than three guys, but who knows.

=============================

Subject: "This is fantastic"

Dear Mr. [Betzel],

I am the Press Relations manager for the U.S. and I have received the news about your TDI meeting. We are very pleased to hear about your passion regarding our TDI engines. As you know, this year we are also launching the new TDI-PD with unit injector technology. This technology will know come in the Passat sedan and wagon this month and the Touareg V10.

All of us at Volkswagen wish you the very best at your event. Please feel free to write back and tell us more about this unique gathering.

Best regards,

Tony Fouladpour
PR Manager

===================

OK

So, he does not yet say he wants to join in, did not mention if he would be bringing any schweet Reinheitsgebot compliant bier (I could use a dopple bock, rauchbier or a nice cool hefeweizen myself), did not [yet] offer to bring over any famous TDI-R variants to show off or demo anything hot off the production line or indicate that he wanted to work with us to promote the TDI as an incredibly sporty, yet economical car to drive, but he did write back...

Have I offended anyone (hope not) and how shall I respond?

Remember, they are a large multinational with stockholders that want to see profitable results, but we may have a common interest at some level. What might that be?

Anyone?
 

BeetleGo

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Hey Betzel,

I have to say, they were polite with you, but you got the brush-off. If they had said anything like, "Please send us more information regarding this event so that we can make a determination with our marketing department how we might participate..." then I'd say you had something.

VW is more than willing for us to do this. I just think they're taking the same approach Honda did with the Civic-slamming phenomenon. It's strictly hands off, but likely good for business.

My $.02, BeetleGo
 

Betzel

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OK OK...

I thought it was at least a good start and if we played it right we might make a bigger splash and draw some attention to what I want to call "dieselmania" in North America. I'm awake now, but at least my letter was not "eaten by the machine".

I'll think of something cute to say back to him and see what happens. Most good marketing strategies happen over drinks in wild ad agencies anyway and I am out of booze.

Oh, wait, there's some scotch left over here...
 

dieseldorf

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Herr Von Betzel, Tony is guy that told the reporter in Cleveland last week that the intake clogging problem is rare, isolated and only affects a few cars.

/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 

Betzel

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Right, usually, the difference between marketing and sales is that sales knows when they are lying...

Maybe Tony, like me, is all hopped up about the TDI?
 

GeWilli

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Hmmm, you emailed Germany? Why?

VAG and VWoA are the same but somewhat isolated... and you'll need the Auburn Hills, Michigan VWoA folks behind ya to make this happen.


Bombard them with requests - orrrrr better yet...

get Dirk and Hans to provide you with a contact at VWoA HQ that can help you out with promotion, sponsorship and the like /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 

Jetter_Sprinta

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Nice, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Von Betzel...They were probably considering full sponsrship until they saw that /images/graemlins/grin.gif !
 

mgwerks

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Get him a ride in dzljet's or Oldman's TDI. If that doesn't get his eyes open, nothing will... (or maybe closed, with white knuckles and all)
/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

Lineman

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Excellent.

You could email him back and ask for the Head of PR for the US or for New England. The regional head of VW might be the most effective.
 

Betzel

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To be clear, I sent the email to Germany, but got a reply from Tony in the USA. My goal was to let the mother ship know we are here and that we support expansion of the TDI line in North America and so on. I think I did that.

Since we are a fairly serious and more mature club (?) I was hoping to elicit suggestions on how to best draw more attention to TDIFest and also help their marketing campaign. I still have to do that.

We'll see how that goes.
 

MITBeta

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What strikes me as somewhat ironic is that the Fest is taking place in a state in which you can't buy and register a new TDI... /images/graemlins/frown.gif
 

danix

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I will be attending the press preview at the NY Auto Show this week, and everyone in corporate will likely be there. If you would like me to take the ball and try to move ahead with this, let me know.
 

danix

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Not sure if you want to discuss it here or in private, but let me know exactly what you want from them, besides making them aware of it. Are there any printed materials I can bring with me to hand to Herr Klauss or others.
 

BeetleGo

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Betzel,

Just to be clear, I wasn't slamming your efforts or intentions in any way at all.

Squeak on, homey! I'm right there with ya. You never know what will happen, and what you've done so far has encouraged Danix to act.

With that in mind, I think just asking VWoA in person when they first became aware of TDIclub (as in, present the assumption that they already are aware of us). If they don't know about us, be sure to have one of them pull up a browser and show them then and there.

I think the shear number of members and entries are good starters to bring to their attention.

Avoid discussing miserable dealerships issue.

Mentioning that we're hosting this thing in MA despite their current unavailability as a sign of just how strong a marketing prospect they have?

Asking them what they think the upside would be if they were to decide to have a presence in the Fest? The limiting factors? (This way, we can start to better understand the obstacles we face).

Ask what they think is most ironic about their relationship with their market?

With only two more model years left before the ULSD standard kicks in, ask them who they think their primary competitors will be in '06 and whether they have a strategy for keeping their current owner base from moving to those competitors (and whether demonstrating their support might have an impact on whether these consumers will become 'shopable' when the time comes to make their next purchase.

As them whether they see any similarity with their company and the way GM has let Saturn owners languish and move onto other companies to get their next car?

Ask them what their current owner retention numbers are looking like?

etc. etc. etc.

My $.04

~BG
 

Betzel

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BG, I knew you weren't slamming this, so no offense taken. I think I did need a dose of reality as I was a bit excited that they even wrote back. I sent them a link in the original email, so they know about us (probably both the good and the less than desirable aspects.) I hope Dan takes the ball and runs well with it. I'll wait and see what he says - this is a group effort after all.

I don't really know what we/I want, but I asked Tony if he had suggestions on how to increase our impact in the press and how to get more attention for the event as well as getting a little mention for VW's diesel strategy in North America. The writeup in WSJ 2 years ago was interesting, but wider public appeal somehow would be good too.

Dan,

I'm looking forward to hear about your efforts!
 

danix

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I will see what I can swing, but keep this in mind. VW is easily selling every TDI they make. When that happens, corporate interest wanes. It's much like Audi a few years back, when they were selling every car.

On the other hand, recent bad press and quality issues have hurt sales on both the VW and Audi brands, so they may be more receptive to doing something.

The thing you need to understand with VW (or any car company) is that their participation will depend on what they get, specifically, "will VW be able to sell more cars (or garner goodwill leading to future sales) based on its participation in this event?"

I find the best results come when you ask for specific items. Here's a couple of suggestions off the top of my head that we could ask for:

- Promote the event in the next VW club magazine.
- Request promotion and/or sponsorship from MA area VW dealers. (Actually, this is something we could do on our own at a grassroots level.)
- Request a speaker from VW to attend, say one of their head engineers responsible for TDI development.
- Request a development car. For example, if a Touran or Polo TDI were present at the event, and you could test drive it, would you be willing to put a deposit down on one or indicate serious interest?

Keep the ideas coming, we have until Tuesday night.

A final thought - if VW is unwilling to participate, would it be unholy to approach other companies? I know that Ford is considering the Focus dTi for the US, Jeep may want to promote the Liberty, etc.
 

eluwak

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[ QUOTE ]
A final thought - if VW is unwilling to participate, would it be unholy to approach other companies? I know that Ford is considering the Focus dTi for the US, Jeep may want to promote the Liberty, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know I won't be there but that would be a great idea... I bet some other companies would be interested in swaying us over into a new diesel powered product /images/graemlins/cool.gif
 

Betzel

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Guys,

All of these are great ideas and I would pursue all of them. My point to VW in helping us make a bigger splash is that it would help dispel the "diesel is bad" misperception in this market. This relates to increased car sales in the future as perceptions change, and the performance factor combined with fuel economy drives TDI sales upward.

Personally, I would give VW first crack at it for having the balls to import and sell/service the only diesel passenger car in the USA. Case in point of "We drove it and we got it."

I would make it theirs to decline, I guess...
 

danix

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I spoke with Tony (PR person) at the show and will post more on that later. As far as TDIs go, the show was a dud, the only TDI on display was the (locked) V10 Touareg Dakar vehicle.

Mercedes has the E320 CDI there, and Dodge had a few Sprinters, some of them customized. I'll post pics tomorrow.
 

GeWilli

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Realized I haven't mentioned this yet...

and maybe yall have gone this route.

All the past VWoA support we've recieved has been through a dealer. The dealer is the one that usually acts as a go between. Getting swag prizes what not from corporate HQ.

Now will a dealer in Mass have as much incentive to support the TDI club? Esp now with the sales stuff? Well on a brand level, a service level they still might.

So all yall New England folks, Get on your local salesman, your service writer, the service manager the Parts manager - see what they can get for you... have them talk to the area reps - and they can in turn go to corporate.

The more people start tickling the chain from the bottom up the better the response will be. If 3 or 4 dealerships in N.E. are pestering VWoA then they are more likely to respond.
 

danix

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Just to clarify, the response from PR was good, I also have a couple of other contacts to try. I came down with a bad cold at the end of the day, so once I am over that I will get cracking on this.
 

tdipoet

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we've been attacking things from a dealership angle... getting a corporate contact up till now has been tricky, so the involvement of others there is good timing.

thanks for the effort!
 

Betzel

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I'm interested in knowing how you made out Dan and hope you're feeling better!

Also, I am willing to speak with the folks at Boston Volkswagen to see if they are interested in a role here. Knowing they can't sell product until 2006 may be a hindrance, but I can ask...
 

Jetta2004

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Dear Betzel:

I am a new member in the TDI Club, purchased a month ergo a 2004 Jetta GLS TDI, Triptronic Wagon from VW North Scottsdale, AZ. So far 2000 miles and 36.7 MPG.

The TDI website is super and has good info.

To inviting VW AG to the TDI Fest is a great idea. I am a member of the Turbo Diesel Register, the forum for the Dodge-Cummins pickup owners, a very good organization with a quarterly magazine.
Robert Patton, the founder of that organization had very good results from Cummins and from Dodge in participating at TDR gatherings. Cummins and also Dodge went way out of their way and organized factory tours, driving comparison of their vehicles with competing brands and giving seminars by their engineers and bosch injection engeneers, as well as other speakers. Also, vendors were invited to offer their products and give informative seminars.

Those National TDR meetings had been great over the years and as mentioned, Cummins and Dodge went all out to support the owners of their pickups.

Perhaps VW AG could be approached to do similar support to the TDI group of their loyal VW Diesel owners.

Good Luck!

Juergen Loenholdt
Casa Grande, AZ
 

Betzel

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Thanks for your post Juergen and welcome to the club.

There are advantages to us having some support from VW in this event and the reverse is true as well, if we stick to a common agenda and avoid heated debate over politics and religion, especially after the third beer /images/graemlins/smile.gif I think most members agree having VW support would be a good thing, but we do have our independence to maintain as some of what we say here is far from "party line".

The trick is to focus on our common goals and simply agree not to discuss topics we may not see eye to eye on. This is just good relationship management.

The trick is selling our value to VW and easing their minds about any potential drawbacks.

I will write back to Tony once I hear how things went with Dan at the show.
 

danix

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Betzel, I'll get back to you tomorrow, I start a new job in 6 hours or so /images/graemlins/eek.gif
 

Betzel

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OK. I wish I was starting a new job...

These are strange times employment-wise
 
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