Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles <br>speaks Turkish

Serving customers means going more than halfway to meet them. Germany is now home to 15.3 million people of foreign extraction, of whom 2.7 million are of Turkish origin. Winning over these potential customers involves being familiar with their different mentalities, socio-cultural characteristics, habits and customs. Only in this way can each individual customer be reached. Ethnic marketing is a tool that is ideally suited to this purpose. Which is why Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has been running the campaign “Volkswagen spricht türkisch” – Volkswagen Speaks Turkish – for almost three years.

“Abi”, says the Turkish man, smiling and embracing another man warmly. The “brother” in question is Nihat Bozcelik, who has just sold him a Volkswagen Multivan. The two men are not related, but in their culture, it is normal to follow up successful business transactions by conveying pleasure, gratitude and mutual commitment. Allowing such a degree of emotion in sales transactions – and being able to reciprocate in kind – is a skill in itself. It is stories such as these that are frequently related by Nihat Bozcelik, a sales consultant at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and Wolfgang Stahl, Volkswagen Center Manager at Autohaus Gottfried Schultz in Mülheim an der Ruhr, when they wish to illustrate the growing importance of ethnic marketing in their company.

PRELIMINARY CHAT WITH TEA CEREMONY

“In ethnic marketing, sales staff from the same cultural background as their customers are given intensive training in all socio-cultural aspects and sales strategies”, explains Bülent Bora, Managing Director of Berlin-based KOM GmbH – Media & Marketing, the agency responsible for developing this campaign for Volkswagen. Sales talks with customers of Turkish origin frequently take a wholly different course. For the most part, these customers come very well prepared, are familiar with competing products and offers and know exactly what they want. Nonetheless, the first thing on the agenda is a long preliminary chat over a glass of tea in order to “warm up” for the negotiations that may follow. This ceremony is a sign of respect and helps to establish trust. Only afterwards can the parties get down to business. Sales talks sometimes last several hours over a number of days. In this time, they talk at length about their families and other personal matters. The main focus is on the cultural customs and needs of Turkish customers. “The sales consultant’s job is initially to establish trust”, explains Bora.
 
Of course, Turkish immigrants have contributed to consumer spending in Germany ever since the first “guest workers” arrived in the 1960s. However, companies are now tapping into this submarket by addressing its members’ cultural roots and national customs. One of the pioneers of this development is the Volkswagen Group. Customer feedback from the “Volkswagen Speaks Turkish” project, which was launched by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles at the end of 2005, was correspondingly positive. The same goes for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, which has been “speaking Turkish” since 2006. The number of Turkish sales consultants employed by both brands will be increased significantly in 2008.

UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN CULTURES: Wolfgang Stahl received this award for his involvement in German-Turkish relations from the Turkish community in Oberhausen (Oberhausen Türk Birligi).

FASCINATED BY THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CULTURE

Wolfgang Stahl – a veteran sales consultant with Volkswagen in his blood and the needs of customers in his sights – is always open to new ideas. “I was behind the ‘Volkswagen Speaks Turkish’ project from the very beginning”, he confirms. “When dealing with customers, you have to zone in on their precise needs and the products they are interested in. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is of great importance for businesspeople of Turkish origin. Because of this, I took on two sales consultants who are of Turkish descent. Within our sales team, they see to the needs of our Turkish clientele.”

The 2.7 million people of Turkish extraction in Germany have an enormous purchasing power of some 20 billion euros per annum. Ethnic marketing is also a major driving force behind consumer spending. However, a few well-meaning gestures are not enough: when Turkish customers find a compatriot salesman that they are happy with, his name is generally recommended to their family and friends. He is invited to parties, because he is more than just a salesman and consultant – he is a confidant, a friend and, in some cases, even a brother.

ALWAYS ON TIME, ALWAYS FRESH. An employee of the Dogan bakery in Duisburg delivering the morning’s bread – with a Volkswagen Multivan, of course.

RELIABILITY IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY

“Abi”: Nihat Boczelik greets his next customer at Autohaus Schultz, Mr. Yücel Seker, the managing director of a logistics company, who smiles broadly as he enters the showroom. In a few minutes, he will collect his new Volkswagen Multivan, but first there is still some paperwork to be taken care of. Seker’s company is a partner of DHL. Every day, the company carries up to 9,000 packages and he cannot afford for his vehicles to break down. “Reliability is the number one priority”, he says. This is why he swears by Volkswagen commercial vehicles.

Following this all-Turkish Volkswagen transaction, Boczelik pays a visit to Ismail Dogan in neighboring Duisburg. Dogan runs a large bakery in the district of Marxloh. He plans to expand and must therefore increase his fleet of vehicles. His first Volkswagen – a Caddy – gave 500,000 kilometers of service in its lifetime. This man’s mind is already firmly made up.

Sales consultant and customer sit together at a table laden with savory pastries, bread and olives. How is the family? When will Dogan’s son take over the family business? Dogan began training as a baker in his native Turkey at the age of nine; his son was born in Germany. This is the sheer diversity of life that ethnic marketing must embrace – a challenge that the Volkswagen Group was more than happy to take on.

From workhorse to lifestyle automobile

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and lifestyle might not sound like the most probable pairing at first. But with its ground-breaking PR projects, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is proving again and again that lifestyle is an area with especially great potential for tapping into new target groups.

The Multivan, descendant of the legendary VW Bus, is no longer solely the craftsman’s workhorse, but is now the limousine of choice for stars such as Will Smith, Chris de Burgh, or members of pop group Take That. These days, surfers and families are just as likely to drive a Volkswagen Caddy – the Multivan’s little brother – as their local painter and decorator. The International VW Bus Meeting in October 2007 was firm proof – if any were needed – that the VW Bus has a Volkswagen cult of its own, second only to that of the Beetle. The popular retro bus is also an international media star, frequently making an appearance in movies, TV shows and computer games.

Only a few years ago, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles was still seen solely as a provider of transporters. Since then, however, MAX magazine has even singled out the Multivan Business as the vehicle with the highest celebrity count. For a start, Robbie Williams was chauffeured around in a Multivan during his most recent world tour, and even Pete Townshend, the mastermind behind the legendary rock band The Who, has admitted to being a Volkswagen fan.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles consciously communicates the lifestyle status of its models. By means of PR cooperations with singers, bands and actors, the brand has steadily raised its profile – even in media far removed from the automotive world. Rather than investing huge sums in branding and logo placement, the company provides stars with high-value Multivans, thereby ensuring extensive press coverage. With this innovative concept, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has not only succeeded in tapping new target groups in the media, but has also proved to be the vehicle of choice for surfers and young people – and a big hit in the music business, too.

Dark colors and chrome dominate the look of the Multivan Business.

 

“Back for good”: Take That (from left: Jason Orange, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald) are currently using Volkswagen Multivans on their “Beautiful World” European Tour.