Marketing 5th Edition by Dhruv Grewal,Michael Levy

Exercise 5

HOW INTEGRATED IS VOLVO'S IMC STRATEGY
For consumers, Volvo means one thing. For businesses that rely on the automotive manufacturer for their delivery trucks and large-capacity vehicles, it means something else. In turn, the company faces the challenge of communicating about its offers to a wide variety of audiences, promising different solutions to different needs while still maintaining a consistent positioning.
A long-running joke once held that a truthful advertising campaign for Volvo's cars would read, "We're boxy, but we're safe." That is, the company tended to ignore stylish designs or fashionable add-ons in its single-minded focus on making the safest automobiles on the road. The business-to-business (B2B) side of the company similarly designed and marketed itself as technically superior. In both consumer and business markets, Volvo made relatively straightforward promises of safety and effectiveness that, while not particularly exciting, seemed consistent.
However, consistency is not enough in the modern, cut-throat competition for automotive sales. In response, Volvo has undergone several renewed attempts at communicating and positioning itself as something exciting, mainly because it is so dependable.
For example, in B2B markets, Volvo began issuing a series of award-winning marketing films designed to demonstrate just how precise the engineering is on its trucks. Through recent innovations, Volvo's designers and engineers have enhanced the maneuverability, sensitivity, and driving precision of the big rigs that it sells worldwide. To reveal the sensitivity of Volvo Dynamic Steering on the FMX truck line, it filmed "The Hamster Stunt," in which a hamster named Charlie runs on a hamster track built into the steering wheel and thereby determines the direction of the massive semitrailer vehicle.
In "The Technician," a live engineer who worked on designing the truck series agrees to be buried in dirt up to his neck. His head protrudes 275 millimeters (11 inches) out of the ground, which is enough for the truck, with its 300-mm (12-inch) clearance to the undercarriage, to literally drive over him.
The steadiness and ease of handling the trucks is a significant benefit, especially for long-haul truckers. Therefore, Volvo used two different films to highlight this promise: In "The Ballerina Stunt," a woman dressed in a tutu walks a tightrope strung between two moving trucks. Not to be outdone by a ballerina, the martial arts expert and actor Jean-Claude Van Damme holds himself in the splits between the windows of two trucks while they drive-in reverse in this case.28 As Volvo has been quick to assure viewers, there are no special effects or computer graphics in any of these shots. The 53-year-old action star really did do the splits, and the trucks truly were moving in reverse.
Each of the short films is available exclusively on YouTube, where they have attracted more than 100 million views. In addition, traditional news media reported widely on the campaign, especially after the spots started earning awards in marketing competitions such as the "best in show" winner of The One Show advertising event. Not only did people who viewed the films start following Volvo more readily on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, but they also left YouTube to visit Volvo's own branded site. According to the company's calculations, unique buyer visits to the Volvo trucks website increased from around 175,000 to 300,000 per month in the aftermath of the campaign.
But few regular consumers worry about whether their station wagons or sedans can hold Van Damme in a splits. Instead, they want a strong, reliable car that offers some sense of luxury. Volvo is a relatively higher-priced brand, which means that it regards its main competitors as other luxury car brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW, and Lexus. Even as it competes with them, though, Volvo recognizes and seeks to build on its distinctiveness, in that it has never been primarily about "looking good."
Accordingly, its consumer marketing focuses on how the benefits of driving a Volvo are unique from those associated with driving other luxury brands. The theme is consistent across several marketing channels. For example, one comparative television spot shows a perfectly coiffed, stylish female driver of a Mercedes SUV checking her makeup in her rearview mirror. The shot pans to the car in the next lane-a Volvo, of course-in which the female driver also is checking her rearview mirror. But in this case, she is checking on and making funny faces at two children in the backseat, who giggle in response. The tagline-"Volvos aren't for everyone, and we kinda like it that way," gives buyers and potential buyers a means to distinguish themselves from a stereotype of conspicuous consumption.
The linked Facebook element of this same campaign features a small dog in a purse, with the tagline, "If your dog has a wardrobe, the Volvo S60 probably isn't for you." On billboards and outdoor media in the greater Los Angeles area, Volvo also promises that its S60 is "100% real. Can't say that about everything around here." Although this ad ran mainly in Southern California, Volvo also has moved to consolidate its communications globally, such as by working with a single global marketing firm and strongly encouraging collaboration between its U.S. and European in-house marketing teams.
The campaigns are thus a little cheeky and funny, while also promising a distinct benefit to consumers who prefer not to appear ostentatious or flashy. To coincide with these advertising campaigns, Volvo also has introduced some new, updated, slightly sportier models. In these categories, it recognizes that it competes most directly with Audi, which similarly seeks a "new luxury" positioning, rather than the "old luxury" widely associated with BMW or Mercedes. In this head-to-head competition, Volvo made a daring promise: For any consumer who test drove both its S60 and the Audi A4, then purchased the A4, Volvo would pay the first month's car payment.
Even as Volvo has undergone changes in ownership and some fluctuations in its share of both B2B and consumer markets, it has maintained a sense of uniqueness and distinction. Its goal in its marketing communications, across the board, is to make sure that identity-or "what the brand is all about"-is clear to all its customers in all its markets and across all channels of communication.
What step(s) in the AIDA process do each of these marketing communications attempt to achieve