The Volkswagen Diesel Mess - How Will the Brand Step Up?

If ever there was a brand in crisis, VW is it. The revelation this week that some of its "clean diesel" engines are not so clean leaves it with a brand image problem that could linger for a couple of generations. And more importantly, it could drive away many who have been loyal to the brand for years.

In his resignation statement this week, CEO Martin Winterkorn did his best imitation of Claude Rains' character in Casablanca, saying he was "shocked and stunned" to find that some of VW's cars had been programmed to cheat on emissions tests.  

Volkswagen has long been a "quirky" brand, outside the mainstream. In the U.S., which comprises a relatively small portion of the brand's global sales, VW was happy to sell its cars to people like me who appreciated the German engineering and performance/handling characteristics that came along with it, and simply could not picture themselves in one of the banal and often overpriced offerings from Toyota or Honda.

But in the last decade VW made the choice to expand its U.S.market share. They did so, unfortunately, by making their cars look more like their bland, utilitarian Asian competition. Ok, so the 2015 Passat is plain, and its base 1.8 liter isn't as good as the 2.0T in my 2008. There are hard plastic door panels where there was once stylish upholstery. I could go on, but I won't. So they've made their cars look less different, less charismatic. That's understandable, they want to be more appealing to the U.S. consumer, whose loyalty to Toyota and Honda is as bewildering to me as it is unwavering.

Based on my personal experience with the brand, VW has always stepped up for the consumer. A recent intake manifold replacement on my 2008 was covered under an extended warranty - No charge. Same thing for a catalytic converter replacement on a 2003 Jetta with around 90,000 miles. I think you'd be laughed out of the service bay if you tried to get Ford or Chevy to make good on something like that.

Now, just as they've begun to convince the U.S. consumer of their mainstream worthiness and environmental friendliness alongside Asian and U.S. products, they have a scandal on their hands that is every bit as damaging as any experienced by Toyota (unintended acceleration), Chrysler (Grand Cherokee rear-mounted gas tanks) or others in recent memory.

So how much damage has VW done to its brand? 

In his September 25 NY Times story, Ron Lieber suggests that beyond potential vehicle buy-backs or compensation of another kind, there’s a trickier question. Many of those who bought the diesel autos were trying to do their part for the environment. He says now, the logos on their vehicles have made them brand ambassadors for confessed cheaters, and they are now driving cars that spew as much as 40 times more pollution than emissions standards permit. How do you compensate somebody for that?

In a well-constructed post on Digiday, Neil James says the hashtag should be banished from the advertiser’s toolkit.

James is director of digital strategy at Minneapolis-based agency Solve. He says no brand’s campaign needs a hashtag – ever. Recalling an outdoor board for a tourism campaign that featured a campaign hashtag, James wondered what the advertiser possibly hoped he, the consumer, would do with this information.

His post is thoughtful, and offers three good reasons why the hashtag should be "shunned."

DIGIDAY

Some of the world’s best-known brands have the strangest names.

This story from Business Insider traces the origins of 17 of them – and their stories are just as quirky as their names.

Glen Campbell: “I’m still here, but yet I’m gone.”

That’s the first line of the song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” co-written by Campbell and producer Julian Raymond, and it says a lot. The song was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Song category, and won a Grammy for Best Country Song earlier this year.

One of the final scenes of the documentary film “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me” is the recording session for “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.” As Campbell is shown recording his voice tracks, you realize this was his very last studio session, working with his old friends Hal Blain, Joe Osborne and Don Randi, members of the legendary “Wrecking Crew.”

For them, I have no doubt it was an emotional day. The memories came flooding back from the early 1960s, when they played together on all kinds of recordings for nearly everybody who was anybody in the business. For Glen, it was just another day. He probably understood little of what was going on.

In 1968 he burst onto the scene like a musical supernova. He seemed to come out of nowhere, making a big impression on a 9-year-old growing up in boring suburbia. He became my original guitar idol. Others would follow – Clapton, King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy and others – but he was the first.

By the end of 1968, he had charted up a few more powerhouse hits written by the great Jimmy Webb. When “Wichita Lineman” reached #3 on the U.S. pop chart, and topped both the American country music and adult contemporary charts, he was established as a bona fide crossover music superstar. The so-called crossover artists who followed – Kenny, Dolly, Taylor – are all indebted to him.

The following year he starred in a big movie called “True Grit” alongside John Wayne. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.

Seeing his last recording session brings me back to his first big song. Composed by the gifted “newgrass” pioneer John Hartford (1937-2001), “Gentle on My Mind” is the story of a broken vagabond and his special relationship with a woman who he knows will always provide warmth and refuge in a cold, complex and often hostile world.

Campbell had it all – the voice, the looks and yes, the incredible guitar chops. And now Alzheimer’s has taken it all away, making him the vagabond, vulnerable but sheltered in the warm embrace of family, friends and faith. Oh yes, and fans – thousands of them. Their support enabled his five-week “farewell tour” to stretch more than a year.

Back to the film, Campbell’s musical peers were well represented. Keith Urban, Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Brad Paisley, John Carter Cash, Sheryl Crow, Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and U2 guitarist The Edge all commented on his influence.

But to me, President Bill Clinton’s comment was the most powerful. He said, “We don’t spend nearly enough on Alzheimer’s research.” I could not have said it better myself.

I think all of us are made a little less “whole” because of what Alzheimer’s takes away from us, but I also know that we’re all lucky to have experienced the music and witnessed the talent of Glen Campbell.

If I may borrow a line from daughter Ashley’s song: Don’t worry, Glen. We’ll do the remembering. 

Coke did not pay for its Mad Men finale role

Coca-Cola's premium position at the end of the "Mad Men" series finale was the real thing, not a paid integration, according to the company. In case you were wondering, they did not pay for the placement. The brand just got lucky, scoring the kind of free exposure every brand would kill for, and sending off the series with a real warm-fuzzy. I guess that’s the kind of thing a hundred years or so of brand equity, and groundbreaking advertising from agency McCann Erickson, will do for you. And it helps to be in the right place – in advertising history, that is. Makes me ask, "Was 1971 really the end of advertising's golden era?"

Read the details, and related stories, in Ad Age

Mad Men Will be Remembered as a Television Milestone

With the Mad Men series finale behind us, there isn't much for me to add. I've been on the record as stating that Matt Weiner's two TV epics, The Sopranos and Mad Men, were the best things on TV. Mad Men, considering the incredible depth of its characters, its acclaim, its historical accuracy, etc. make it a TV milestone. In the near future, people will speak of television series in terms of "before Mad Men" or "after Mad Men." Talk about setting a "high water mark!"

The New York Times ran a pretty good recap of the finale. I know you'll want to give it a look, think about all those great characters, and smile. Not a broad smile, just a little one, like the one expressed by Don Draper on that hillside.

For a while, I suspect those of us who came to love that show, and its brilliantly developed characters, will feel a kind of emptiness not unlike the kind expressed by the man in Draper's second seminar - like we're sitting on the refrigerator shelf, waiting for someone to open the door.

Should Tiffany's new classically styled watch be in the same conversation as Apple Watch?

A new TV spot for Tiffany promotes the brand’s classically styled CT60 watch with “A New York Minute.” The spot – 60 seconds, of course – celebrates New York and the brand’s establishment of the “New York Minute” when Charles Tiffany put one of the city’s first mainstay clocks outside the store.

Wrapping up his Adweek / Agency Spy article, Eric Oster asks, "will it be enough to persuade them to purchase the classic design of the CT60 over Apple’s sleek new tech?"

On this topic, I have a question of my own: Are Oster and others asking similar questions around Apple’s launch even momentarily considering market segmentation? Or is he making the knee-jerk assumption that everyone will buy an Apple watch just because it's new, it's from Apple, and it has more functions, so therefore it will surely replace the traditional wristwatch?

It's not much of a stretch to conclude that the classically-styled watch and the 'sleek new tech' watch have completely different buyer profiles. I think those who are aficionados of 'fine timepieces' will view Apple watch as a joke; a gadget for nerds, like those nerdy digital watches from the 80's, and avoid it like the plague. 

Here's another observation. Is it just me, or does the "New York Minute" tag make you think of that dark, brooding Don Henley song? Yes, as in marketing and life itself, in a New York minute, everything can change.