Audi CMO Talks about “Sense” and “Soul”

Anthony Fontanelle
April 2, 2007

Audi has started to set their sight on expanding their popularity in the United States luxury car market. In order for Audi of America to expand their success in the U.S., Johan de Nysschen, the Executive Vice President of Audi of America, appointed Scott Keogh as the Chief Marketing Officer last year.

Keogh, at a young age of 37 has already held various positions in Mercedes-Benz before jumping ship to join the other German car maker. Keogh recently talked with the AIADA Contributing Editor Marty Bernstein about his vision for the surging German brand.

When asked about how their company can grow in the United States, he pointed out two things that are essential to achieve the said feat. According to Keogh, he calls the first factor “sense” and the other one he calls “soul”. With regards to “sense”, Keogh has this to say: “In the sense quotient are elements of safety, value, quality, residual value. So, people will say, ‘I trust this brand, it makes sense’. As far as “soul” is concerned, he stated that it is about “performance, sexiness, the cool factor and the emotion the car inspires.”

Keogh stated that through the years, their company has focused on the “sense” area. He cited that the high residual value of their cars as an example of their achievements in the “sense” area. He added that “Consumer Reports just recommended four of our cars for the first time ever; we’ve just had the highest CSI scores we’ve ever had; NHTSA just gave the A6 the award for the safest large car on the road” as part of their achievements. He also further said that their 100 exclusive dealers are an essential part of their recent success. Approximately 270 dealerships in the U.S. are selling Audi vehicles. He added that they still want to increase the number of their dedicated dealerships to increase sales. Increasing the number of dealerships means that they will cover more area, making them more accessible to car buyers.

As far as “soul” is concerned, Keogh has this to say: “Audi has always been the very polite, reserved gentleman at a cocktail party who is holding a very interesting, informative and endearing conversation with someone. Now, we want to get our shoulders back, get out there and express ourselves.” To help them get that message out to the public, Keogh set out to find a new ad agency.

He has this to say about their selection of the new ad agencies: “My colleague, Stephen Berkov and I went around to a number of agencies and we picked four. We were confident in our selection and felt no need to cast a wider review net. We held the conversations we needed to hold and knew these four were going to give us what we needed.”

The four ad agencies picked out by the duo which is consisted of BBH, Fallon, McKinney, and Venables, Bell & Partners. These four agencies will be charged with the popularizing the Audi brand in the U.S., as popular as EBC rotors to automotive enthusiasts.

Source:  Amazines.com