Charles Caleb Colton the eccentric English writer said that “imitation
is the sincerest form of flattery”. There is evidence of this across every walk
of life. The best chefs have their recipes copied, the most impressive
paintings are reproduced as prints and the most popular songs are the ones
belted out at karaoke bars. In a competitive
business environment things are no different. The best food brands see their
products imitated by own brand rivals and so on and so forth. When imitation is
so common and easily done it becomes difficult for brands to distinguish
themselves from their rivals and establish the image of being the best option
in the eyes of their target market.
The Volkswagen Golf is the world’s second highest selling
car ever. Its different models have won countless awards over the years and
established the image of being the best hatchback on the market. A source of
frustration for VW over time has been the inevitable efforts of competitors to
communicate to customers that their offerings are every bit as good as the Golf.
Volkswagen has successfully made light of this in the past with the campaign “Why
drive something like a Golf when you can drive a Golf?” This was a very blunt
but effective way to illustrate to consumers that the Golf was the benchmark in
the market that all others strove to imitate so why bother with them when you
can have the real thing.
This approach was so successful that it has been revisited
for the launch of the new Golf GTI through the “My Way” ad. The ad features a
number of karaoke hopefuls offering their personal take on how best to imitate
the popular song “My Way” before presenting viewers with the original version
as the new Golf GTI enters the screen driving through Las Vegas before
demonstrating the cars handling capabilities going through a series of
impressive manoeuvres. From start to finish I think it’s an extremely effective
ad as its unique start creates curiosity that keeps viewers engaged so they are
paying full attention when Volkswagen’s message is delivered. The point the ad gets across is that like the
famous Frank Sinatra song, many have tried to imitate the Golf but none have
come close to the original, hence the tagline “Often copied. Never equalled”.
Shane Kelly
