[Latheesh]

TOI is called "Colour" paper in our office

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

For all those grumbling about TOI, you already know that you dont go to TOI if you want hardcore news.... why grumble now?

Just the fact that in about 5 hours, this thread is 5 pages long proves that VW succeeded.

Hardcore or not, it is the only paper I read in the morning!

What made it tolerable for us petrol heads was that the ad was by an auto company. Just imagine how it would have been if the ads were by a political party instead.

[Technocrat]

Yeah a big surprise it is for sure.

Is it just a coincidence that this came right after the news of VW being declared the largest Car Maker?

[malgudi]

Wow! is what i felt as i looked at the TOI todays edition. VW have successfully created their brand awareness in people's mind.

The way I look at it is instead of spending 10-15 crores in hiring a sportstar or film personality to create an image, they have spent it on the TOI for advertising & have done a good job at it.

[jigbarai]

^^
Totally Agree. Whatever they did and spent has made a clear Impact on the masses.

Much much better way to spend money than to have some Mr Yuvraj drive around (without wearing a seat belt) and know / talk nothing about the car.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

I may point out that at least in Cochin / Ernakulam, there are more VWs on the roads than any other brand in its class. Including Skodas.

[vkochar]

Originally Posted by jigbarai

^^
Totally Agree. Whatever they did and spent has made a clear Impact on the masses.

Much much better way to spend money than to have some Mr Yuvraj drive around (without wearing a seat belt) and know / talk nothing about the car.

Absolutely right !! In fact rather than paying a huge sum to useless celebrities. I'd rather print some important info on the paper and make sure the whole world reads it.

OT - The only exception of a celebrity promoting a brand really well is - SRK for Hyundai. They both look good together and are a huge HIT.

VW Polo has already created a ruffle in the entire country and this morning I found one of my relatives talking about the car and how eagerly he wants to buy it !! Surprise Surprise !! And this person know zilch about a car - he wanted to buy a i10 in January.

[siddhu_engg24]

Approx. 50 beetle & 25 Touareg (from Mexico & Slovakia plants resp.) have already been dispatched & they are on their way to India.

[ACM]

Must be appreciated, VW needed to do something different to get mindshare and they have done something major on this path.

so now we await the polo.

[raul]

These are just ads, they do not demonstrate any greater commitment or quality or anything else, talk is cheap and one wishes Volkswagen would spend the resources resolving the Skoda issue and which would do significantly more to build the brand than squandering money on TOI. After that they can consider spending money on advertising. This seems a bit hollow and empty.

[chncar]

Originally Posted by herculesksp

Similarly here, VW are making a statement. Auto in German means Car. Das Auto means 'The Car'. VW are 'THE' car makers and that is indeed true if you look back at their history and how they made the first affordable car for the masses. However the significance is lost on us, since Das is an Indian surname and Auto is a english word and also a very popular mode of transport in India. :P


Anyway, now that I have, hopefully, answered the question on why das auto, let me move on to my thoughts.

Sir,

I think you are not giving TBHPians any credit for intelligence.

Virtually everybody on TBHP knows without being told the meaning of Das Auto, etc, and even if they dont, they definitely know how to get it translated online. I don't think they need lessons on that regard.

Regarding their history, if anybody is to be credited with making 'The Car' or pioneering the automobile, it would be their cousins at Stuttgart/Mannheim.

VW did NOT make the first affordable car for the masses, it was just the first car for the masses in Nazi Germany sponsored by Adolf Hitler, who got the idea in the first place by looking enviously at the Americans and others. The first Beetle rolled off the assembly lines in 1938, and very few were produced for actual consumers till after the war. By comparison the first mass market car (the Model T Ford), born of real assembly line innovations by Henry Ford, already sold over 15 million cars and the production stopped in 1927, a full 11 years before the birth of VW (that too because competitors in America had caught on and introduced a bunch of newer, cheap cars in the market)! It took the Beetle till 1972 to actually overtake the Model T Ford in numbers. And the Beetle was really a Porsche and would probably have been sold as one by Ferdinand Porsche who designed it, if Hitler had not tried to make political mileage out of it, apparently the prefix Volks was a popular one with various products and schemes thought up by the Nazis.

Originally Posted by herculesksp

No one complained when Audi advertises their cars as 'Vorsprung durch Technik' though I am sure 90% of the junta didn't understand what that meant and 90% of those didn't even bother looking up what it meant.

Vorschsprung Durch Technik actually means something, that is the motto of Audi engineering, i.e progress through technology. It says something about the whole philosophy of Audi's engineers, Auto Union heritage, Qattro, etc and it's USP is much more than just being a German word.

Even Das Auto by itself would be ok, but saying 'Its not a car, its Das Auto' gives the impression of condescending arrogance in telling us that we should be impressed by something just because it has a German name. I find this repulsive, regardless of how advanced or famous they might be. It's completely different from VDT or 'The ultimate driving machine' or 'Why did we build it this way? Because we promised you a Mercedes-Benz that's why'.

[herculesksp]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Hardcore or not, it is the only paper I read in the morning!

I would go only to say, it is the only paper I can read in the mornings. I have had my stint with Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle, Indian Express, The Hindu, but I chose to go back to TOI. I am not 50+ years old to sit in my easy chair with a coffee and a copy of The Hindu.

For news, I always have the internet and some good TV channels. For headlines, TOI is enough. For gossip, ads and eye candy, TOI is the best.

Ok, enough TOI, back to VW now.

[greenh0rn]

Guys, if you think VW did something big with ToI, wait until you see their new TV commercial coming on air today/tomorrow. The only thing I dislike is- this commercial's story is lifted straight from Porsche's legendary one-

The ad shows a young boy in a Volkswagen showroom deciding on the cars that he wants to 'book in advance' at various stages of his life – one for his 18th birthday, one when he becomes the 'vice-president' of a company and another when he eventually becomes the chief executive officer.

The tagline at the end of the commercial says, 'German engineering. Made for India'.

Btw, the 'roadblock' deal with ToI is estimated to have costed around Rs. 7 crore.

[esteem_lover]

Got myself a copy just to be part of this blitzkrieg.

[maverickxx2006]

What an advertisement. I have not seen this kind of advt blitz anywhere. Hats off to VW on taking such an extraordinary step.

I' am sure FIAT should learn from this advertising blitz.

FIAT has right cars and right technology, it desperately needs an advt. drive of this grande scale so that people can sit up and take notice of.

FIAT / Tata Motors(if you want to): are you listening?