VW Hopes "Max" Advertising Builds On Sales Momentum

Implications: VW may be having a good run right now, but the brand seems to become front-of-mind only when it introduces a product that catches the nation's imagination.

Analysis: For Volkswagen Group of America executives, life is about as good as it can be right now-given that U.S. car sales are at their lowest level in a decade, their dealers are starved for product and the parent company still hasn't figured out how to offset the growing currency exchange disadvantage of producing in euros the vehicles that they sell in the United States.

Their good cheer results from the fact that VW has bucked the trend and produced a first quarter increase in U.S. sales, including a 13% gain in March, and that a record five new and relaunched models will be streaming into dealerships as the year unfolds.

And one more thing: "Max" is now on the prowl. The personification of a black 1964 Beetle is the "mascot" of an ambitious new advertising and marketing campaign for Volkswagen called Das Auto, German for "the car." The campaign will build on Volkswagens unique place in pop culture through its message of "It's What the People Want."

But Max's effectiveness is far from a foregone conclusion. While it may be true that VW has earned a permanent place in America's collective consciousness, it seems to become front-of-mind only when it introduces a product that captures the nation's imagination. The original Beetle and the new Beetle, introduced several years ago, are about the only vehicles that have accomplished that for Volkswagen in the United States.