The Routan Boom

I'm looking forward to seeing a marketing experiment played out in full force in the near future. Assuming the economy doesn't destroy sales prospects for anything with four wheels, Volkswagen has apparently granted their marketing guru full board voting rights. I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Guru: Listen, I know you want to make the return into the U.S. minivan market with greatness, but don't.

Collective board: We're listening.

Guru: Instead of producing something great that people want, let's produce something miserable and then brand it better than anything else in the world.

Collective board: Can we get Brooke Shields?

Guru: Um, sure.

And thus the Chrysler Town & Country was rebadged as the difficult-to-pronounce VW Routan, a minivan easily forgettable in both name and appearance. The Guru's plan was put into play with one of the best tongue-in-cheek ads that I've seen in a long time.

Look closely at the picture below and you'll see a minivan behind Brooke. Then watch the video on VW's site.



For additional reading, see Kyality's exceptional take.