I recently had the pleasure of speaking with automotive industry icon and visionary leader Johan de Nysschen for an episode of my Difference Talks podcast. He’s the genius behind the turnaround of Audi and Cadillac and has also held leadership positions at BMW, Infiniti and other renowned brands. I witnessed firsthand his work at Audi in the early 2000s, taking a brand with abysmal performance in the U.S. to a leading luxury automotive marque that competes with the best vehicles on the market today. During our conversation, he shared the importance of knowing what your brand stands for. It’s essential to establish a clear vision for what you want it to be moving forward. Do you want it to be a lower-priced brand that offers extraordinary value? Do you want an ultimate luxury brand or an expanded brand with additional products or services? Once you have a clear direction, you can begin to execute the vision, making it a reality.
What’s a brand vision? The brand vision is future-focused. In other words, it establishes what your company wants to achieve in the future. First, consider your current brand values and mission statement to determine where you’re starting from. Then try stepping back and ask, “Where do we want to be in five, ten, fifteen years?” This will help determine your goals and build a vision statement that explains the why behind what you do. It should be something that differentiates your company from the competition. In Johan’s story, Audi determined it wanted to be a luxury car brand that could compete at the highest levels with established luxury marques.
Who is the target customer? The brand vision will help identify information about your core audience. Consider not only their demographics, such as age, location, gender, employment and income, but also their psychographics, which include their values, interests and behaviors. As you look ahead to your brand’s future, who are the customers buying your products? Having a clear understanding of who they are will help you determine a strategy for reaching them.
Who are your competitors? Identify if your current competitors will remain the same or change. If you’re altering the brand’s direction, chances are, your competitive landscape will need to be updated. Research these competitors thoroughly to identify where you can differentiate your brand, fill gaps in the market and shore up any weaknesses you may have when stacked against these companies.
Does the product lineup fit? Examine your product portfolio—your product’s features, attributes and pricing. You can say you want to be a luxury brand, but if you don’t have the product substance to back it up, you’ll go nowhere fast.
Have you aligned all the key stakeholders? Johan’s challenge with establishing Audi as a key player in the luxury automotive market was aligning the dealer network with the new brand vision. With questionable product quality and dismal sales, the dealer network had become disengaged, and the customer experience suffered. They needed to help the dealers, even in the face of the brand losing money. Armed with support from corporate and a clear vision for the brand, the dealers made investments in their facilities and began to deliver the experience luxury customers expected. “If you have a winning team that is very clearly focused, knows what the gameplan is, and knows their own individual contribution towards that long-term goal, then leadership’s role is really to get out of the way, ensuring they are empowered and have the resources they need,” said Johan.
In just five years, Audi went from selling only around 75,000 cars per year in the U.S. to selling 225,000+ vehicles in 2023 and becoming a major player in the American luxury car market. It started with a visionary leader who established a new brand vision and took the risks needed to revive it. I invite you to listen to this inspiring turnaround story on the Difference Talks podcast, available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Johan is also included in my book, The Power of Differentiation, available now.
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