Somewhere in the years leading
up to The Great Financial Gaming, Volvos became beautiful. The stunning and short-lived Peter
Horbury-designed C30 coupe and Pininfarinaesque C70 convertible mark the recent
beginning of the end of function-over-form Swedish boxcars. The current fleet challenges Audi for sheer
no-gimmicks beauty.
But all is not well in the land
of the manic-depressive sun. Ford's
ownership tenure turned edges into curves and shrank staid midsize Volvo platforms
to the nimbler, svelter compact Focus-derived C1 chassis but also introduced
piggish trucky things to the line. Current
Chinese master Geely Holding is mulling over yet another brand refocusing, at
once shaking its head over the slow-moving SUV line while considering a larger,
more expensive Volvo sedan for the Chinese prestige market.
This Unhumble Car Czar does not
pretend to understand brand perception in China, but does know that what China covets
in automobiles increasingly dictates what the rest of the world drives. This is not due
to any vast Communist plot, but rather because China continues to modernize and
multiply despite baby quotas and has enough bucks in the bank to bolster, buy-up, and just plain make or break faltering established automotive
brands.
The Chinese reverence for the
tri-shields of Buick surely saved that once and future iconic American luxury brand
as General Motors flamed out under decades of mismanagement, leaving the
once-muscled-up but lately unloved plastic-clad Pontiac brand to perish. Volvo's reputation for solidity and safety
earned it adoption papers from the world’s emerging economic powerhouse while
the sheer clownishness of the Hummer brand earned it nothing but a one-night
flirtation and walk-of-shame into oblivion.
So what to do with a brand with
a once-well-loved market identity clouded by a decade of big-box marketing
schizophrenia?
#1. Remember your Corporate Memory
As in, “Hey Volvo. What’s made you special after all these
years?”
Well, you are usually more reliable
than other European brands, which makes you worth more money than, say, a VW
... and a screaming bargain compared to, say, an Audi. You usually eschew the inane trendy
overcomplications of the trying-too-hard premium German brands, which makes you
cost less money than, say, a Mercedes. You have happy, decades-loyal owners in the multi-million-mile
club. You come up all stars on those government smash-up tests.
In other words, you’ve built solid, practical cars that that make a compelling case for costing a
little more than American or Asian snoozemobiles but you’ve never attempted to
social-climb with the bleeding-edge bankruptcymobiles. You've spent your existence plowing your corporate mission into keeping your customers safe while your peers have in many cases depended on lawsuits to reinforce this value.
There will always be a market
segment that profoundly appreciates that.
#2: Think about the Future
SUVs are practical for small
parts of the market segment. Their
short-lived market stardom was sheer trendiness, but now the only trend-setters
driving them around are leftover soccer moms who can’t afford to trade in. Volvo: Ditch
your XC line, and consider ditching all-wheel drive altogether.
You’ll be left with quick,
sensible front-wheel-drivers, and their sensible drivers will be better served
by modern snow/ice tires when the weather turns truly intractable. All-wheel drive adds weight that defeats fuel
economy and complexity that defeats the long-term cost-of-ownership advantages
of a Volvo. Sensible drivers in sensible
front-wheel-drivers simply don’t benefit from it.
Next, bring the V40 to the United States.
It’s your gorgeous C30 with two extra doors and one extra seat, all of
which will make it a sales smash this time around if you base under 30k with a turbo four or five rocking 220 HP. Former compact SUV
intenders will snap it up as more of them realize they were just sitting up
higher and listing left and right more before.
Bring the V70 back to the U.S for those who need to
haul more stuff or people. The third-row jump seat should address those buyers who were only buying large SUVs
for occasional extra passengers.
Where does this leave the S60
and 80? Merged, from a marketing
standpoint. Except for the slightly
tighter rear seat and trunk, the S60 eliminates the need for the S80. How’s ‘bout a single sedan that competes in
the C/E range for those markets that favor sedans? Make a wagon out of it in markets where
wagons work.
You should be able to
accomplish this compact/midsize line strategy with just two platforms, or
consider a single scalable platform ala VW.
Meanwhile let the Chinese Volvo
market experiment with big executive Volvos if they insist. Maybe long-wheelbase luxo $200k Volvos will
fly off the showrooms in Shanghai some day, but until then just get back to
doing what you do best in the rest of the world.
