Caption Contest, anyone?
What is Victor thinking right now?
OK, with that over with….
Victor Muller appeared on a 6 minute segment with Bloomberg TV today. It’s not embeddable, so you’ll have to visit Bloomberg to watch it.
UPDATE: Here’s the video, via Youtube. Thanks to Dan and others for the tip!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e30YkRHPGNk
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A couple of interesting things come out of this.
There are a few themes that Victor is going to some lengths to emphasise in recent interviews and presentations.
First, the Saab 92 is not in Saab’s business plan. He’s still quite happy to talk about it and off-camera, he’s quite happy to show the sketch on his Blackberry. But every talk now is accompanied with the disclaimer – it’s not in our business plan.
Talk about this car used to be quite free and easy, like it was expected. Talk about this car now is much more reserved. Either they’re going to some lengths to get the focus off this car and on to current product (which is understandable) or they’re not feeling as sure about it as they used to.
I don’t know which one it is. I’m just noting the trend and the increased emphasis.
Secondly, there’s a bigger than usual amount of discussion there about letting people know that Saab are still around, and about getting back old customers. Victor has mentioned selling to previous customers before – he’s reeled off the stats about the percentage of old customers Saab need to re-engage, etc. This time, there seems once again to be a higher degree of urgency about it.
Saab’s taken some flack here and elsewhere about the tone and nature of some of their marketing, and how it hasn’t really spoken to Saab people. Perhaps this is a reflection of the possibility that Saab people aren’t really seeing it, or identifying with it?
Personally, I think Saab has done a good job re-engaging with those customers who have the inclination to look for Saab events or materials to connect with. But there are a lot more who are not so inclined – ones to whom Saab has to reach out, not just allow in.
The challenge is in finding out how to do that.
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