How is was, and how it could be...

[Paul Franssen]

Just read an interesting article in a Flemish "Financial" magazine's weekend automotive page, about the Bentley Continental GT, a large "sporty" luxury 4-seater coupe...
As you all know, Bentley is now part of the VW group of companies, and the article goes on about the changes brought to the "old" Bentley marque.
I translate some lines,

In spite of the heavy investments (of abt $750million, by VW), Bentley make very conservative use of this additional budget...and by the application of very peculiar solutions... Says director of communications Sarah Perris "We have no money for advertising, which isn't so bad, we think: it forces us to think creatively about how to advertise. With the launching of the Continental GT model in mind, we sought an event which would bring to the attention of a new public the sporty character of the car. At the end of the 1920's Bentley established great repute by winning the 24 hours of Le Mans three years in a row... In order to re-profile ourselves as the sporty luxury marque we have, these past three years, linked to the Le Mans tradition. This year, Bentley entered 2 cars at Le Mans...it was a big risk...we put our entire advertising budget into that race. Bentley finished 1st and 2nd in the race...we won convincingly and it resounded accross the world...Interest for Bentley soared...we felt the warmth, the enthusiasm, the spontaneous interest for our marque. With advertising, it is impossible to make hearts beat as fast... etc...etc... the force behind our racing team is ...Derek Bell...

sigh...

[beepbeep]

I have better idea:

skip the racing and put all money into 2.5 ton SUV, prefferably during economic downturn. when nobody buys it, make watered-down version of it together with VW and try to sell it with discount. Now that will send your company sky-high!