Badge marketing boosts sales

EVER since the Model T Ford, an army of marketers and advertising types have developed alphanumeric combinations to sell cars and differentiate models.

The badge makers thrive on such marketing hype because every layer of different models in a vehicle range needs additional badges to set it apart in the showroom and, later, in the used car yard.

But the nameplate industry also thrives on moves by sales departments to light a fire under sales of cars by rolling out limited editions and marketing specials like the recent Falcon Enforcer and Devil R XR8s.

Down the years there have been Vacationers and Shades and Sprints and Sports of all shapes and sizes.

Down at the coalface, where the badges hit the paintwork of these marketing specials, there is an industry of designers, toolmakers, injection moulders, chrome platers and screen printers serving the imaginations of advertising agencies and marketing managers.

According to David Padula, managing director of Motorvation Graphics, the key to the industry is to help importers and local car-makers differentiate their cars or drive additional sales without having to foot the bill for setting up their own design areas.

The company creates the designs and then integrates the manufacture and supply of badges with specialist partner companies. It is renowned for being able to turn around special edition badging in less than 10 weeks.

One of its most recent projects was the Subaru WRP10 limited edition of 200 sequentially numbered WRXs. This was an important model for Subaru Australia which imported the 200 WRXs to a special spec to add value to the base WRX offering.

The company makes the GXL badges for the LandCruiser and Prado, AWD and CV badges for the RAV4 and AWD, CV and CVX badges for the Kluger.

Motorvation Graphics also worked closely with Mazda in Japan to design the badging for the Mazda SP23 for Australia and a limited edition Mazda SP23 for the United States.

Mazda Australia developed the SP23 model to give greater value to the Mazda3 with its 2.3-litre engine.

The national marketing manager of Mazda Australia, Martin Benders, told GoAuto e-news that Mazda wanted to take a minimalist approach and just have Mazda3 and Mazda6 as model names.

"But, where there is an engine differentiation across the model range, if you don’t distinguish them in some way then basically you hurt the residual values on your more expensive versions," he said.

"So we used SP23 because it is a premium version and we want to make sure owners get the benefit of that when they replace their cars. When you ask Mazda3 owners what car they drive, the owners of the SP23s say they own an SP23. They don’t really see it as a Mazda3." Mr Benders said that Motorvation Graphics worked closely with the chief designer in Japan, Hideki Suzuki.

"Motorvation Graphics did the original design and he modified it only lightly." In November last year, Mazda in the US decided to do a special edition of its 2.3 hatchback.

"They contacted us because they liked the SP23 badge and they bought about 8000 of the badges from Australia," Mr Benders said.

Mr Benders said that Mazda Australia was selling more than 8000 SP23s a year. Mr Padula said that quick turnaround was vital for marketers. For years the industry typically took a 26-week lead time and $35,000 for tooling to create the badging needed for a limited edition model.

But that was often far too expensive and far too long a response time. Motorvation Graphics saw an opportunity and reduced the lead-time to 15 weeks and the tooling cost to $23,000.

These days the company is able to respond to a request for badging for a limited edition within nine weeks with a tooling bill of $15,000.

"We have been known to do it in six weeks with a tooling cost of $2000 to $3000 depending on what is needed," Mr Padula said.