Turkish spoken here
June 25, 2011
One young man is dressed in heavy biker gear, another wears an ironed shirt and brings flowers, but a middle-aged man with a black mustache, quite obviously the stereotypical head of a family with Turkish roots living in Germany, slams the door in both their faces. It's only when a young man arrives in a brand new Volkswagen that the Turkish father gives him a warm hug and lets the young man drive away with his daughter.
This Volkswagen commercial is part of a marketing campaign entitled "Volkswagen speaks Turkish," which is designed to spark the interest of Germans with Turkish background in VW cars and alert them to the fact that Volkswagen has been hiring Turkish-speaking staff in many major German cities.
The campaign was first launched in 2005 in Berlin, with the television ad airing three years later.
"Almost 3 million people living in Germany have Turkish roots," said VW-spokesman Fred Bärbock. "We want to do a better job of addressing them."
Marketing to ethnic groups
Ethnic marketing, or addressing a group of people with an ethnic background different from the majority of a country's population, is being used in Germany by companies trying to appeal to new customers. Market research has found people with different ethnicities follow different buying patterns.
Compared to ethnic Germans, for instance, people with Turkish roots are said to react faster to trends and to be much more brand conscious. Experts also estimated that consumers with Turkish roots wield purchasing power of 20 billion euros ($28.6 billion) per year, making them a worthwhile target of marketing campaigns.
Volkswagen is not the first German company to come up with ethnic marketing campaigns. For years, Deutsche Bank has cast itself as Bankamiz, meaning "the bank for us" in Turkish. Deutsche Telekom and other phone companies have developed special rates for those with a migrant background, and discount supermarkets advertise in Turkish or Russian.
"In the past two or three years we have seen the trend pick up a lot," said Bülent Bora, managing director of the KOM Media advertising agency. While it used to be only big companies investing in ethnic marketing campaigns, now medium-sized companies also take part.
Potentially loyal customers
Car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz was one of the first German companies to engage in ethinc marketing. Back in the mid-1990s Mercedes-Benz ran poster ads and TV commercials in Turkish. The campaign worked so well that it was abandoned after a while. No ads were needed anymore to inform the ethnic Turks in Germany of the fact that Mercedes boosted Turkish-speaking staff, especially since they are considered to have what marketing experts a high brand loyalty.
Aside from representing a relatively big group of almost 3 million potential customers, there is another reason why ethnic marketing in Germany primarily targets those with Turkish roots: They can be easily reached via Turkish-speaking newspapers and television stations. The same was true for the 3.5 million Russian-Germans, said advertiser Bülent Bora. But all the other groups of migrants lacked comparative structures and were thus very hard to reach with targeted campaigns.
A sign of appreciation
According to Matthias Kulinna, who works as a consultant in ethnic marketing, ethnic Turks in Germany tend to feel unwanted.
"Ethnic marketing makes up for this lack in acceptance," said Kulinna. "An ad targeted specifically at them tells them, 'You're welcome here.'"
To convey this feeling, he added, it was enough to use their native language.
Volkswagen said it intends to increase its ethnic marketing campaigns. After the success of the Turkish spot, they consider developing a campaign tailored specifically for the Russians in Germany.
Author: Dеnnis Stutе/ ar
Editor: Thomas Kohlmann