SCHMIDPREISSLERBRIEF©
SchmidPreisslerConsultants · Innovative Strategic Advice - Research - Analysis - Market Solutions · Established 1961
March 2025
Brands have lost their “face”
The European automotive industry is in a deep crisis. Shares in VW, BMW and Mercedes have lost up to 20 per cent in 2024. Mass redundancies due to declining sales at almost all car brands are the result. The industry's threatening plight is often attributed to the slow pace of e-technology, over-regulation, high location costs, weak sales in China and, last but not least, tariffs. However, we also see the loss of the ‘faces’ of the European automotive brands as a contributing factor. People's relationship, trust and sympathy for their familiar brands is dwindling. The new uniformity in design is robbing brands of their character and, in many cases, their charm. The appearance of the brand managers is irritating. Language and communication sound strange, anxious, insecure and do little to inspire confidence. In general, one has the impression that the relationship between the industry and customers has been severely disrupted. Reluctance to buy prevails and the joy of driving, which a German car brand used to advertise a few years ago, is missing.
Much of this is reminiscent of the decline of the American automotive industry in the 1950s and 1960s. When the chrome overloaded, garishly coloured and bulky car brands, which could hardly be distinguished from one another, no longer found a market, there was a dramatic brand demise. Only a new anticipatory spirit of mobility from Europe, essentially Mr Nordhoff's ‘Beetle’, the ‘ugly duckling’ from the French and the nippy Fiat from Turin brought new impetus to mobility. Change was the order of the day. Today, it is the Chinese who are revolutionizing the automotive market.
The solution for Europeans cannot be to copy the Chinese in order to assert themselves in the Chinese market or to use these copies to regain lost confidence in their home market of Europe. In order to get back on the road to success, it is important to restore the face of the brands - certainly using the latest technology, but with the DNA of the brands, their character and a language that connects. The lead through technology, only the best and the joy of driving must be the guidelines for future strategies and their realization for the European automotive industry with its incomparable brands. Engineering, design and communication are now required.
What applies to the automotive industry applies equally and without compromise to every company. The size of the markets is increasing dramatically. De-globalization requires the formation of new leaders in the world of brands.
Europe is no longer the only supplier of global brands. Today and in the future, global brands will also come from Asia, Africa and the Americas. Italians have to share their dominance in the elegant world of fashion with Africans, the Americans have to share smartphones with world-class looks with the Chinese, safari tourism and cruise organizers are competing successfully with winter sports destinations in the European Alps, etc.
Companies that add the power of the brain to the classic production factors, invest in the future with brands, build on long-term value creation strategies and make leadership the goal of every strategy will have the hub for success in their hands with DNA- and USP-driven brands.
The SchmidPreissler-Brief team, Dipl.-Soz. Maximiliana Schürrle, Dipl.-Volksw. Christina Schmid-Preissler, Alexander Schürrle and Franz M. Schmid-Preissler send their regards. If you would like to discuss the topic of brand DNA and USP with us: Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!. We are at your disposal.
Your F. M. Schmid-Preissler
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SchmidPreissler International Strategy Consultants GmbH · Ismaninger Straße 140 · D-81675 München · Tel. +49 89 139 29579 Fax: +49 8022 26042 · Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! · Register Amtsgericht München HRB 5285 Geschäftsführer: Franz M. Schmid-Preissler, Philomena Schmid-Preissler · Usta-IDF-Nr. DE 143 178 51317 Für den Inhalt verantwortlich (MStG): Franz M. Schmid-Preissler - Anschrift siehe oben
