This campaign illustrates how our technology and attention to safety critical parts can make the difference between ‘making it’ and ‘almost making it’. Quite simply, the adverts make you think
The first part of TRW’s new road safety campaign is due to launch later this month. It features hard hitting images of driving situations where to use chassis systems parts of a lower caliber – could have catastrophic results.
“This campaign illustrates how our technology and attention to safety critical parts can make the difference between ‘making it’ and ‘almost making it’. Quite simply, the adverts make you think,” said Soeren Kristensen, TRW's European Marketing Services Manager.
Why did TRW choose to take the ‘emotive’ stance for this campaign?
In dangerous driving situations, there is always a fine line between making it and almost making it. The difference depends on how the combination of the driver’s ability and the performance of the vehicle’s braking or steering components allow the driver to remain in control. If you want your car to deliver the best performance in challenging driving situations, you need to fit the best components – and that’s what you get with products from TRW, a supplier of integrated safety systems.
How will this campaign assist our customer, the distributor to sell more product?
The current market affords little room to sell "more" product – what we want to do is to focus on the quality of the product sold. We passionately believe that premium quality is the better value option in the supply chain from manufacturing and distribution through to installation. The driver can have confidence in the replacement part, the installer has the power of the TRW brand, heritage and OE quality behind him together and the distributors have the support of a premium OE supplier. And by offering quality TRW product at a fair market price, we believe we offer the best all-round package to the market.
How did you decide to take this approach to advertising the product?
As drivers, I’m sure we have all had that stomach churning moment – the child’s ball rolling out in front of the car, the pedestrian stepping into the road without looking, the cyclist who appears from nowhere…
In that moment of uncertainty, that seems to last forever, you take a deep breath and ‘hope’ that you will make it.
And in most cases you will, if the components working together to control the car are in good shape. And that is TRW is all about. Making it safely through a dangerous situation.
As an industry, we tend to forget that we are not only delivering ‘products’ in boxes but also something far more simple: we deliver trust. Trust that a car will stop when you step on the brake. Trust that the car will go in the direction you want it to. And that’s what the new TRW campaign is all about.
What is the over-riding message behind the campaign – and who is it aimed at ?
The message we are conveying is that you depend on quality in the extreme situations. In those situations you want the best performance and that is what you get from TRW.
TRW is not an end-user brand. We are a business-to-business brand and are speaking directly to our distributors. End users depend on their trusted garage to make the right choice in replacement parts, as the average driver won’t have the specialist knowledge to make an educated decision.
As consumers, we are flooded with brands in our everyday lives. Some brands we know through our profession, others through our private lives. It is an impossible task to know and recognize all those brands surrounding us unless we are dealing with the brands on a regular basis, building up a brand relationship.
TRW has a brand relationship with the members of the automotive sector, but we are not a part of the day-to-day life of the vast majority of end consumers making a brand relationship very difficult.
How do you think it will help to increase sales and raise awareness of the brand?
The campaign reminds everyone of the dangers we face on the roads toady and that we all have a part to play in keeping drivers, passengers and pedestrians as safe as possible.
The current recession will have winners and losers. It is inevitable in times such as these that some brands will disappear from the market and distributors and installers will have to find others to fill the gap. So, from a commercial point of view, NOW is the time to raise awareness of the TRW brand.