Producing Sun Fuel and Experiencing the Volkswagen Brand European-Style
May 25, 2007
by Stacie Sibbel
It's already Friday! Today we went to the "Volkswagen Autostadt," a 62-acre theme park to experience Volkswagen Group's different brands, as well as distribution point for vehicles by the individual buyer. The Autostadt is located in Wolfsburg, which is about one hour away from Berlin. We arrived at the theme park around 10:30 a.m. where we meet our tour guide and Nicholas Batten, the International Media Contact for the Autostadt.
Nicholas informed us about the Volkswagen Group and the different brands underneath it. We were surprised to learn that Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Skoda, Lamborghini, Seat, and the Autostadt are all part of the Volkswagen Group. Nicholas was our mentor for the day who wanted our input on the park and if the theme park pulled us into the Volkswagen brand. In a way, it seemed like we were part of an informal focus group.
Our tour guide took us on a two-hour tour through the park. We visited many of the exhibits and learned that this theme park was not trying to sell cars. Instead, Volkswagen wants to build long-term relationships with consumers showcasing art, history, information, and stories about the specific brands that comprise Volkswagen and about cars in general. In fact, the theme park does not feature any VW logos and also not very many cars. It focuses more on art and telling stories about the different brands that engage the visitor. As Nicholas reminded us, the Autostadt is not a showroom.
The main building named "Zeithaus" (time house) features a car museum with major milestones in the development of automobiles. Instead of showcasing every single Volkswagen model that has ever been created, the focus is on the development of the automobile in general, staring with the Henry Ford's Model T.
Another interesting exhibition is the "sun fuel lab," a station that lets the visitor navigate a robot that then plants watercress seed in a container. The visitor can then access pictures of the growth of his or her very own plant online and watch it grow every day over a period of nine days until it is "harvested" and turned into "sun fuel," an alternative to gasoline produced by biomass. This station demonstrates two of VW's core values: respect for nature and social responsibility.
In the park, each segment of the Volkswagen brand has a "pavilion" with its own theme. For example, Lamborghini features a loud, colorful, light show presented on a yellow Lamborghini, communicating the strength and elegance of the Italian sports car. Skoda (a Czech car company) on the other hand, presents its brand by educating the visitor about Czech culture and art before introducing two of its models at the end of the walking tour.
The park also includes attractions such as a virtual car design studio and several simulators that let visitors experience driving a car in various situations (i.e., bad weather, autobahn, mountains). In addition, there was a play area for children that had everything children dream of, including go-carts.
After the tour, Nicholas bought our whole group lunch at one of the many restaurants in the Autostadt. Each one of us had a "Volkswagen Currywurst," fries, and a drink. During lunch, we chatted about what we enjoyed and what attracted us as consumers. Nicholas was very interested in hearing about our experience in the park because that is the way their business improves.
When we were finished with our lunch, we had time to play around the park and try the attractions for ourselves. We all designed our own car, rode in the stimulator, and played a driving video game.
As a group, we learned useful information about the Volkswagen brands and how the VW Group has become such a successful company. From the theme park, we noticed that this brand cares more about the long-term relationship with a consumer than making a quick sell. We were impressed that Volkswagen has spent millions of dollars on this theme park to be able to connect with their customers.
Our time at the Autostadt ended around 6:00 p.m., which is when we rode the train back to Berlin. The weather was not cooperating with us and it was raining heavily. We walked from the train station to a nice restaurant where we had dinner together. This was the perfect way to end such a wonderful day!
