Volvo Wants Rugged—and Safe

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Despite rhetoric from Ford the past several years about engineering synergies between Ford, Lincoln, and Volvo (vehicles such as the current Ford Taurus, Taurus X, and forthcoming Flex crossover are built off the old S80 engineering platform), the truth is Volvo's engineering culture and apparatus is incredibly difficult to integrate with Ford's, and using Volvo engineering platforms at Ford has saved the company very little.

The new TV ads, then, come at a time when other carmakers and financiers are literally kicking the tires on the whole company. The TV ad set to Wheels on the Bus is a good example of how Arnold is out to strike the balance between safety, adventure, ruggedness, and kids. It's also a terrific case study in how to incorporate actual product benefits into an ad that is entertaining to watch. The couple picks up a fellow hiker and pushes the button for the power liftgate. The song lyric becomes "The power tailgate goes up and down, up and down, up and down…" They drive gently down a steep hill under total control with no wheel skid, and the lyric shifts to "The hill descent control goes nice and slow, nice and slow, nice and slow…"

Not for a Football Audience

None of the men in these ads look as if they are apt to be watching Monday Night Football with their pals over a six-pack of Molson. They all seem too pretty attentive to their wives for that. And I suppose that's the way it's meant to be in a Volvo ad. These ads are aimed at making Volvos seem very un-minivan-like to both men and women, but they are especially designed, it seems, for men to feel like they might be more attractive to their wives if they were the kind of men who could be happy in a Volvo with them out on a picnic or a rugged trek to the top of a mountain instead of driving a Lamborghini to watch the game on Monday night.

Whether the new positioning takes hold and increases sales and consideration will take at least two years to determine, though I doubt Volvo's owners—Ford or a new company—will wait that long to try and find out. One thing is for sure. The depth of Volvo's brand image is incredibly valuable. The company just has to get the attention of more people who like what it stands for.

David Kiley is a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau.