Brand is forecasting an investment of around BRL 12 million this year
With plans to total 28 electric chargers on Brazil’s roads and highways by February 2024 and an estimated investment of BRL 12 million, Volvo reinforces the message that the future of the automotive market is electrification.
The announcement of the increase in service stations was made last Monday (13th), during the “Volvo Summit 2023”, an event that presented the company’s plans and goals for the year.
With the new electrification phase, the company will have seven states and almost 10,000 kilometers of highways covered by charging stations, in addition to a partnership with Vibra.
We are expanding and adding more options for electric car owners to travel intercity and even interstate. What used to be a major bottleneck for owners of electric cars, Volvo is turning into a solution, said Marcelo Godoy, director of Volvo Cars Latin America Finance and Charging Infrastructure Operation in Brazil.
In addition to the announcement of the second phase of electrification, the company also announced the launch of two cars, which should arrive in Brazil in 2024, namely the EX90 and another that has the proposal to be a more accessible car to the public, which has not yet been revealed. .
During the event, the PROPMARK spoke with Viviane Gonçalves, marketing manager at Volvo to understand how the company intends to outline communication strategies for 2023.
What are the communication strategies that Volvo will apply in 2023?
As a Global brand, many of the campaign strategies end up being developed abroad and serving globally, but Brazil is ahead of other countries. But, sometimes, what we receive from the global (talking about the campaigns themselves and not the products) such as educational materials focused on teaching this new habit of the electric car, ends up not being enough for you, so, we developed some things around here. For this year, we will have the unveiling of a new model in the second quarter which, in addition to being a 100% electric SUV, will be our most sustainable car. This will be a campaign with a lot of weight, talking about what this car will provide, how versatile it will be, as it is a smaller SUV than the others we have. We plan to expand this communication. Now, in this part of product and brand, we put a person on the team who is exclusively dedicated to thinking about campaigns that talk about the habit of charging the car and publicizing the charging stations.
Volvo’s public is equivalent to 2% of the national population. With the arrival of this new car, how do you intend to increase this percentage?
I think it’s going to be one of the biggest challenges this year, for sure. Because, in fact, we are a premium brand and, today, we talk to a small portion of the population. We are going to need to reach a larger portion that perhaps still does not consider a Volvo, but when we reach a vehicle with a certain price range, they will see that we will already be compatible with other mass brands. This challenge will start right away, because this new car will be unveiled in 2023, but it will arrive in Brazil only in 2024, around April, so we are starting to talk about it now precisely to captivate a new audience, present the brand, present the electric car and create this relationship so that when the car arrives, we can focus on technology and price. This second semester will be focused on building this base.
You have some influencers with a lot of penetration among people, like Rebecca Andrade and Maisa. How important are they to present the brand to that part of the population that is still not your public?
They are essential and our strategy with them is precisely that they stay with the brand for a long time. We insist that they drive the car and live the experience of the car in order to be able to communicate this to people. In addition to them, we have also sought other ways to be present in the public’s memory, such as the appearances of cars in Globo soap operas, we lent an electric XC40 for the Netflix series “Queer Eye Brasil”… These are ways of having the car present and arousing the public’s curiosity on several platforms.
Formula E will land in Brazil this year. Does Volvo have any plans to participate in this race? How do you look at the sport?We do look at sport, but racing is not the activity that is most compatible with Volvo. Because it’s a sport about speed, getting first and all that, it ends up not speaking with the safety message that Volvo carries. So, by global standards, we don’t see racing as something opportune for the brand, but we have other sports that suit us better, such as the regatta race that goes around the world, called “The Ocean Race”. They are sailboats that pass through several regions, including Brazil, and we are partners in the championship. It’s a different sport, but it has everything to do with sustainability, it has the mission to cherish the health of the oceans and it suits us a lot. In Brazil, despite not having any official sponsorship, we have a partnership with So Paulo Futebol Clube, with a box in the stadium, and this was a way we found to offer a Volvo experience for a sport that is the face of the country and conversation. with all social classes.
