A clean-cut household icon

摘要

The German company Vorwerk, maker of the high-end Kobold vacuum cleaner, is in an enviable position. Its sales representatives - called sales advisers are actually welcome at most of the doors they knock on. "In Germany, people don't like door-to-door salesmen much," says Ursula Schom-burg, marketing director for Kobold Systems Floor Care in Germany. "But then the salesman says 'Tam from Vorwerk.' And because we have a brand awareness of more than 80 percent and a very good image, the customers are normally glad that he's there." The Wuppertal-based company doesn't do any regular advertising. Instead, it relies on its nearly 5,000 agents who sell door-to-door. "Each day they contact 10 households, so we have a lot of penetration there," says Schomburg. "That's our advertisement. It's such an old brand that most people in Germany know Vorwerk from their mothers or their grandmothers." Vorwerk began selling the first generation Kobold vacuum cleaners in 1930. An amazing 59 percent of their sales are to repeat customers. In 2000, according to Vorwerk's annual report, the turnover for direct sales of the floor care Kobold systems was 679.5 million euro (USD581 million). The direct sales approach drives the company's decision-making, not just in marketing strategy, but also in product design. In other words, if the company is committed to direct sales, and the sales process requires personal demonstrations, then the salesman can't carry three or four different models door-to-door. Therefore a single vacuum cleaner has to be of sufficient quality that customers are willing to pay three to four times as much for a Kobold as for a competing model.