How the VW Citi Golf became a marketing icon that companies could still learn from today
If necessity is the mother of invention, Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) found itself in line for a desperately needed jolt of creativity back in the early 1980s.
Through the era of the Beetle and the first-generation Golf that replaced it locally in 1978, the “people’s car” brand had always catered for first-time buyers and those on a budget. But now the company was gearing up to introduce the more upmarket Golf 2, and as much as this presented an opportunity to swim upstream, it also meant the company would have to abandon the affordable end of the market.
After investing heavily in building the new Golf and Passat locally, introducing the first-generation Polo was not a particularly viable option, especially given that there wasn’t a five-door version, and soon the company’s top brass became sold on the idea of extending the life of the original Golf 1.
It made perfect sense as the tooling to build it was already in place and would be amortised by the time Golf II came along.
The project hardly got off to a good start. The initial product proposal, unlovingly dubbed “Econo Golf”, was stripped of features to the point of being ridiculous - it didn’t even have interior grab handles or carpets - and was also incredibly boring in its awful beige hue. Thankfully, the company decided to go back to the drawing board.
Having been vocally underwhelmed by the proposed model, VWSA’s advertising agency RS-TM, which later merged with Ogilvy, spent many restless days and nights trying to figure out how to take a decade-old design (Golf 1 had been launched abroad in 1974) and transform it into something that would appeal to the young and trendy set.
Eventually, and with a little inspiration from Mondrian art, the Red, Yellow, Blue (which one are you?) Citi Golf concept was born, complete with its distinctive white wheels, bumpers and decals and classy tweed-like Donegal grey cloth seats. Legend has it that RS-TM art director Jenni Button had been so dismayed with VW’s original vinyl seat upholstery sample that she detached the top of her office chair and sent it back with a message to the tune of “even this trim would be more suitable”.
The Citi Golf would cost a bit more than the original Econo Golf proposal, but focus groups quickly showed that its young and hip target market was more than happy to spend the extra R300 that it would command. That’s around R6,000 in today’s money.
When the original Citi Golf went on sale in 1984, at a starting price of R7,630, few people would have imagined that it would go on to outlast five generations of the Golf, finally reaching the end of its life cycle in 2009 after 364,813 cars were produced at the VWSA factory in Kariega, formerly Uitenhage.
Although it wasn’t the first time that a car had enjoyed an extended production life, what stood out was the sense of flair that VWSA managed to create around what was essentially a dated product, backed up by a vibrant marketing campaign.
“It could be said that the initial Citi Golf campaign was the first to define and exploit the ‘disrupt-the-category’ idea and to successfully leverage ‘brand activation’ as a prime marketing tool,” said Mel Miller, who was Creative Group head of the VW Account at RS-TM at the time of the car’s launch in 1984.
Uniquely South African creations
Rival car firms followed with their own colourful creations over the subsequent decade as they sought to attract entry-level buyers for their own dated products.
By this time it had become common for South African car manufacturers to extend the life cycles of their vehicles as the market was still transitioning from the industrial protectionism of the apartheid era to the new dawn of democracy that would eventually see our factories churn out fewer models but with huge and lucrative export contracts in the 2000s.
But back in the early 1990s, entry-level car buyers who didn’t want a Citi Golf in their garage could opt for an Opel Kadett Cub, Mazda 323 Sting or Ford Laser Dash, all available in bright colours and decorated with decals. Toyota joined in the fun from 1996 with its Tazz, and Fiat’s Uno also spawned a head-spinning array of special editions, including the Beat and Rio.
Delta Motor Corporation, which built Opels under licence following GM’s divestment in 1986, took things up a notch with other unique local models like the Kadett GSE range, while also making the GSi pizazz available to the masses with the Monza 160 GSi sedan, which won Car of the Year in 1991.
Nissan also added some much-needed spice to its middle of the road Sentra sedan and Sabre hatchback with the affordable but sporty GX variants, and later the locally-facelifted GXI models. Much like Toyota did with its Corolla Sprinters.
These manufacturers took what were otherwise fairly bland cars and turned them into something semi-aspirational for the mass market by adding some local spice and innovation.
Of course, there are plenty of iconic performance cars that came from local factories, such as the BMW 333i, Ford Sierra XR8 and Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0, but that’s a story for another day.
Keeping it fresh
Meanwhile, back in the budget car camp, Volkswagen managed to keep its Citi Golf fresh through constant product innovation and gradual improvements to the package.
The white bumpers eventually made way for body coloured trimmings and numerous special editions followed through the years, including the Deco, Designa and Ritz, while the perkier 1.8-litre CTI revived the spirit of the original GTI and the Shuttle, and later Chico, joined the entry-level “price war” of the 1990s.
The year 1999 saw fuel injected 1.4i and 1.6i engines join the range, while the new millennium brought more special editions like the Citi Golf.com and Life. 2003 brought a facelift that included one-piece front windows and a completely modern dashboard that was cleverly sourced from the European Skoda Fabia. The special editions kept flowing - remember the Velociti? - culminating with the 90kW R-Line of 2006. The Citi Golf even gained a driver’s airbag during its final year of production, 2009.
To send it off into the sunset, VWSA launched the Mk 1 limited edition to mark the end of Citi Golf production in South Africa.
Although by that time it was by all means an outdated product that many perceived to be unsafe, it is impressive how VWSA managed to keep its budget hatchback fresh and trendy for 25 years.
“To retain Golf 1 and reinvent it as Citi Golf must rank as one of the greatest marketing decisions in motoring history,” said John Lemon, author of the Citi Golf tribute book Re:in:car:nation.
But what makes it such an icon? Citi Golf owner and motoring journalist Nicky Netshifhefhe describes the venerable hatchback as a capable and highly customisable vehicle.
“From easily being a perfect daily vehicle to a project car in so many different aspects, hence till today it’s one of the most loved vehicles in the country.”
It may have been dated, but it was something we could call our own. But also a relatively simple and easy-to-modify hatchback that provided reliable transport to hundreds of thousands of South Africans.
This, and the other aforementioned local creations from Opel, Nissan and Toyota, had a certain uniqueness and spiciness that is missing from today’s showrooms, which are cluttered with cookie-cutter creations shipped in from abroad with little to no local input.
However the spirit of the Citi Golf does live on, to a degree, in the highly popular Polo Vivo, which is based on the previous-generation Polo first introduced to SA in 2010.
That story is set to continue with the release of the facelifted Polo Vivo later in August. We do hope that it continues the spirit of local innovation and creativity that inspired its Citi Golf forbear.
Sources: Volkswagen SA, John Lemon, RS-TM.
IOL Motoring