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Exclusive trips, opera tickets or racing weekends: car manufacturers are becoming increasingly imaginative when trying to supply their customers with more than just a new vehicle. The efforts are even paying off - especially in times of great upheaval in the industry.
She is probably the most famous dream woman in the world - and here's the good news: every admirer can visit the lady at home. Oh, lá lá...However, the rendezvous has to be planned weeks in advance. And then patience is required. Quite unromantically, step by step, like at the airport check-in, you zigzag through a hall until the lady looks deep into your eyes. But even for a few seconds, then the next person waiting presses in from behind. Bon jour - and au revoir, Mona Lisa.
The author never has so much space in a museum 
. The manager of the "Only You Privilege" customer club makes it possible to have a very private meeting in a small circle
Who doesn't want to see them?
Leonardo da Vinci painted the painting of the woman with the magical gaze. It hangs in the Louvre and is visited by around ten million people every year. It just has to be like an assembly line. Unless Fatimata Kane intervenes. The manager of the customer club "Only You Privilege" makes it possible to have a very private meeting in a small circle - at night, when the Louvre's doors have long been closed. The ten lucky art lovers only have one requirement: they have to drive a DS car.
"2.200 people in Germany are members of our club," says the Frenchwoman. The noble brand in the Stellantis group, with bourgeois sisters such as Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat or Opel, should convey a champagne feeling, so to speak. Moments that cannot be bought anywhere. The ten Louvre visitors simply signed up as Kane introduced the weekend to museum visits, hotel stays and fine dining and drinking at the club. Whoever reacted first is now there. It's all about the French promise of Egalité; Also, whoever drives the top model DS 9 is not more equal than the others...
Premium promotions for premium drivers
The premium brand from Paris, which is only seven years old, is not alone in opening otherwise closed doors. Whether at Formula 1 races - plus shaking hands with Lewis Hamilton - at the Salzburg Festival - plus dinner with Jedermann - or on an adventure trip through the Kalahari - led by former rally stars: Anyone who owns premium brand cars is allowed to look forward to such opportunities. Sometimes a few thousand euros expensive, sometimes at a real friendly price. The Louvre visitors, for example, just had to shell out 300 euros for the weekend. They usually don't even get half a night in the chosen hotel for that - without star menus and Mona Lisa.
Of course, car companies are not charitable benefactors - and the sponsorship of the museum with its more than 35.000 works of art also has an economic purpose. Customer loyalty is becoming more and more important, because cast-iron trailers are a dying breed even for long-established brands.
The DS Louvre
"In the experience society, the car itself is no longer the status symbol, but the Instagram photo album of the last road trip," says Sven Henkel. The Wiesbaden marketing professor draws the following conclusion: "The manufacturer must ensure that it enables the customer to have exactly this unique experience." The special model "Louvre" is just not enough - although DS also offers that. 182 podcasts each explain a work of art from the museum exclusively in the mouse cinema on board.
But to stand in front of the Nike of Samothrace or in front of Veronese's "Marriage of Canaan" is something completely different. Florian Stilp is happy to answer any questions about the works and the history of the palace complex in the heart of the capital: "It's an exceptional event," says the doctor of art history. Normally, the Louvre does not cook extra sausages for VIPs. But DS is still sponsoring the largest museum in the world until at least 2025. On a few evenings, customers have the magnificent galleries all to themselves.
The ten participants of the DS trip are correspondingly moved in the long empty corridors. The owners of the compact DS3 to the much bulkier DS7 Crossback SUV are impressed by all of Kane's program items - and that's more than just Mona. The plush luxury of the Hotel Louvre opposite the museum or the exquisiteness of several extensive courses a day also visibly fit the lifestyle à la française. Hard sports seats and a technically undercooled ambience is more the world of customer loyalty on the other side of the Rhine. Driver training, for example, is a big hit in customer programs for BMW and Audi drivers.
Customer loyalty programs work
Ensnaring your own customers pays off. According to studies by the car marketers, winning over foreign customers is around three times as expensive as retaining the previous buyer. The millions for customer loyalty programs are therefore well invested. After all, the competition for tomorrow's buyers is becoming much tougher and more global. With Tesla, Polestar, Nio or Lucid, young competing brands from the USA and China also want a larger piece of the premium cake.
No more loyalty
Your chances are not bad. When it comes to electromobility, almost all brands are starting a bit from the beginning in the battle for buyers. And "if you look at the development over the past decade, loyalty on the German automotive market is steadily declining," says market researcher Katharina Wolff from Dataforce. According to their studies, only around 50 percent remain loyal to their brand when buying a new car. The younger, the lower the customer loyalty. The prospect of a Vinfast might be attracted by the prospect of a free luxury vacation in Vietnam. This is where the manufacturer has its home – and conveniently also owns the right hotel chain. Welcome to the club.
Conversely, DS relies heavily on the French flair of the products in its shops in Asia in particular - and in addition to the vehicles there has a number of other products "Made in Paris" in the range of its clubs. And in Germany, the second most important market for the brand in Europe, Fatimata Kane will not stop at two museum weekends: a visit to the Formula E race in Berlin is planned for this year. "We've also taken DS customers to see artist Christo wrap the Arc de Triomphe - and we always offer culinary surprises," says Kane. Champagne at wholesale price, cocktail courses via video or French gourmet boxes at a preferential price. After all, love goes through the stomach, especially with Francophile customers. Bon Appetit.