In The Netherlands, you pay a staggering 42% ‘BPM’ tax on a new car. Entrepreneurs paid the tax too, but could reclaim the money after three months. Advancing the amount and missing three months of interest was considered frustrating. But after an amendment of the law, in early 2007, entrepreneurs no longer had to pay the BPM tax at all, making the list-price of commercial vehicles considerably lower. At that time, we were asked to introduce the new Jeep Commander with commercial license in a ‘very personal’ way. No longer having to advance the tax should be the winning argument.

But…the amendment of the law counted for all commercial vehicles, leaving us with no real sound USP. So we chose a different approach: the choice for most commercial vehicles is based on economical grounds. But the Jeep Commander is a premium SUV. The choice for this car is also based on image, heritage, performance and appearance. And, frankly, the only difference between a ‘normal’ and a ‘commercial’ Commander is the missing backseats. So we decided we didn’t even need a tailor-made mailpiece. We just added post-its to the ‘regular’ brochure; in the name of the local Jeep representative, of course.

The argument that you pay for a commercial vehicle, but you still drive the same premium SUV, was embraced by both our client and their sales force. They declared that, for them, this was an ultimate tool to make their point to the few entrepreneurs that are in the market for a premium SUV. It’s a small market in The Netherlands, and the share of the Commander is even smaller. The first ‘commercial’ Commanders were quickly sold out and sales in 2007 ended up 30% above target. According to the sales force, this was the ultimate tool to make their point.