SKODA SUR LE TOUR DE FRANCE - INTERVIEW DE T. SIONNEAU DIRECTEUR DU MARKETING FRANCE

INTERVIEW of Thierry SIONNEAU Marketing Director of Skoda France

Pascal ORSINI – Skoda is on the Tour for the third year, what are the past years repercussions on sales and on the brand image ?

Thierry SIONNEAU – In fact 2006 Tour is the third Tour de France Skoda is sponsoring but it is the second year of partnership between ASO and Skoda.
Our sales grew in the last 2 years. (For example +15.4% sales more in 2005 in germany). For the repercussions of the Tour de France it is hard to say with precision because the growth is the results of three major parameters : our sponsoring of cycling races, the new Octavia launched in 2004 and the press which gave a good critic to our models.

What is sure is that people clearly identified Skoda as a partner of the Tour  on the first year. According to a survey made by TNS-Sofres for ASO on the 2004 Tour de France, Skoda had the same level of awareness as Champion (a 100% French Brand partner of the mountain jersey ) had when beginning its sponsoring.
The brand image is well improved in Western Europe (remember that Skoda is a Czech brand and that the reliability of the car during the communism years was not very good) for sure because Skoda is part of the VW group but mainly thanks to the quality of ours models.
 
P.O. – How long is you partnership with ASO ?
T.S. – The contract with A.S.O. (Amaury Sport Organisation – Société duTour de France owner) end s in December 2007.

 Skoda Octavia Combi MAVIC assistance car in Strasbourg. Photo P. ORSINI

P.O. – And after 2007 what is your goal ?
T.S. – On our side we want to continue our sponsoring of cycling races and the partnership with A.S.O.. There are some discussion and we will continue after the Tour. We would like to conclude the contract by the end of the year in order to have a good 2007 year. We are optimist.

 
P.O. – Thank’s to the contract with A.S.O. you are on big races but I know your are also sponsoring some other races. Which ones ?
T.S. – We are on 9 races organized by A.S.O. from which, the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Fleche Wallone, the Criterium International, Paris-Tours, Paris-Nice… Besides we are also on some other races like, Les 4 jours de Dunkerque, le Dauphine Libere, le Tour de Picardie, le chrono des herbiers, le Tour de Bretagne… Through this sponsoring we help our dealers for their advertising and theiur sales and also race organizers. Skoda is now identified as the cycling races car partner.

Official cars of the Tour directors are Skoda Superb. Photo P. ORSINI Tour 2005

P.O. – 2006 is also an important year with the launch of a new car the SKODA ROOMSTER. In the Skoda publicity caravan we can see it as a family car for leisure, could you tell us more about it ?

T.S. – The Skoda Roomster is a new model at the crossing point between Small monospace like the Renault Modus, family monospace like the Renault Scenic and Ludospace like the Kangoo. It will be a car nearly as big as the Scenic with the cost of the modus. It is really a car for a small family. We show in the caravan that it is convenient for leisure and that it has a large possibility of use. We also had some good results in the press : Autoplus (a French magazine on Auto) gave us their maximum appreciation level of 5 stars for the Diesel TDI 105 version and a 4 stars level for the TDI 80. That’s good.

P.O. – How many Roomster do you plan to sell ?

T.S. – For France we estimate the sales at 5000 to 6000 cars per year.

The new Skoda Roomster is declined in 3 colors in the caravan. Photo P. ORSINI

P.O. – Is the Roomster already sold in the dealer shop ?
T.S. – No the Tour allow us to show it to 15 millions of people. We have one Roomster within each dealer so people interested in it can see it and have more information but it will be sold from September.

P.O. – Do people appreciate it on the side of the Tour road ?
T.S. – People are quite curious about it and we even have the first orders signed.  

If you want to get informed get in this Skoda Roomster– Photo : P. ORSINI

P.O. – Back to the Skoda partnership with A.S.O., how many cars do you supply to A.S.O. ?
T.S. – We give them a permanent quantity of 65 cars to ASO (mainly the Skoda Superb and Octavia). It is sufficient for them to cover the spring and autumn races. For the Tour de France we rent them an extra quantity of 115 cars more. The cars are at their disposition from end of may til and of July.
We also have 33 cars for media and press people.


P.O. – What about the caravan ?
T.S. – We have there 10 cars (6 Roomster, 1 Fabia, 1 Fabia Combi, 1 Octavia and 1 Octavia Combi) and the podium. We also have around 10 cars for the Skoda Staff.

The Skoda Podium in the 2006 caravan – Photo : P. ORSINI

 P.O. – You also have a large part of the teams’car.
T.S. – Yes, this year Skoda provides the cars for 10 teams. Each of them have 12 cars (Mainly the Skoda Octavia Combi). Each country is sponsoring one team. In France we are supporting the Credit-Agricole team.

P.O. – What about La Française des jeux team, don’t they drive Skoda too ?
T.S. – We support one team by country, the other ones rent cars at a very interesting price but those are rental cars.

The Skoda Octavia combi from Credit Agricole team just before Husvod won the prologue ! Photo P. ORSINI

P.O. – What are you doing with the extra cars after the Tour ?
T.S. – The stickers are removed, the cars are checked and sold through the dealers. They globally have 10.000 kms (race and extra races travels) so we can propose them even before the Tour. At the moment we already have sold them. I think there remain only 5 or 6 to be sold.

P.O. – How many people are working for Skoda on the Tour ?
T.S. – Globally 130 people are working for us. We have 10  mechanics and 3 managers. In the caravan we have 10 drivers, 10 hostesses in the cars  and 1 driver plus 5 animators on the podium.
We also have hostess on the Village Depart, of course on the arrival podium for the white jersey we are sponsoring. Then we also have people for logistic aspects

The Skoda cars are also use dby journalists like this one from the Monte-Carlo Radio. They cover each day a live afternoon of cycling ! Photo : P. ORSINI

P.O. – How many are Skoda employees ?

T.S. – We have only 2 really Skoda people on the Tour. Many of the others use to work for us as for example some of the mechanics who are also working for Skoda on WRC rally cars. Those people are professionals and they can work with few means anywhere. For example last year, one of the judge official Superb has been hurt by a truck around Nimes and the side of the car was really destroyed, they reshaped the body, painted the parts and put new stickers. Three hours later the car was driving as if nothing happened.

Another Skoda Octavia Combi for the Gerolsteiner team. A fresh one for those hot days - Photo : P. ORSINI

P.O. – Is the Tour a way to test some new products or equipments ?

T.S. – No, we use serial vehicles and we do not perform any test. We just can say that there is no trouble driving at 30 km/h on a mountain with an ambient temperature of around 40°C.

P.O. – The Tour medical staff drives Audi A4 models. Are we going to see in the next year “cabriolets” Skoda models ?

T.S. – No this is not our target at least before 2009. Next year (in 2007) Skoda will propose the new Fabia model then in 2008 we will replace the Superb and the Yeti concept car will be issued too. There could be a Yeti without hard-top in 2009 but nothing is decided yet.

The 2 Audi A4 from the medical assistance will be both 2.5 liters next years – Photo P. ORSINI

P.O. – What are your best times on the Tour and the worst ones ?

T.S. – The Tour is a great family and once you’re inside everybody is usually very sympathic. I think the most difficult was perhaps at the very beginning of the story when we took over the former partner : people from A.S.O. were disappointed and wonder why they had to drive Skoda cars. They were considering themselves as  punished guys. The best was perhaps fifteen days later when we heard from the same people that our cars were very good and comfortable. For example, C. Prudhomme the Tour Director is very tall and he said to us that it was the first time on the Tour that he was at the back of a car for 6 hours everyday without any trouble with his back or his legs. Those are good times ! 

 The Skoda Superb of the general direction gets the number one ! – Photo P. ORSINI

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