ST. LOUIS, MO--(Marketwire - February 28, 2011) - More than 55 years ago, Jack Taylor founded Enterprise Rent-A-Car on a simple philosophy: "Take care of your customers and your employees first, and the profits will follow." Launching today, the brand's first new ad campaign in two decades reaffirms that philosophy and the unique culture that flows from it. And, this time, Enterprise employees will tell the story.
At the time Enterprise launched its first national TV advertising in 1989, it was a relative unknown in the car rental industry, primarily providing insurance replacement rentals from a regional network of neighborhood locations. Today, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the leading brand in North America, with more than 6,000 neighborhood and airport locations and more than 60,000 employees.
"We credit our long-running ad campaign with contributing to our growth and success by building exceptional brand recognition and making 'We'll Pick You Up' synonymous with Enterprise Rent-A-Car," said Enterprise brand director, Jim Stoeppler. "Now we're looking to our new campaign to add depth and dimension to our brand by telling the broader Enterprise story. It takes you beyond the rental transaction to make a more emotional connection based on who we are and what we believe, emphasizing our uncompromising commitment to customer service."
Entitled "The Enterprise Way," the integrated marketing campaign features a wide variety of Enterprise employees expressing the brand's customer service focus, culture and heritage in their own words. Enterprise Rent-A-Car is operated through the regional subsidiaries of St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings, which is now in its third generation of ownership by the Taylor family.
The first of these 30-second spots airs today and will be prominently featured during coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The campaign will be integrated throughout the brand's social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, FlickR and YouTube. The creative for the new campaign was developed by Cannonball Advertising and Promotion; PHD Media Network is executing the media buy.
"Over the past several years, we've spent a lot of time talking to our customers and consumers about the attributes they believe have driven our continued growth in an incredibly crowded and competitive industry. The response was always the same: 'It's your people -- they're incredible,'" said Patrick Farrell, vice president of marketing and communications for Enterprise Holdings. "They're college-educated, articulate, professionally dressed -- and most important, they're empowered to make decisions on the spot to take care of the customer. They are the reason Enterprise has ranked 'Highest in Rental Car Customer Satisfaction' for the past seven consecutive years*, in the J.D. Power and Associates Rental Car Satisfaction Study(SM). In the end, it was really an easy choice to let our people tell our story in the campaign."
"As we worked with Enterprise to develop these ads, we were consistently blown away by the professionalism and enthusiasm of their people," said Steve Hunt, Cannonball's chief creative officer. "But we were just as impressed with how excited consumers became when they learned things they didn't know about Enterprise. Like the brand's 55-year heritage as a family-owned business. Like the way the Taylors have quietly and steadily guided Enterprise to the top of its industry by staying rooted in their values and managing for the long-term. Like their promote-from-within culture that trains and develops smart, hands-on businesspeople and ties their success to their ability to completely satisfy customers. These things really resonate with people."
"That's the story our employees tell in this campaign," Farrell continued. "It's the Enterprise story. It combines a customer-centric business model, highly engaged employees, committed family ownership and a strong, values-based culture in a way that nobody in our competitive set can match. Our people bring that all together in these ads. And they do it very sincerely and gratefully -- in a way that simply says, 'Thanks for your business.'"
Enterprise, one of the largest recruiters of college graduates in the United States, is well-known for its internationally recognized management training program and its promote-from-within approach to developing its management team. Nearly every member of the Enterprise leadership team began his or her career serving customers at the rental counter as a management trainee. Year over year, BusinessWeek has ranked Enterprise as one of the "50 Best Places to Launch a Career."
To view the commercials, visit http://www.facebook.com/Enterprise.
About Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Founded in 1957, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an internationally recognized brand with more than 6,000 neighborhood and airport locations in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Germany. Enterprise of North America also is part of a global strategic alliance with Europcar, creating the world's largest car rental network. St. Louis-based Enterprise Holdings, the largest car rental service provider in the world, operates the Enterprise Rent-A-Car brand through its regional subsidiaries. The brand offers a wide variety of car leasing, vanpooling, car sharing and hourly rental programs -- and local car rental customers are picked up at no extra cost. For more information about Enterprise's environmental stewardship and long-term commitment to the sustainability of its business, visit www.drivingfutures.com. For more information about Enterprise, visit www.enterprise.com.
*Enterprise Rent-A-Car received the highest numerical score among rental car companies in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2004-2010 Rental Car Satisfaction Studies(SM). The 2010 study is based on 11,567 responses measuring nine companies and measures opinions of business and leisure travelers who rented a vehicle at an airport location. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in October 2009 - September 2010. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com.
Contact Information:
For more information, contact:
Meghan Maguire
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
314-512-2040