Geely, not Volvo: Are PH dealers and agents changing?

Geely has been a hot topic on social media for the wrong reasons. Most of those stem from customer issues, the brand's slow response to put out the wildfire, and more recently, some fact-twisting claims.

Speaking of the latter, we have been seeing Geely models such as the Okavango, the Azkarra, and the Emgrand that are supposedly being called Volvos on social media marketplace posts. Do a search for Volvo Azkarra or Volvo Emgrand and you'll see what we mean.

Normally, we can put off these things as honest mistakes by those unfamiliar with the brand. But the cause for concern here is that some of the posts we saw even came from sales agents employed by Geely dealers, and on third-party pages saying as if it's gospel truth.

Thankfully one dealership in Bulacan wants to put an end to this ill-advised practice of "upbadging".

A sales trainor named Mansour Cayco shared some of the slides he presented to what we assume are Geely Marilao's marketing professionals. And he began it with a single sentence: Your Geely is not a Volvo.

Now to shed some light on this, the sales trainer explained why this is the case. While Volvo is under the Geely umbrella, they operate as two separate brands. 

The practice is not uncommon. Such is the example of Audi and Lamborghini that are under the Volkswagen group, as well as Nissan and Mitsubishi under the Alliance. Brands under the same umbrella may practice things such as technology sharing, exchange the best practices when it comes to manufacturing, and sometimes even do some badge engineering to their cars like what Nissan and Mitsubishi are doing with the Livina and Xpander.

However, the Livina-Xpander case does not apply to how Geely and Volvo operate. Both companies may share certain technologies, but never in the sense that you could call a Volvo S60 the Geely Emgrand's twin, and neither does the Azkarra with the XC60. While there is some sharing going on, to even suggest that as truth is misleading to customers and can certainly backfire if the desire is to establish credibility for the brand.

The sales trainer also taught marketing professionals how to deal with negative engagements over social media, as well as laying down facts about both Geely and Volvo brands.

Hopefully, the marketing professionals took note of the lessons they learned in the training. After all, it's not simply a point of making the sale, it's also about making your customers earn the trust and confidence in the brand that you're selling - two aspects that Geely will need to recover from the issues created online.