• by Tanya Gazdik , April 7, 2010

National Car Rental has launched a new ad campaign with the twofold goal of attracting new business travelers and educating stakeholders about its improving reputation.

The effort highlights company differentiators that are attracting and retaining a loyal base of business travel customers, such as customer satisfaction and loyalty program benefits through its Emerald Club loyalty program. St. Louis-based National Car Rental is a subsidiary of Enterprise Holdings (which also owns Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Alamo).

The campaign launched this month with a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The ad shows an overview shot of a road. A green car with the National emblem is passing a red car with an Avis logo and a yellow car with a Hertz logo. The headline declares: "We are passing the competition." The copy reads: "When it comes to customer satisfaction, National Car Rental is pulling away."

The ad touts the fact that National recently passed Avis and Hertz in a national customer service survey and that the Emerald Club loyalty program recently was ranked number one. "Our goal is to be the number one rental choice for business travelers. We're National Car Rental. And we're just getting started."

This is the first National Car Rental campaign that reflects the changes that have taken place as a result of the new management (Enterprise Holdings purchased National Car Rental in 2007). Pat Farrell, VP of marketing and communications for Enterprise Holdings, says the print-only initiative will run through midsummer in national newspapers and business travel publications.

"This print initiative is part of a comprehensive effort to demonstrate to potential corporate accounts the ever-improving National brand under new ownership," Farrell tells Marketing Daily. The brand went through some difficult years in the early part of the decade, including operating in bankruptcy for several years starting in 2001.

"Under new ownership for nearly three years now, the National brand is reclaiming its place as premiere service provider for the business renter," he says. "This campaign highlights several of our latest accomplishments and how the National brand is flourishing." National has always served the business traveler, he says. "Many leading Fortune 500 companies have used our brands for decades," Farrell says. "With the investment and commitment coming from new ownership, we are seeing businesses choosing National each and every month."