Some key point from Wayne Duvenage, Chief Executive of Avis-Rent-A-Car during his time in the hot seat:

• Brand principles are very strong, driven by ambassador program. You can ask anybody in our organization from the tea lady to top executives and they will all be able to tell you.
• Our Brand promise, are you trying hard enough? People have to step up to the plate…
• Our Brand is very consistent,
• It’s important for us to listen to our customers, we have a culture of working hard and playing hard.
• Spend 2 and a half million a year to measure our customer service, all across the board from sales, reservations etc.
• We want to make sure that our Customer Service Index is moving to 90% and is constantly there
• Differentiating factor for us is our people, they are our ambassadors of our brand

Enver Groenewald – GM Advertising Revenue @ Strategic Communications, Avusa Media LTD: Anything you have done differently for international visitors coming for 2010?

Wayne: 2010 is going to be a sell out, but it’s also going to be a tough period for us because we can’t buy extra cars for just 6 weeks. But our focus is really on brand awareness for our international travelers. Making the whole experience quicker and more effective. There will however be a slight  25% price increase over the 2010 period, and we wont be able to offer any specials.

Jeremy Sampson – Group Executive Chairman, Interbrand Sampson Group: How do you as an international brand connect with the local market?

Wayne: We spend a lot of time understanding our markets, building our databases, we identify new markets all the time. The fact is most of our product innovation happens in South Africa.