Are you One of Us?

Every successful brand is a collection of shared values, as well as a continuous dialogue between the brand and the people who connect with it—and in the case of CUPRA, I think that’s even more true. That’s why we recently began using the tagline ‘One of Us’.

To be clear: ‘One of Us’ is not about being exclusive or insular. It’s a statement of intentions. CUPRA is a brand that was born when a small group of believers came together with a shared mindset of questioning the conventional thinking that had dominated the automotive industry over the past few years.

We are a brand that is co-created and nurtured by our CUPRA Tribe, which includes not only the people who work here, but also our dealers, importers, investors, the media, our followers and, of course, our customers, who relate to our story and understand our essence (and see themselves reflected in that).

But when you talk about a ‘tribe’ you’re not talking about everyone.

When you want to create something new, and even break some rules along the way, you should never set out to please everybody. If everyone likes what you’re doing, perhaps you’re doing something wrong. ?At CUPRA, we prefer to create cars that not everyone likes, but some people love. That’s what’s truly powerful.

The good news is that it turns out that there are plenty of people out there who share that vision and want to be ‘One of Us’. Perhaps, if we hadn’t taken those risks and followed our instincts, we would never have discovered that?

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The personality of a brand is determined by the people who create it

When I look at what we have achieved so far and where we are heading, what links everything is people who share an unconventional mindset and want to live emotional experiences. That’s what makes us authentic. We walk the walk, and we are unapologetically who we are.

Our vision has always been to create cars for the next generation of car lovers. A generation that’s looking for something different: cars that provide emotions and brands that say something about what they stand for.

As a team, we share a passion for creativity and an appetite to grow from our personal experience. I encourage that open mindset and ask my team to buy into this vision by making the creation of new ideas a conversation and a daily challenge. This is how we continue to build, shape and refine each area of the business.

We should all have the desire to develop and learn new things – and leaders must harness this quality in their teams to exponentially grow their talent and deliver game-changing results. At CUPRA, this is what allows us to continue to create something that others would consider too ‘out of the box’. Those are the ideas we want to make a reality. We co-create ideas not only with our team, but also with all of you – the CUPRA Tribe.

As I said earlier, we mean what we say. That’s why when we created our newest show car, the CUPRA DarkRebel, we asked the Tribe to participate, using the metaverse as a space where they could share their ideas and contribute a part of themselves to the DNA of the final design. We proved that, when it comes to co-creation with our Tribe, there truly are no limits.

We will continue to push the boundries. But we can only do that by continuing to challenge ourselves.

Questioning the status quo has led CUPRA to where we are now. We not only challenge external factors, we push each other to take CUPRA as far as it can go. I want my team to never be afraid to present unconventional and crazy new ideas. In fact, I want them to be concerned about showing me something boring or conventional. Instead of encouraging them to bring me something I like, I ask them to sometimes show me things that might shock me.

Success doesn’t come from the value of any one individual – particularly yourself as a leader— it comes from the collective mindset of the team around you. The most important job of a leader is to help to define that mindset, then find the people who share it and have the capacity to put it into action.

In the end, every brand is a story. At CUPRA, we want to tell that story with passion, authenticity and a single-minded determination to work alongside our Tribe to re-write the rules and create things that have never been done before.

If you share that vision, then perhaps you are ‘One of Us’?