Brand ambassadors promote just about every type of product, including RVs. However, it isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Recently, some RV brand ambassadors walked away from their partnership with the prominent RV company, Grand Design RV.
So what led to the brand ambassadors having a grand disaster with Grand Design? Let’s find out.
What Are Brand Ambassadors?
Brand ambassadors typically use their online presence to promote brands and products for companies. Many companies recognize the value of brand ambassadors and their ability to advertise their products.
These influencers tend to have a closer connection and trust with their audience or followers. While brand ambassadors may love and use the products, there’s typically some monetary benefit for both parties.
Brand ambassadors must choose carefully which brands and products they want to promote. They don’t want to tarnish their brand or image by promoting a low-quality product or a product/business with a bad reputation.
Who Is Getaway Couple?
Jason and Rae Miller are the creators of Getaway Couple. They’ve been traveling and documenting their full-time adventures since 2017 and have a large presence in the RV community.
You can follow their content on their website, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. They’ve created a tremendous amount of content to help educate and inspire others interested in RVs.
Fans missed the couple during an extended absence from their social media accounts. However, they recently broke their silence to share the reasons behind their mysterious disappearance from the internet for almost a year.
Let’s learn more about their experience.
Why Are They Ditching Grand Design RV?
In the end, not all partnerships work out for the benefit of both parties. For the Millers, there were several reasons why they cut ties with Grand Design RV.
In their recent “Where is Getaway Couple?” life update on YouTube, they discussed several reasons why they didn’t have such a grand experience with Grand Design. Let’s take a look.
Their RV Was Falling Apart
Throughout their adventures, Jason and Rae have always talked about how much they loved their Grand Design 375RES fifth wheel. However, after several years of living and traveling in it full-time, it required some repairs.
While Grand Design made some repairs for the Millers, they did a subpar job and damaged other things. After Grand Design replaced their crowning floor, the couple experienced a major failure on one of their tanks. In the end, they had to fix what Grand Design broke by hiring a mobile RV tech to address the issue on their own dime.
When the couple went to work with Grand Design to upgrade to a new rig, it was apparent the two parties were not on the same page.
Grand Design agreed it was time to get the couple in a new RV and offered to work with them for an RV at cost. However, they later requested the couple to submit how much they were willing to pay for a new rig.
Getaway Couple took an educated guess as to what at cost meant for an RV manufacturer and based their number on what they paid for their new RV in 2017.
To Getaway Couple’s surprise, the response from Grand Design made it obvious they didn’t understand the value of influencer marketing and what their Ambassadors brought to the table. In their video, they mentioned there was an attempt for a “damage control” call, but the couple ultimately decided to walk away from representing the brand.
New Leadership Didn’t Like Their Honesty
Many viewers love that the Getaway Couple shares an honest and authentic view of RV life.
No RV is perfect, and it will have issues. However, the couple said they didn’t feel Grand Design appreciated their honesty when things went wrong with their RV.
Furthermore, while it was never explicitly said, the couple felt that Grand Design only wanted them to showcase the RV’s good parts and sweep the negative under the rug. Getaway Couple struggled with this and opted to show the negative anyway, a move they believe was frowned upon by the company.
Lack of Focus in Brand Ambassador Program
Brand ambassador programs are relatively new, especially for those in the RV industry. The Millers share that they didn’t like the lack of focus or consistency with Grand Design’s brand ambassador program.
“We had already been disappointed with the ambassador program before, just little things here and there — not the company but the ambassador program,” Rae said in the video. “And we feel like that is an important distinction to make here.”
Having a program without focus makes it confusing for all parties. Jason and Rae share that they don’t seem to understand what Grand Design wanted from their ambassadors. If you’ve ever had to work with someone with no vision, it’s not an easy task.
Feeling the Need to Pitch Ideas Constantly
Since there was a lack of focus on the brand ambassador program, Jason and Rae often found themselves pitching ideas to Grand Design.
One of the couple’s goals was to partner with Grand Design on a “Getaway Couple” branded RV. It was Grand Design that originally approached them with the idea. However, over the years, they realized this was something that was consistently dangled in front of them, but no real plan was ever put into place.
You can only pitch ideas and have them shot down for so long before you get tired of nothing happening. Finally, the partnership that was supposed to be a win-win combination sounds like it started to drift apart over time as they struck out on all fronts.
What Kind of RVs Does Grand Design Make?
Grand Design makes towable RVs, including fifth wheels, travel trailers, and toy haulers. They manufacture their rigs in Middlebury, Ind., just down the road from Elkhart, Ind., the RV capital of the world.
The company has recently gained popularity and is one of the few brands that stand behind their product for full-time RVing.
Additionally, they offer several floorplans for each RV type, meaning you can likely get a model for every RVing situation.
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Are Grand Design RVs Worth Considering?
For years Grand Design RV separated itself from the rest of RV manufacturers with its superior customer service and quality craftsmanship.
However, the company has grown massively in recent years and has struggled to maintain its quality customer service. They’ve run into issues trying to deliver the same level of care with a much larger customer base.
It seems as if complaints from Grand Design owners in the online RV communities are increasing too. We’ve seen owners addressing issues on brand new rigs because Grand Design didn’t want to take responsibility.
These behaviors are relatively common among RV manufacturers, so it shouldn’t scare you away from considering Grand Design. They make a great product, but cross your fingers that you don’t need to rely on them for customer service.
The Getaway Couple decided to step away from the brand ambassadorship for several reasons. However, you can decide whether Grand Design will be a good fit for you.
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