VW did all its marketing in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's with the iconic TV adverts. These days the cars just sell themselves while VW's marketing team puts its feet up and laughs at us.
If you tell anyone you drive a GTi, most people that know what one of those is will assume it's a Golf. Even though there are other GTi's in the VW range, and Peugeot has also been making GTi's for decades.