Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Overview
Volkswagen is a car manufacturing company established in Germany in the year 1946. With time, the company progressed to the Volkswagen group in 1975, where it began buying other brands of cars such as Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley, Ducati, and the world’s renowned Bugatti (Faizul, 2015). These efforts spearheaded the company in becoming the second largest car manufacturing company; Toyota being the first. Another fact about Volkswagen is that its name means the people’s car in Germany (Faizul, 2015). It is a trait they seek to uphold over the years by building amazing cars such as the Volkswagen Beetle and Passat.
Being second in car manufacturing puts Volkswagen ahead of most of its competitors in all the categories. The luxury class is quite competitive since Mercedes-Benz and BMW tend to win the market with their brands and other acquisitions such as Rolls Royce and Maybach (Pratt, 2014). However, it aims to outdo the competition using its Bentley line of cars, especially with the new technology that seeks to improve on luxury and fuel consumption.
Other competitive areas are the saloon cars, vans, and trucks, which the company fairs well against its competitors. However, Toyota seems to outdo them in these areas due to their market share and expansions. Volkswagen continues to struggle in increasing their market share in the Indian market and the United States, where it currently holds three and 4.8 percent respectively (Faizul, 2015). Most of the Volkswagen cars are not environmentally friendly such as Porsche, Bugatti, and Lamborghini. Recently, the company had to recall most of its cars due to excess carbon emissions, a move that led to great losses and confidence from investors.
In its 2018 target, the company seeks to broaden its audience by coming up with effective cars for each group (Clayton, Charles, Ferrell, & Wilcher, 2011). Each of its brands seeks to fulfill the thirst of certain groups, though there is a misconception that it centers on the male needs more than females. Men tend to be their focus especially on race cars and competitive saloon cars. The increase in female car drivers changed the vision of Volkswagen, which saw the rebranding of Volkswagen Beetle and Golf to fit the needs of women (Clayton, Charles, Ferrell, & Wilcher, 2011). As time progressed, the company introduced smaller versions of its existing cars such as the Volkswagen Tiguan, which is the baby version of the Toureg.
The company seeks to create various branches across the world in a big to bring their services closer to the customers. Customer relations continue to be a big issue for most companies, especially when it comes to servicing cars (Faizul, 2015). Toyota reigns because it subcontracts most of its services to nearby service stations and most of its parts are easy to find. Another area Volkswagen seeks to improve on is the build quality of its cars. The task will involve a reshuffle of its employees by centering on quality and not quantity. In the end, it will be in a position to decrease its sales return before tax to eight percent.
Positioning
In conclusion, Volkswagens cars are great machines, which one can buy if they seek a fair price against the car’s specifications. However, some of the challenges such as carbon emissions and built quality make it less favorable against other brands such as Toyota, Mercedes, and BMW. However, it stands out from the rest due to its brand presence across the globe as well as strong research and development teams. Overall, the company makes progressive changes in its line up in order to outdo its competitors.
References
Clayton, A., Charles, B., Ferrell, B., & Wilcher, W. (2011, December 9). Marketing 480 Major Corporation Profile. Retrieved from BSU.edu: http://bmcharles2.iweb.bsu.edu/Volkswagen_files/Volkswagen%20Final%20Paper.pdf
Faizul. (2015, November 1). SWOT Analysis of Volkswagen. Retrieved from Gotabout.info: http://www.gotabout.info/swot-analysis-of-volkswagen/
Pratt, B. (2014). Case Analysis: Volkswagen Group. Retrieved from UCSU.edu: http://people.ucsc.edu/~brpratt/Courses/ECON136Su15/VWAG_Example.pdf
