The Volkswagen Group has an extremely wide range of vehicles. Its target audience therefore includes all consumer segments. Indeed, with the Skoda Brand, its Czech subsidiary, it is trying to attract consumers seeking an accessible price-quality ratio, while with the Audi brand, it is approaching the high-end sector; Lamborghini and Bentley, two other brands it owns, are targeting consumers with access to luxury cars. Volkswagen, as a brand, wants to be generalist but we can still notice a strong desire to seduce parents, i. e. the family, with its models of minivans.
It should be recalled that the 2015 industrial scandal involving fraud by the German group on techniques likely to reduce polluting emissions (the DieselGate) led Volkswagen to redefine its strategy by highlighting the more ecological virtues of its vehicles to potential consumers.
Brand building: at the origin of VW's reputation
Since its inception, the German brand Volkswagen has focused on a marketing strategy that is now known as brand building. The car brand therefore communicates around elements that it considers to be true and proven.
- Technological innovation
- Space and comfort
- Economy and responsibility
In short, the brand chooses to communicate essentially around its values, namely in priority: quality. The objective is to imbue the consumer's memory in the long term. By focusing communication on a coherent and unique message, the brand builds brand awareness and builds customer loyalty over a long period of time. To develop this brand building strategy, Volkswagen follows certain steps:
- Verified product quality, which corresponds to customer demand and expectations
- A well-defined positioning: innovative, accessible and serious
- Adaptability (new technologies, new demands, etc.)
This long-term thinking certainly has an impact on benefits but is very effective in the long term. Today, the brand has the signature "Das Auto", pronounced or written in German in international communication campaigns. This choice reveals the positioning of the car manufacturer, which focuses its discourse on the quality of its products. Volkswagen continues to work with its brand building marketing strategy, which has proven to be quite successful since its inception.
Multibrand strategy: Volkswagen speciality
The Volkswagen group now consists of 10 different brands, we can call VW Group a house of brand. While the group's main strategy remains the brand building strategy, the ten brands of the German subsidiary must nevertheless have distinct identities.
The group is therefore developing a multi-brand strategy to differentiate its ten daughter brands from prototype models to advertising and after-sales service. Each of them respects the group's core values: quality, innovation, safety and responsibility. And each of them differs in its own way according to the following adjectives: luxury, comfort, premium, rationality and sport.
Thus, the Volkswagen and Audi daughter brands are premium, sports and comfort brands. Skoda and Seat are more focused on comfort and sport, while Lamborghini and Porsche are luxury sports cars. Bentley and Bugatti are very luxury brands. Each has its own particularities in terms of design, power and utility. Thus, the Volkswagen Group covers a large part of the automotive market and can meet the demand of different consumer segments.
Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
The internationally renowned German group bases its brand on several strengths:
- A wide range of cars that provide many options. VW owns the brands Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Skoda which gives a wide range of choices for the customer
- A Strong international presence thanks to 10 different car ranges
- Established in 1967, VW is one of the oldest car manufacturers
- Has manufacturing plants in many countries
- Company active in the hybrid and motor sport vehicle segment
For the brand, it is important that the different employees around the world have the same vision and that is why the group, which has nearly 350,000 employees worldwide, is developing a corporate culture of its own: this corporate culture defined by a code of cooperation is based on strong principles such as collaboration based on mutual trust, direct and effective teamwork and openness towards others. Equal work: Gender parity is something that Volkswagen advocates loud and clear, always with a view to having a fair and joyful working environment, employees are bound by friendship and always united, beyond business.
However, the only point on which the German automotive giant still needs to work and develop further is that VW has a limited presence in emerging countries where other brands have invaded the market... They must find a way to conquer this market quickly and efficiently to stay on top of the international car manufacturers. Innovation will have to be their watchword in order to be able to compete with the competition, perhaps their all-electric range will allow them to take this step?
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