Volkswagens' Management Strategies

The automotive industry globally involves the processes of manufacturing as well as sales of cars and other automobiles. The business of this industry is also inclusive of retailing activities like services; sale of spare parts, gas-station retails etc. by the year 2015, and the growth rate of the industry is expected to have a rise of 5.5% (Market Line, 2012). Moreover, as per International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, this industry is the leading driver in terms of global economic progress and the largest employer. The changing trends and rising demand for technically advanced cars are giving out more opportunities. This essay is going to be a presentation on the analysis of the Volkswagen positioning strategy with respect to the Porters models of competitive strategies. This essay would be vital, as this analysis would help in revealing the company’s competitive and strategic position in the industry.

In 1993 Volkswagen had record low sales but by the end of 1997 the VW brand had sold 137,885 cars. That was an increase of 178% from it’s 1993 slump. It is safe to say that the the ’94 relaunch of VW on the American Market was a success. The “Drivers Wanted” campaign, developed by Arnold Communications, I believe was successful as a result of excellent market research and positioning.

For instance SUV’s for who have high income rate, smaller cars like Polo or Golf for who have lower income rate. According to Age scale VW appeal to 18-49. For example, when young people get a driver’s licence, their family buy them Polo or Golf generally and another situation who like fast and sport car VW offers them a different type of car such as Polo GTI, Golf R, Golf GTI, Scirocco and Scirocco

The Volkswagen Group follows a cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The Volkswagen Group achieves low cost leadership by sharing automotive parts amongst its products and as well as sharing vehicle platforms amongst the other 12 brands under the Volkswagen Group, such as Audi, Bentley, Porsche and Volkswagen Passenger Cars. The Group improves product differentiation by focusing on the product quality improvement, innovation and sustainability. This differentiation strategy helps ensure that the customers are satisfied with the products, and that the customers will be willing to pay a premium for the product.

He decided to enlarge the goals of the company so as to include the marketing of the vehicles that they produced. This in itself is what entails planning. Therefore, management has affected planning in that the presence of a new CEO in the company has introduced other goals that were not there in the first place. The presence of an eligible leader led to the company building its own battery packs, power microelectronics segments and great proficiency automotive to enable them work without a license from AC Propulsion. Apart from influencing the planning of the company in a positive manner, the management also led to improved performance of the firm in that they now had extensive goals to achieve which required them to work harder (Hunger, 2010).

Audi is a German car company which manufactures, design, engineers, produces, markets the luxury cars across the world. Since 1966, the Volkswagen group owns the 99.55 % ownership. The pat slogan of the company is “Truth in Engineering”.

1) How should Matulovic respond to his fellow executives who are calling to ask him for special treatment outside the new priority management system?

Volkswagen goal is to become the ecological and economical leader in the automotive industry and to be the world’s leading automaker by 2018. Volkswagen has four main objectives through which they will achieve their goals.

technology project. The BPTO produced weekly status reports and monthly budget reviews helping the company gauge where it was heading towards. Thus the alignment started advancing (Austin, 2007).

The VW Polo uses its marketing strategy to convey this point, as seen in the above advertisement, by arguing that their hatchback model cars relative advantage is that it is affordable, has efficient fuel consumption and still manages to give the superior German motor vehicle class.

Volkswagen a parent company of Skoda is Europe’s largest carmaker producing cars, trucks and vans. It

Well, throughout this case there was a sense of internal war between the executives of two of the world’s largest automobile companies. Wiedeking, the CEO of Porsche, can be seen as a dominating personality throughout this case. Wiedeking was famous for his efficient production and astute marketing, which turned Porsche into world’s most profitable car company. Therefore, keeping this same attitude in mind, he wanted to make some major changes in the Volkswagen group(VW) because he was aiming to achieve something big. He wanted to remove inefficient operations and also insisted on shutting down the production lines of some cars like ‘Phaeton’ and ‘Buggati’, which according to him were not highly profitable and were a commercial failure. On the other hand, Ferdinand Piech, the CEO of Volkswagen group, had something else in his mind. Unlike Wiedeking, who only focused

Porsche is one of the most well-known brands in the world. In customers' minds, Porsche stands for exclusivity, class, and high quality. The company's marketing strategy is oriented towards identifying the needs and preferences of a small group of customers and on developing car models that satisfy these needs. However, Porsche was forced to introduce several models on the market that were not in accordance with what typical customers of the company usually prefer. These models refer to lower-priced cars, but also to high class SUVs like Cayenne and Panamera.

However, due to its unique targeting strategy, it has not win compatible brand recognition among the public. Although Audi enter much earlier than BMW and Benz in the luxury car market, its marketing strategy limited increase of public brand recognition even Audi has over 100 years’ history. Besides, although its styles are highly accepted by the targeting customers, there are a growing number of people who can afford luxury cars for family use in China. Lack of vitality is limit of its further market expansion. On the contrary, its major competitor in China, BMW, has launched a series of marketing strategies to promote its high-performance, manoeuvrability, as well as stylish design to attract young people (BMW, 2009) in order to expand its market share. Therefore, although Audi has achieved success in the targeting market, it may consider further development through diversification in product line and advertising campaign.

Volkswagen has set a bold goal of dethroning Toyota as the world’s largest auto maker. This goal includes significantly increasing the North American market share, as Volkswagen currently holds only 2.2 percent of the United States market. Volkswagen’s strategy includes cutting prices and tailoring its cars to better fit the American lifestyle and tastes. This includes increasing the size of its vehicles and modifying certain amenities, such as increasing the cup holder size to fit the larger sized beverages which Americans are known to drink. In order to become the world’s largest auto maker by 2018, Volkswagen’s management team has set a lofty goal of selling 800,000 vehicles per year