MKT-830, University Assignment: Volkswagen's Marketing Strategy Review

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Volkswagen's marketing strategies over the past decade, examining their evolution in response to global market trends and cultural nuances. It begins with an introduction to Volkswagen, tracing its history and market position, particularly in China, where a significant portion of its sales originate. The report then delves into Volkswagen's marketing strategies, including its use of 'Double Marketing' and differentiated targeting, highlighting the importance of early product availability and branding. A key focus is on how Volkswagen manages cultural differences, especially in China, through cross-cultural communication, encouraging innovation, and diversifying its workforce. The report further examines Volkswagen's digital marketing efforts, including 'The People's Car Project' and its social media presence, emphasizing customer involvement. The report concludes with a future forecast, noting Volkswagen's shift towards automation and suggesting recommendations for future marketing strategies, such as collaborating with other brands and further embracing technological innovations and digital platforms. The report draws on various sources to support its analysis and provides a comprehensive overview of Volkswagen's marketing approach.

Running Head: MARKETING STRATEGY OF VOLKSWAGEN
Marketing Strategy of Volkswagen
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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ABSTRACT
This research deals with the marketing strategies that have been adopted by the German
company Volkswagen. The company was formed in the year 1937 and has been a major force in
the automobile industry ever since. They have included many strategies in the company to
incorporate multiculturalism like encouraging new innovations, diversifying work force among
others. The marketing strategy that this company uses all involves the participation of the users
which means that they are focusing on incorporating the customers so that their involvement
with the company increases. The few things that the company can do is to include new
innovation in the automation technologies and work with other brands in changing the design.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Introducing Volkswagen..............................................................................................................3
Marketing Strategies and Changes over the Last 10 Years.........................................................4
Volkswagen’s Strategies to Manage Cultural Differences..........................................................4
Digital Marketing Strategy of the Company...............................................................................6
Future Forecast............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion & Recommendation......................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Every company that depends on the sale of products has a pre-planned marketing
strategy; this strategy ensures that the product efficiently reaches its target audience and that the
sale of the company never stagnates. The strategy that is used by a company should comprise of
the proposed value of the company, the main marketing message of the company, the target
audience of the company and the other elements that will boost the sale of the company. For this
report the company, the German company Volkswagen would be taken into account. The report
will look into the marketing strategy that the company has been following for the last 10 year,
and the report will also suggest the changes or the modifications that can be adopted by the
company to boost its sales.
Discussion
Introducing Volkswagen
Founded in the year 1937, Volkswagen is a German automobile company that was
founded by the German Labor Front, a Nazi labor union (www.volkswagen.com, 2019). The
headquarters of Volkswagen is in the Wolfsburg, Germany. The largest market that Volkswagen
has is in China, from where the 40% of sales and profits of Volkswagen comes
(www.volkswagen.com, 2019). The meaning of Volkswagen in people’s car and the present
international slogan that the company has is just the name of the company, referencing to the
meaning of the name. The primary works that the Volkswagen group does is design, engineer,
and manufacture and distribute cars and various other vehicles. It designs all types of cars
including, passenger car, commercial vehicles, buses and trucks (www.volkswagenag.com,

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2019). The company is one of Europe’s leading car makers. The company’s production line
includes Volkswagen passenger car, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley.
The company has more than 357,207 employees (www.volkswagen.com, 2019).
Marketing Strategies and Changes over the Last 10 Years
The primary strategy of the company is the use of ‘Double Marketing’, which means
implementing multiple campaigns at the same time in different places and making sure that a
different message is conveyed at each of those places (Bhasin, 2019). The main area of
importance that the company gives is in the early availability of their products. To enable the
availability of the cars the company has 44 sites all around the world (www.volkswagen.com,
2019).. This has proven to be advantageous for the company as they can fulfill the demands of
the customer all around the globe and this helps with sales as it increases the amount of cars
being sold every year. One of the major marketing strategies of the company is to brand their
products in various segments of the production line (www.volkswagenag.com, 2019). The
company uses the differentiated targeting strategy so that they can meet the specific demands of
the customers. The strength of the brand’s portfolio serves as one of its advantages. The
company handles few of the world’s most powerful automotive companies, the regulation of
their ecosystem and the support system of the operations has proven advantageous for the
company. Their effective marketing strategy is also a result of the strong financial footing of the
company and the cost of their operations is also quite low so they have had the opportunity to
invest in the branding and marketing of the company.
Volkswagen’s Strategies to Manage Cultural Differences
Cross-cultural management is described as the behavior of an organization in accordance
with the country where they are operating. Cross-cultural management is important in

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understanding of different cultures all across the world. In multinational companies, the workers
unite from various different backgrounds and cultures and the way in which the company
manages the each of its employees and regulates their behaviors is cross-cultural management.
The main sale and profit of Volkswagen comes from China, which mean that there are
considerable amount of difference in the German and Chinese culture and yet somehow
Volkswagen has been able to maintain their strong foothold in China despite the differences. The
company has built a strong cross-cultural communication which enables them to increase their
sales in a country which is not their homeland (Baldassarre & Campo, 2016). Some of the
reasons why this effective management has been possible are:
 They have used their failure to encourage everyone to talk about the problems and the
hassles that the company faces (www.volkswagenag.com, 2019). The company has taken
their negative aspects and turned it into something positive. The leaders of the company
are transparent and approachable and this has enabled them to talk about the drawbacks
of the company.
 The company encourages new ideas and innovations (www.volkswagen-newsroom.com,
2019). They experience with new things and this allows the company to accommodate a
lot of learning and understanding from different cultures all around the world (Winton,
2019).
 The company has diversified its workforce and included people from various
communities are working with them (Elson, Ferrere & Goossen, 2015). The gender
composition of the company has also diversified.

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 The decision making of the company has decentralized, the company has given more
power to the regional headquarters and this has enabled them to use their workforce in a
better manner (Copuš & Čarnogurský, 2017).
These are the ways by which the company has successfully manages the company’s cultural
differences.
Digital Marketing Strategy of the Company
The traffic that the website generates is more than 33 million. The company started a
project called ‘The People’s Car Project’, the company worked together with Proximity Beijing
and Goodstein & Partners Beijing and created this platform for the users where the users would
have the opportunity to create from their ideas and design a car (Rieger, 2013). There was a also
a voting system created where the users would vote for the best designed cars. This project
started in the year 2011 and became a success (Hennig-Thurau & Hansen, 2013). This project
helped them to stand out from the other brands and was one of the most innovative marketing
strategies adopted by any company in the recent years. The social media following of
Volkswagen is more than 3.3 million (Rieger, 2013). From ‘The People’s Car Project’ it can be
understood that the company’s marketing strategy includes involving the customer so that they
feel empowered and they a feel a part of the car they are investing in. Involving the customer in
the design makes the users feel involved and makes them feel less alienated from the project’s
making. Volkswagen did another project which involved the creation of a 10 part series, where
the company invited the top Chinese automotive design students to participate in a competition
which would let them build ‘The People’s Car’ (Hennig-Thurau & Hansen, 2013). This project
was a collaborative effort between the Volkswagen’s Director of Design, two design schools of
China, a pop icon, a film director and a fashion designer. At the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show, the

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making of this project was shown (Rieger, 2013). This strategy is also to the ‘The People’s Car
Project’, where the users were involved in creating a car which they would use. All their projects
focus on the interaction with customers. Another important observation is that their main sale
and profit hub is China and most of their marketing strategies also take place in China. The latest
strategy adopted by the company to fulfill its target is Volkswagen launched its page on
LinkedIn (www.volkswagen-newsroom.com, 2019). This profile allows the users to post their
views about the company. As LinkedIn is a platform which focuses on the working professionals
so the idea of Volkswagen was that it will get them genuine customers who are actually eager to
buy the product. The company has received 960,000 updates since they have launched their page
on LinkedIn (www.volkswagen-newsroom.com, 2019). According to the reports the company
has been successful in achieving 2700 recommendations in about a month
Future Forecast
The most notable trend that Volkswagen adopted is their shift towards automation. The
involvement of the drivers has been reduced to just few movements; the car has adopted certain
technologies like the parking assistant, cruise control and the installation of the navigation
system (Hetzner, 2019). These innovations have increased the ease of driving. The cars also has
cameras and sensors involved so that brakes can be given easily, basically the driver’s function
has been reduced to nothing. In the future it is hoped that the control of the human will be
reduced even further. The advantage of that are plenty. Although major innovations are not taken
up by the company right at this moment.

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Conclusion & Recommendation
From this report it can be concluded that the company Volkswagen is highly profitable
and because of the fact that it is not only a single a brand but there are plenty of other car
companies that fall under it. Audi, Skoda, Bentley among others have a high profit market and
that combined with the products of Volkswagen hold a major a position in the market. There
branding strategies have always involved the person which has made them reach out to a lot
more people than usual. The cross-cultural management done by them is effective because of
their diverse workforce. Few things that can be recommended are:
 The company can collaborate with other brands that will improve their visibility and also
help them reach out to a new a group of buyers.
 New innovations with technology will make them the leading seller of automobiles; the
company can work towards automating the cars and take automation a step further.
 They can start other campaigns in other social media platforms like Instagram and
Facebook which will involve the audiences and this motivate the audience to buy their
products.

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References
Baldassarre, F., & Campo, R. (2016). Sustainability as a marketing tool: To be or to appear to
be?. Business Horizons, 59(4), 421-429.
Bhasin, H. (2019). Marketing Strategy of Volkswagen - Volkswagen Marketing
Strategy. Marketing91.
Copuš, L., & Čarnogurský, K. (2017). Intercultural marketing: Culture and its influence on the
efficiency of Facebook marketing communication. Management & Marketing, 12(2),
189-207.
Elson, C. M., Ferrere, C., & Goossen, N. J. (2015). The bug at Volkswagen: Lessons in co-
determination, ownership, and board structure. Journal of Applied Corporate
Finance, 27(4).
Hennig-Thurau, T., & Hansen, U. (Eds.). (2013). Relationship marketing: Gaining competitive
advantage through customer satisfaction and customer retention. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Hetzner, C. (2019). Volkswagen doubles forecast for EV battery cell demand. Automotive News
Europe.
Rieger, B. (2013). The People's Car. Harvard University Press.
Winton, N. (2019). Volkswagen Investors Worry About Ambitious Electric Car
Plans. Forbes.com.
www.volkswagen.com. (2019). volkswagen.com. Volkswagen.com.

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www.volkswagenag.com. (2019). History. Volkswagenag.com.
www.volkswagenag.com. (2019). Strategy | Volkswagen Group. Volkswagenag.com.
www.volkswagen-newsroom.com. (2019). Volkswagen to boost marketing
efficiency. Volkswagen Newsroom.