Volkswagen Case Study
The New Beetle – Case Study
Contents The New Beetle – Case Study 1 Introduction 1 1. The meaning of the VW brand 1 2. The appeal of The New Beetle 3 3. Why the positioning decision is termed “Mission Impossible?” 4 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different positioning options? 6 5. How would the pricing and media selection choices be affected by the positioning of the car? 7 Conclusion 8
Introduction
The case under discussion in this assignment is “The New Beetle”. This case is focusing on the issues that the marketing team, public relations team and advertising agency of Volkswagen, is having in terms of positioning and pricing the new product. Volkswagen is the parent company of car brand “Beetle”.This case is embedded deeply into the marketing problems of an organization. It looks into the dilemmas that the managers have to face in terms of perfectly positioning their brands.
As has been mentioned in the case, this positioning is of particular importance to Volkswagen because it is currently that is in 1998, in recovery stages in the United States of America. The product that they have unveiled (The New Beetle) has gained significant amount of press, media and public attention. Even though this increase in publicity is an opportunity for the organization to regain its original sales volume and profitability, it is also a risk. This is because it is creating hype and is raising expectations of the customers from the German automobile maker as well as from the brand itself.This means that in case New Beetle is anywhere below the expectation of the consumers, even the original brand equity will suffer. Given the current situation that Volkswagen of America is in and considering the limitation of finances that the management is facing, such a loss of brand equity is utterly unacceptable.
Through five main questions, this case analysis will be presenting different dimensions of the New Beetle case with the purpose of
Contents The New Beetle – Case Study 1 Introduction 1 1. The meaning of the VW brand 1 2. The appeal of The New Beetle 3 3. Why the positioning decision is termed “Mission Impossible?” 4 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different positioning options? 6 5. How would the pricing and media selection choices be affected by the positioning of the car? 7 Conclusion 8
Introduction
The case under discussion in this assignment is “The New Beetle”. This case is focusing on the issues that the marketing team, public relations team and advertising agency of Volkswagen, is having in terms of positioning and pricing the new product. Volkswagen is the parent company of car brand “Beetle”.This case is embedded deeply into the marketing problems of an organization. It looks into the dilemmas that the managers have to face in terms of perfectly positioning their brands.
As has been mentioned in the case, this positioning is of particular importance to Volkswagen because it is currently that is in 1998, in recovery stages in the United States of America. The product that they have unveiled (The New Beetle) has gained significant amount of press, media and public attention. Even though this increase in publicity is an opportunity for the organization to regain its original sales volume and profitability, it is also a risk. This is because it is creating hype and is raising expectations of the customers from the German automobile maker as well as from the brand itself.This means that in case New Beetle is anywhere below the expectation of the consumers, even the original brand equity will suffer. Given the current situation that Volkswagen of America is in and considering the limitation of finances that the management is facing, such a loss of brand equity is utterly unacceptable.
Through five main questions, this case analysis will be presenting different dimensions of the New Beetle case with the purpose of
References: 1. Anandan, C. (2009). Product management (2nd Ed). India: Tata McGraw Hill. 2. Hundley, T. (2007, June 12). German engineers: The proud and too few, Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-06-12/news/0706120108_1_engineering-students-german-economy-greens 3 4. Knapman, C. (2013, Jan 22). German cars lose out in reliability survey, The Telegraph, Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9815860/German-cars-lose-out-in-reliability-survey.html 5 6. Novak, E. and Lyman, M. (1998). Brand Positioning: The Art of Retying Connections, The Electricity Journal, Vol. 11 (9) pp. 17 – 22 7 8. Sengupta, S. (2005). Brand Positioning: Strategies for Competitive Advantage (2nd Ed). India: Tata McGraw Hill. 9 10. Wilson, J. (2005). Nostalgia: Sanctuary Of Meaning (1st Ed). USA: Bucknell University. PLEASE CHECK