Volkswagen company analysis: history, impacts and marketing

1. Workers

   • Volkswagen is one of the world's largest employers in the private sector. At the end 2016 they had a total of 626,715 employees, and in previous years the rate has kept on increasing. (annualreport2016.volkswagenag,2016)

2. Earnings

   • At the end of 2017, Volkswagen earned a total estimate of 13.9 billion
     • Big earnings bring good reputation. As a company earns more and more many and earns more money it starts to build a reputation for themselves. This reputation can turn into trust which makes it easier for buyers to purchase a companies product
       • Big reputations put Volkswagen in a big spotlight. This is because as Volkswagen as a company grows the negative and positive actions are magnified. This could be good but, when they are found to do something bad it is made a immense deal out of.

3. Operations/Manufacturing

   • Places where Volkswagen cars are manufactured: Brazil, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, South Africa, Spain (Cars direct,2018)
   • Volkswagen dealership locations: Worldwide; Australia, China, Taiwan, India, (Google Maps,2018)
     • Such a large variety of locations for Volkswagen's means a larger sale margin. This is as when there are more dealership locations worldwide, the more sales there will be, this is reciprocated in a more international scale.
       • The more widespread Volkswagen is the more competition there is. When a company is branched out as much as Volkswagen is there can be other favourite cars and companies that are too big to buy out. This then effects Volkswagen sales.

4. Social Impacts

   • Volkswagen provides a safe form of transportation. By doing so, Volkswagen makes everyday lives easier and more accessible. Our lives are more accessible as Volkswagen cars have a variety of car models ranging in different seat capacities. We are safe in Volkswagen cars as they are reinforced in high strength steel and feature front and back zones that absorb the energy created by crashing. (ontariovolkswagen
   • Volkswagen is typically a cheap branded and easy to maintain, therefore presenting itself as an affordable family car.
   • Has been proven to be untrustworthy through the scandal. The scandal lost the loyalty of their customers because they cheated their emmision tests, proving they didn't care about the environment.

5. History of Company

   • Volkswagen is a German-based car manufacturing company. It was introduced into the car brand market on request from Adolf Hitler. Ferdinand Porsche Sr. was asked to design a more accessible automobile. The result was the car Volkswagen is most commonly known for, the Beetle. After WWII, the British recovered one of the Volkswagens broken down factories. As the company grew it would soon break into the US market turning into a trade surplus company. Decades go by and Volkswagen has made its name in the car manufacturing industry, but in the early 2000's a scandal arose. Volkswagen was caught cheating emission tests. The Investigations discovered that this affected 36,000 of the cars produced a year. It was emitting pollutants up to 40 times above what was allowed in the US. To fix this VW recalled millions of cars, which resulted in heavy costs. Volkswagen has since recovered and is still in the top ten most selling cars. (History,2009)

6. Economic Impacts

   • Volkswagen has a large impact on both the US and the German economy. It produces masses of activity in the stock market as it is a highly successful car manufacturing company. It opens up job opportunities as the company expands, therefore, increasing employment rates. Volkswagen also increases the GDP of a country where the cars are manufactured, as they sell numerous amounts of cars in the country. These cars also contribute to fuel being needed therefore increasing the GDP in a country even more
   • In recent years, consumer confidence has decreased as for when the scandal was magnified. This comes from distrust as millions of Volkswagen vehicles were called in, making the scandal more well known

7. Environmental Impacts

   • In recent tests highlighted by the Volkswagen scandal, they have failed to live up to their standards. This is prominent in their emission tests where they were highly unsustainable. Volkswagen was impacting the environment negatively, polluting the environment through the carbon emissions from the Volkswagen cars
   • However, Volkswagen is working on an electric, more sustainable vehicle putting them on the road to redemption

8. Political Impacts

   • US policy has impacted Volkswagen heavily. The Environmental Protection Agency in US caught the company out as it didn't meet the emission policy standards. This is as Volkswagen used the 'defeat device' to only perform better only during tests, resulting in them being 40 times over the emission test average in the US. (bbc, 2015)

9. Technological Impacts

   • In Volkswagen's past, they used illegal technology called a 'defeat device' in millions of their cars to cheat emission tests. The technology was called a 'defeat device' that effectively made the car only run cleanly during emission.
   • Volkswagen is working on electric cars which will use JAC platforms to reach the governments quota. (Volkswagen,2018)
   • Volkswagen's website provides insight into the future of their innovation. There website includes innovative transportation of the future and new sustainable electric cars

10. Marketing

    • Marketing for Volkswagen comes easy. They have come to own 12 individual branches of vehicle companies. Volkswagen has put in place numerous marketing strategies.
      • Strategies include: Competitive Advantages, BCG Matrix, Distribution, Brand Equity, Competitive Analysis, Market Analysis and Customer Analysis.
    • Rivalry and competition could make it hard to sell cars like their own. Rivalry and competition make it hard to sell cars because it creates a kind of an armsrace. Each car manufacturing company tries to one up eachother by trying to be more inavative.
      • Sibling rivalries like the rivalry that was between Audi and Porshce. This was when they tried to take each other on at Le Mans (a race). (reuters, 2014). That was only background information, recently, due to cuts in Volkswagen because of the emission scandal, Volkswagen can only chose one other premium brand. (drive,2016)

11. Parent company or other brands owned

    • Parent Organisations: Porsche SE, Qatar Investment Authority
    • Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and overseas-brands SEAT and Skoda
      • Lots of brands owned means less competition. To expand on this, because Volkswagen is such a big company, it means that it can buy out its competition and use the profits from that company to gain an overall profit. As Volkswagen owns so many expensive branches, for example lamborghini, the make a lot of money and drag a different audience into their sales.

12. Cultural Impacts

    • In the early 2000's, culturally, didn't have very high moral values as they cheated their emission tests with the 'defeat device'. This exposed how Volkswagen would do anything to try and rise to the top of the car market.
    • Now that Volkswagen has been exposed for the 'defeat device' diesel engine scandal, the company has developed higher standards as they accepted their failure as growth opportunities. This, in turn, benefits the company and its employees.

13. Positive Impacts

14. Negative Impacts

15. Generalised Information

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