Volkswagen Case Study

Chapter 1:

1.0 Introduction

This paper is based on the ‘The New Beetle’ case study and is requested to write a report on their key issue, problem statement, and marketing strategy.

1.1 Company Profile

Volkswagen also known as VW original from Germany is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen was founded in year 1937 was the top-selling and namesake marque of the Volkswagen group. The company continues growth and become the largest automaker in Europe nowadays.

Volkswagen started to build the relationship with the UK when the two Beetles were sold in year 1952. However, the original of the Beetle has been transformed into the latest version called The Volkswagen New Beetle and brought into the market in year 1997 and 1998. They product has been updated with several new function The New Beetle today is the third year of their production.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Volkswagen had a downtime in year 1998 where the financial crisis happened due to the declining in sales. Nearly 90 percent decrease of the sales in 28 years’ time where was only 50,000 cars sold in year 1993 compare to 500,000 cars in year 1970 (Rajiv, 2005). According to Rajiv, the main reasons for the sales hit the low is because of the strong competition from the latest and advance Japanese cars brands. Besides of this, the drop in sales might due to the exchange rate volatility as well.

1.3 Significance of the study

This study could examine the marketing strategies used by the Volkswagen Company when dealing with the financial crisis due to the decreasing in sales. Furthermore, this study would also be a review on the marketing theories and