Marketing Management Assignment 1 - Course Bachelor of...

Course: Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) 24
Module: Marketing Management (MKT2002S)
Assignment Title: Assignment 1
Submitted by: Cho Yaosong, Johan
Student Number: 15207927
Lecturer: Dr Ajit K Prasad &
Dr Markus Vanharanta
Submission Date: 4 March 2016
Word Count: 1730
1

Content List
1. Background ...................................................................................................................... 3
2. SWOT Table Highlights .................................................................................................. 3
3. Strengths ............................................................................................................................ 4
5. Weakness ........................................................................................................................... 5
6. Opportunities .................................................................................................................... 5-6
4. Threats .............................................................................................................................. 6-7
5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 7
6. Referencing and Structure Formatting .......................................................................... 8
2

1. Background
Volkswagen Group is a German multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered
in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany (Jurevicius, 2013). It was founded in 1937 but only
began production in 1945 after being converted from an armament factory following World War
II. In 1945, its introductory car, the Beetle became a success story in America (Volkswagen,
2016).
Today, Volkswagen owns renowned car brands such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche, Skoda,
Lamborghini, MAN, Scania and motorcycle brand Ducati (Barth, 2013). Volkswagen’s perennial
top sellers worldwide include the Jetta and Golf models (Forbes, 2016). By May 2015,
Volkswagen has 119 production facilities across 31 countries in Europe, America, Asia and
Africa and sells its vehicles in 153 countries (Volkswagen, 2015).
As of May 2015, it has 592,586 employees producing 41,000 cars worldwide every weekday
(Volkswagen, 2014). In the same year it generated a net income of $268.55 billion US dollars
and a market capitalization of $126 billion US dollars (Forbes, 2015).
Its top competitors are Toyota, General Motors (GM) while the rest include Ford, BMW,
Hyundai, Chevrolet, Honda (Spiderbook, 2015).
2. SWOT Table
Volkswagen SWOT Analysis
Helpful to meeting objectives Harmful to meeting objectives
Internal Factors Strengths
1. Strong Global Presence
2. Brand Portfolio is Diversified
and Strong
3. Synergy
4. Strong Standing in China
Opportunities
1. Consumer Inclination towards
“green” vehicles
2. Growth through Acquisitions
3. Increasing Purchasing Power of
People
4. Increasing Global Demand for
Buses
External Factors Weakness
1. Weak Industry Position in the
Indian and United States
2. Most cars are not environment
friendly and fuel efficient
3. Controversy and Fraud on the
Emissions of the Cars
Threats
1. Fluctuating Fuel Prices
2. Rising Raw Material Prices
3. Exchange Rates
3

2.1 Strengths
2.1.1 Strong global presence
Having its operations in 153 countries worldwide in 5 continents, Volkswagen became the
second largest automaker by output in the world in 2014 with 10.23 million units of car sold and
202.2 billion euros in revenue (Statista, 2014). With such enormous reach to the masses,
Volkswagen has been successful in capturing the majority of the market with only Toyota able to
compete in terms of global presence (Murphy, 2015). Furthermore, the financial report of
Volkswagen in 2015 highlighted the company’s positive growth in car market where its sales
revenue increased by 10.3% from the previous year to $52,735 million which increased its
overall operating profit by 6.3% (Potsch, 2015). With such robust growth and immense global
presence, Volkswagen has surely established itself as a key player in the automobile industry.