EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The study was done in the Delhi market and the main objective was to assess the

brand image of Volkswagen and simultaneously to analyse the need of degree of

brand promotion in the Delhi market.

Considering this around 14 questions were asked to more than 250 respondents and

out of them 162 were noted down to analyse the every aspect of consumer perception

towards automobile industry and Brand Volkswagen. Through the analysis and their

attitude it was found that majority of population is price sensitive (48%) and after that

mileage is second most concerned factor (41%). Looking for brand recognition

around 78.12% people knows about brand Volkswagen. They also feel that VW needs

more brand promotion. 

The study was done both in service (50%) and business sector (42%) and it was found

that people in service sector are more familiar with VW than business sector which

are not so much potential than later. People are doubtful regarding the service of VW

in future. People who are using VW cars are not properly satisfied with the mileage of

the car.

Looking at the brighter side 88.32% people are dissatisfied with their present car that

indicates a huge market scope in this sector and 94.18% people are eager to taste the

German engineering on Indian road this shows that there is a good scope of VW in

market if they overcome some of their hurdles.

Limitations of the research:

The research study suffered from following limitation: -

a) The Bhubaneswar market was very vast and it was impossible to cover each and

every customer with in the short duration of one and half month.

b) Many a times insufficient customer interest leads to in accurate data.

c) Reactance of customer to disclose their exact information.

d) Dynamic market also leads to inaccurate data.

e) The sample size was only 162.

f) Many of the research objectives were qualitative one such as customer satisfaction,

customer behaviour which is impossible to be quantified.

CONTENTS

S No Topic Page No

1 Chapter I: Introduction 1

2 Chapter II: Review of Literature 5

3 Chapter III: Research Methodology 7

4 Chapter IV: Data Reduction, Presentation & Analysis 9

5 Chapter V: Data Interpretation 22

6 Chapter VI: Summary & Conclusions 24

7 References/ Bibliography 26

8 Appendices

-Questionnaire 27

- List of Tables 30

- List of Figures 30

CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

1. There are more than 125 Fortune 500 companies in India. India is an emerging

global manufacturing hub for low cost cars. Changing demographics, rising

disposable income and entry of several new players has expanded the domestic

market for passenger vehicles. The industry turnover is estimated to reach

a level of US $155 billion by 2016. Looking into the north India, Delhi

has emerged as a key state with minerals and metals based industry with the

total Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) about$26.6 billion in 2008-09. As

an economic-centre and capital of Delhi with tremendous potential many

foreign companies are trying to grasp the opportunity by placing their different

product targeting different income group. This project was done to access the

brand image of one of the well-known German brand ‘VOLKSWAGEN’ and

to analyse the need of degree of brand promotion in Delhi market. With the

help of questionnaire targeting all potential sector of society a survey was

done to measure brand awareness and satisfaction level of customer with their

present car and many more aspects.

2. Headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, the Volkswagen Group in India is

represented by five brands: SKODA, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and

Lamborghini. The Indian journey began with the launch of SKODA in 2001.

Audi and Volkswagen entered in 2007, while Lamborghini and Porsche were

introduced in 2012. Today, the Group upholds its mantle of superior

engineering, with plants in Pune and Aurangabad working seamlessly to

manufacture the world's most loved cars.

2.1. The Volkswagen Group India is a part of Volkswagen AG, which is

globally represented by 12 brands from 7 European countries. 11 automotive

brands: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini,

Porsche, Scania, SEAT, SKODA, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

(Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge) and MAN; and 1 motorcycle brand: Ducati. An

impressive line-up that prides itself as much in its quality of engineering, as in

its depth of innovation.

1

3. From low-consumption small cars to luxury class vehicles, each car is

convincingly worthy of its place on the road. Even in the commercial vehicle

sector - where products range from pick-ups to buses and heavy trucks - the

Group's cars successfully partner businesses and are known to far exceed the

industry standard. This benchmark, that is truly gold standard, has helmed the

group in its operations across 100 production plants around the world. More

than 500,000 employees are involved in vehicle-manufacturing services and

their related processes. Together, they produce about 30,000 vehicles each

working day.

2

VOLKSWAGEN CARS IN INDIA

VOLKSWAGEN POLO

VOLKSWAGEN VENTO

VOLKSWAGEN JETTA

3

VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT

VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE

VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG

4

CHAPTER-2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

MARKETING COMMUNICATION:

1. Modern marketing is the management of the 4P’s - PRODUCT, PRICE,

PLACE, PROMOTION. 

1.1.The product communicates a distinctive image like glamour or prestige.

The brand name communicates physical and physiological attributes of the

product. The package communicates to the manufacturer thinks of his

convenience and the since of beauty. This price

communicates the equity of the products. These are

communication between buyer & seller i.e. the distribution channel. Thus each

elements of the marketing mix either helps or hinders communication and

ultimately the sales effort. The marketing communication or promotion mix

consists of five major tools:

1. Advertising

2. Sales promotion

3. Publicity

4. Personal selling

5. Public relation

1.2. A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other

products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually

marketed. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name.

Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual

product and service names. Brands are often expressed in the form of logos, Graphic

representations of the brand. A company's brands and the public awareness of them

are often used as a factor in evaluating a company. Corporations

sometimes hire market research firms to study public recognition of brand names as

well as attitudes towards the brands.

5

BRAND BUILDING:

The important factors that are affecting to build a brand value…

1. Quality

2. Positioning

3. Repositioning

4. Communication

5. First mover advantage

6. Long term perspective

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY:

The main objective of study was to understand the whole automobile market of

Delhi and customer behaviour regarding that Objectives: -

A) To know the profile of different customer groups according to their sex, age,

income, frequency of their uses, etc.

B) To know the satisfaction level of customer with their present car.

C) To analyse  the down market stretching strategy of Volkswagen with the

introduction of POLO & VENTO.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

•The study is to be carried out in city of Delhi.

•Delhi is a cosmopolitan environment, consisting of people from different parts of

city.

6

CHAPTER-3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research study involves knowing the brand positioning of Volkswagen. What

uniqueness and special features it has got in its product which

differentiated it form its competitors and also how Brand Positioning is stimulates.

PROCESS OF THE RESEARCH:

I have completed my project with visiting different retailsoutlets, dealers, distributors, 

and also service centre andcustomers in Delhi market to analyze the how Brandpositio

ning help to boost up their sales in comparison on their competitors. So entire project

was divided into three parts:

1. Conducting market research in the various part of the city in order to get the idea

about the effectiveness of BrandPositioning in bringing the customers and dealers

satisfaction.

2. Retailers or dealers perception, views or satisfaction level regarding the product

they are using.

3.Identification of the factor that are responsible for dealers or consumers response  

towards these brand positioning.

•Like whether offered sales promotion,

•Brand loyalty, Approaches towards the new product,

•Explore needs of the consumers

TYPE OF STUDY:

My study is an Empirical Research. Empirical research is practical or data based

research. Whatever I have done relies on the experience and observations. Lastly the

conclusions with which I have come up are capable of being verified.

7

DATA SOURCES:

I have collected the data from different area in the Delhi market. Data are collected

through both the primary and secondary sources. Primary data are collected from the

market by circulating questionnaires to the respondent and the secondary data are

collected from web sites and published material as listed in the bibliography.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS:

The data has been collected through a personal survey as well as from secondary

sources such as websites & published material.

•SAMPLING METHODS:

This research is based on then on probability Quota sampling methods. Since I have

selected my sample dealers or distributors according to channel wise.

•DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT:

I have collected data using face to face (personal interaction) for the customer’s views

and dealers views and Scheduling methods, for analysing the customer’s and dealer’s

satisfaction and the effectiveness of the branding after sales service.

Scheduling methods are those methods in which a schedules containing relevant

question are prepare and then enumerators fill the schedules and the basis of the reply

given by respondent. My questionnaire consists of both open ended and close ended

question.

SAMPLE SIZE:

The survey has been done with 162 respondents which includes both men & women

from both service sector & business sector.

8

CHAPTER-4

DATA REDUCTION, PRESENTATION & ANALYSIS

Analysis 1: Identification of   prospect customers:-

 The automobile industry is experiencing a dramatic transformation that will forever

alter the way both new and used vehicles are marketed and sold. As consumers

change their operational structure and methods. As the automotive industry becomes

increasingly sophisticated, dealers are looking outward for assistance in increasing

new and used car sales, improving margins, containing costs ,developing additional

profit centres and designing programs that will meet consumer demands today and in

the coming years. Concerning to this to differentiate user and non-user the very first

question to customer was whether they own a car or not.

CUSTOMER NO.OF RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT

CATEGORIES

CAR USER 104 64

NON USER 58 3

Table No. 1: Car Usage

9

Fig. No. 1: Car Usage

Implication: -The research was conducted taking all the sector of society i.e., business

class, service class and those belonging to both business and service class and among

them 64%belong to user group and 36% belong to non-user group, here user group

means those who previously owned any car or presently using any car and non-user

means those who never owned any car. Among 64% of user group and 36% of non-

user group taken together, 42% were businessmen.50% were servicemen. 8% were

both to businessmen and service men.

10

Fig. No.2: Respondent Group

Considering the income of the entire above sector, in the survey it was found that the

businessmen, service men and both businessmen and service men in Delhi city have

average yearly income <10 Lakh, <4 Lakh, <6 Lakh respectively.

11

Fig. No.3: Income Classification of the Respondent Group

So, according to this there is huge difference in income of the entire three sectors. It

was also found that many of the businessmen were multicar owner so, they can

be potential customer for Volkswagen premium segment car. Among the whole

sample 15.43% people have more than 10Lakh yearly incomes so, they can be

potential customer for Volkswagen Jetta. Likewise 9.25% people have more than 12.5

Lakh monthly incomes so, they can be potential customer for Volkswagen Passat and

Volkswagen Jetta. Similarly among whole 6%have more than 15 Lakh yearly incomes

so; they can be potential customer for Volkswagen Passat and Volkswagen Beetle.

Only 2-3% people were those who are actually very high income group and they can

be high potential group for Volkswagen SUV Touareg and Beetle. It was found that

there were many people who had never owned a car and they were planning to buy a

new car and in that group most of them were servicemen and also few businessmen

and their first choice is Volkswagen polo. If company provide proper assistance like

financial assistance they can be potential customer to the company.

12

Analysis 2: Identification of   potential customer on the basis of preference on various

factor.

 There are various factors which influence a customer during a purchase of vehicle but

there are 10 major factors which primarily influences a purchase i.e., price, look,

brand, engine, mileage, service availability, engine capacity, interior, seating space,

interior, speed, quality. Each and every customer has their different factor preference

and according to that they try to figure out their choice which ultimately decides

which brand, model and segment he is going to buy. This question was asked to each

and every respondent and allowed to rank their preference under 10 different factors.

Implication: -The very first finding of this analysis was that each and every decision

was influenced by respondent’s age, income, their occupation and their uses. Even a

Customer of very high income group has their special preference ranking according to

their age and their uses and findings of many cases were quite different from a general

expectation.

Fig. No.4: Preference Factor Ranking

13

It was found that 48% of the respondent gave their first preference to price.21% gave

first preference to mileage. Only 15% gave first preference to brand. Most of the

customers have a common view that each automobile company in itself is a big brand.

Look only got 11% of the respondent first preference. Service availability which is

considered to be one of the major factors got 0% first preference rather it was 3 rd

preference for 35% of the respondent. One thing which was found in the survey was

that those people who presently own or owned Ford automobile have major

concern for service availability for foreign brand service availability. Engine capacity

got only 2% respondent’s 1st major concern where as it 4th major concern for 24%

people. Those people who owned a SUV or a MUV seemed to be more concerned for

engine capacity.

Fig. No.5:Majority Respondent Percentage for all factors in each rank.

As we have discussed earlier that each and every customer have their particular

preference ranking which is influenced by various factor like age, sex, income and

14

uses etc. But with the help of data found during the survey we tried to generalise a

viewpoint regarding each factor that what a majority of population think for rank 1 to

rank 10 according to their preference. It was found that 48% of people think price as a

first preference. This shows majority of population is price sensitive but this doesn’t

mean that they are not a potential customer for our premium segment car. This can

only be figured out by considering other factor. As we know that mileage in one of the

major concern so do the respondents. 41% of respondent kept mileage on 2nd position.

Soon after price and mileage the major concern for the people in Delhi city is service

availability. 35% of the people think service availability at 3rd rank. Seating space is

also one of the concern for the people and it is rank at 4 th position with 24%. It was

found in the survey that for a mid-size car length, headroom, legroom, of the car is

first question during general enquire for a car. Interior, look and brand got almost

equal percentage response which is 17%, 19% and 18% and got 6 th, 7th and 8th rank

respectively. Majority of the people feel quality and speed as not a big issue for them

as 30% of the people feel quality at 2nd last position and around 50% people feel speed

at last position for a Volkswagen mid-size car.

15

Fig. No.6: Price and Mileage Line Graph

This analysis is done to determine the potential customer for midsize car like

Volkswagen Polo. During the survey it was found that there were many customers

which were price sensitive and many were mileage sensitive so, to determine a

relation between price and mileage sensitive customer and to determine the exact

percentage of potential customer it was necessary to analyse and compare the whole

customer ranking. With the help of price and mileage line graph we can easily figure

out how a price and mileage sensitive customer is related to each other. Their

viewpoint for price and mileage were similar. This graph shows that more or less

same percentage of customer at each ranking or their averages were same. Those

customers who gave price and mileage more than 3rd rank can’t be potential customer

for midsize car which in total for price and mileage are about on average 9.63% and

those who gave it up to 3rd rank are on average 65%.

16

Analysis 3: Analysis for   Brand Recognition.

This analysis is done to analyse the brand recognition of brand Volkswagen in Delhi.

This analysis was done with 162 respondents i.e. for those who are using any car and

also with those who are not using any car.

FAMILARITY  KNOWN UNKNOWN

ABOUT COMPANY

PERCETAGE 78.61% 21.39%

NO. OF RESPONDENT 127 35

Table No. 2: Brand Recognition

 

Fig. No.7: Brand Recognition

17

Implication: -This analysis implies that majority of population knows about

Brand Volkswagen. Majority of population identifies it as German engineering which

is a good symbol as a brand image. Their familiarities was more with the service class

of Delhi than business class, they shown trust with the brand and have reliability on

technology part of Volkswagen. The analysis was based on the 162 sample and 127

people shown trust with the brand. Those who do not know about Volkswagen were

mostly belonging to traditional business class which include very small group i.e. 35

in number only.

18

Analysis 4: - Estimation of people who need financial assistance to purchase a

new   car.

This question was asked with the entire respondent to know whether they need

financial assistance for the purchase of a new car, this was done to identify the

potentiality of customer and also an excellent financial assistance from a dealer acts as

catalyst for a purchase of a new car. The response was as follows.

Respondent Direct  Cash Financial Assistance

Number 10 152

Percentage 5.8% 94.2%

Table No.3: Need For Financial Assistance

19

Fig. No.8: Need for Financial Assistance

Implication: -This analysis was based to know the financial status of people for the

purchase of a new vehicle because a proper financial assistance from a dealer

encourages a customer for purchase. A dealer with multi financial facility can even

pushes a slight unwilling person into customer. Through this analysis we can easily

figure out that majority of population want easy financial assistance for a purchase, so

to convert a common person into a customer how a financial assistance help we can

access. Around 94% people need financial assistance for a new purchase and they

expect from a dealer for that.

20

Analysis 5: - Analysis of brand promotion in Delhi.

This question was oriented to access the degree of brand promotion in Delhi. People

were asked about various source of brand knowledge and their answers were not quite

satisfactory.

TV ADVERTISMENTS YES

ROADSIDE HORDING NO

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT VERY FEW

FRIENDS AND RELATIVES NO

INTERNET ADVERTISEMENT NO

Table No.4: Brand Promotion

Implication: - During the survey it was found that inspite of knowledge of brand

Volkswagen people have never seen any roadside hording they rarely saw any

advertisements in newspaper. This indicates that even many of the segments have

been launched in India people know less about that as of the above reason.

21

CHAPTER-5

DATA INTERPRETATION

1. The research was conducted taking all the sector of society i.e., business class,

service class and those belonging to both business and service class and

among them 64%belong to user group and 36% belong to non-user group, here

user group means those who previously owned any car or presently using any

car and non-user means those who never owned any car. Among 64% of user

group and 36% of non-user group taken together,42% were businessmen.50%

were servicemen. 8% were both to businessmen and service men.

2. The very first finding of this analysis was that each and every decision was

influenced by respondent’s age, income, their occupation and their uses.

Even a Customer of very high income group has their special preference

ranking according to their age and their uses and findings of many cases were

quite different from a general expectation.

3. It was found that 48% of the respondent gave their first preference to

price.21% gave first preference to mileage. Only 15% gave first preference to

brand. Most of the customers have a common view that each automobile

company in itself is a big brand. Look only got 11% of the respondent first

preference. Service availability which is considered to be one of the major

factors got 0% first preference rather it was 3rd preference for 35% of the

respondent. One thing which was found in the survey was that those people

who presently own or owned Ford automobile have major concern for service

availability for foreign brand service availability. Engine capacity got only 2%

respondent’s 1st major concern where as it 4th major concern for 24% people.

Those people who owned a SUV or a MUV seemed to be more concerned for

engine capacity.

22

4. This analysis implies that majority of population knows about

Brand Volkswagen. Majority of population identifies it as German engineering

which is a good symbol as a brand image. Their familiarities was more with

the service class of Delhi than business class, they shown trust with the brand

and have reliability on technology part of Volkswagen. The analysis was

based on the 162 sample and 127 people shown trust with the brand. Those

who do not know about Volkswagen were mostly belonging to traditional

business class which include very small group i.e. 35 in number only.

5. This analysis was based to know the financial status of people for the purchase

of a new vehicle because a proper financial assistance from a dealer

encourages a customer for purchase. A dealer with multi financial facility can

even pushes a slight unwilling person into customer. Through this analysis we

can easily figure out that majority of population want easy financial assistance

for a purchase, so to convert a common person into a customer how a financial

assistance help we can access. Around 94% people need financial assistance

for a new purchase and they expect from a dealer for that.

6. During the survey it was found that inspite of knowledge of brand

Volkswagen people have never seen any roadside hording they rarely saw any

advertisements in newspaper. This indicates that even many of the segments

have been launched in India people know less about that as of the above

reason.

23

CHAPTER-6

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS

1. The study was done in both in the business sector and service sector of Delhi.

There is very high potentiality among the business sector and they have average

income more than 10 Lakh, whereas the service sector even having less average

income (more than 4 Lakh) are potentially very sound if they are provided with

proper financial assistance. Analysing the distribution of different brands in Delhi

Maruti Suzuki is the market leader with 52% market share followed with Hyundai

19%. Even of waiting time of two month people are opting Maruti Suzuki due

to reliability of product. Hyundai is known for value for money product. Honda

with small market share of 4% has 100% satisfaction level on service. According

to the preference of people approximately 50% of the people are price sensitive

and only 3% of the people is insensitive of price.

2. Looking for the satisfaction level 88.32% people shown desire to switch for a

new car if they got proper match with their preference because of any reason or

the other. If we go for interest in Brand Volkswagen 88.32% want to have a

Volkswagen car. Looking for brand recognition approximately 80% people

knows about the Brand Volkswagen. 94.2% People needs financial assistance for

purchase of new vehicle which shows a good market opportunity to Volkswagen.

Brand Volkswagen has very poor brand promotion which must be done properly

because it provides a connection to customer

24

Recommendations:

a) Volkswagen should do first brand promotion through advertisement, offers

and discounts.

b) Dealer should perform product promotion by putting their product sample with

a sales executive in malls like DT City Malls, Big bazaar, and other big

exhibitions.

c) Dealers should also work to improve their image.

d) Volkswagen with the help of dealer should perform brand awareness.

25

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) Kothari, C.R., Research Methodology,

India: New Age International Publishers

2) Kotler , P., Marketing Management,

India: Pearson Prentice Hall

3) T.N. Chhabra, Marketing Management

India: Dhanpat Rai & CO.

4) WEBSITES: -

http://www.volkswagenag.com

http://www.volkswagen.co.in

http://www.siamindia.org

http://www.google.com

http://www.automobile.com

http://www.scribed.com

http://www.wikipedia.org

5) Magazines: Overdrive and Autocar India

6) GLOBUS CARS PVT. LTD. Sales Department

26

APPENDICES

QUESTIONNAIRE

A market survey on Volkswagen

(Questionnaire)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am conducting a market survey to understand the behaviour of customers towards

Car Market in Delhi, which is for educational purpose only and complete

confidentiality will be maintained. It will take approximately 10 minutes to complete

the questionnaire. Kindly extend your cooperation in filling up this questionnaire. It is

very important for us to learn your opinions and your cooperation will be highly

obliged.

=============================================================

1. Do you own a car? Yes No

2. If yes, which brand and model you are using?

3. How long have you used it?

a).less than 1 year

b). 1year to 3years

c). 3years to 5 years

d). More than 5 years

4. What makes you happy to purchase the brand and model at that time?

(Rank it serially from 1 to 10)

27

a).Price

b). Look

c). Brand

d). Engine Capacity

e). Seating Space

f). Mileage

g). Service Availability

h). Quality

i) Speed

j).Interior

5. Overall how much satisfied you are with your present car?

a).Extremely Satisfied

b).Very much satisfied

c). Neutral

d). Very much unsatisfied

e). Extremely unsatisfied

6. If you find all these above features in a customized way, would you like to prefer to

go for a new purchase?

Yes

No (why?...........................................................................................................)

7. If yes, which brand and model do you like to replace with?

8. Purchase detail ;

(i) From where you purchased your last car:

28

(ii)Did the dealer meet their promise:

9. How would you like to purchase your new car?

a). Direct cash

b). Through Easy Finance System

10. Do you know the brand Volkswagen?

Yes No

29

LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page No.

1. Car Usage 9

2. Brand Recognition 17

3. Need For Financial

Assistance

19

4. Brand Promotion 21

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Title Page No.

1. Car Usage 10

2. Respondent Group 11

3. Income Classification of the Respondent Group 12

4. Preference Factor Ranking 13

5. Majority Respondent Percentage for all factors in

each rank

14

6. Price and Mileage Line Graph 16

7. Brand Recognition 17

8. Need For Financial Assistance 20

30

31