A Product Evaluation

Volkswagen Polo

Group Members
Anand Bhagat Snehal Ladge Nirmal Panchal Suresh Yadav Dinesh Yadav Cliford Borges

Introduction
From December 12, 2009 the new Pune plant has started rolling-out the hatchback version of the Volkswagen Polo. The Made-in-India Polo was presented to the general public for the very first time at the Auto Expo 2009 Delhi in January. The launch of this premium hatchback in March 2010, brought access to one of the Indian passenger car segments with the highest-volume unit sales of 18640 up to December 2010. VW Polo has received several awards such as What A Car! Award 2010, European COTY 2009, World COTY 2010, CNBC Overdrive, NDTV Car & Bike Award, Business Standard Motoring Award. The VW Polo has placed itself in the market with an aim to target young achievers as well as budget-minded buyers in the compact car/ lifestyle segment. The car was priced at Rs. 4.8 lakhs to 7.5 lakhs for 1.2L petrol &

IMC Perspective

Marketing Strategy Volkswagen follows a top-down strategy of bringing its cars to India. Kurt Rippholz said,"As part of this strategy, we first brought the Thaeton and Touareg, followed by Passat in September 2007, which is a segment below these two. Jetta was launched in July 2008, a segment below the Passat. Now we're launching the Beetle , which is in the same segment as the Jetta but will be positioned as a lifestyle car. Volkswagen hopes to increase its sales in 2010 with the to-be-launched Polo hatchback and an upper-premium sedan variant. will be rolled out from the Chakan plant. The production of polo hatchback and the new premium sedan will be flexible depending upon the demand."

Brand Development
During the research we observed that Volkswagen group has invested extensively in activities targeting brand development, thus deserving a mention. The activities are as follows : 13 advertisements on12 pages TOI out of 22 had VW ads on the day VW-Polo was launched, addressed as roadblocking activity in the media circles & opinionated media persons say that 1st Polo Cup held on 30th May 2010 in Pune, a 3-day event had 1100 registrations followed by 5 races in Chennai & Coimbatore. An activity supported with an official website www.polocup.in. Following similar format of 6

The company in our opinion has hit the sweet spot with its timing of the launch as SIAM reported a growth of 32% in car sales to145000 units In Jan 2010. "This is the highest ever sales by the auto industry and has come on the back of economic growth, reduced interest rates and better money supply in the system," Dilip Chenoy, director general, SIAM said. But, all credit can be given to VWs executive and strategic competence. The company has continued aggressively targeting the Indian market share and capitalizing on the success of Polo by strategically timing the launch of its 1.6L Polo variant and following it up by an upperpremium sedan Vento. The VW group is aiming to grab 8-10% of the market share in the small car segment.

Conclusion
VWs ongoing & exhaustive Brand Development re-enforces a High Perceived Value in the Consumers Mind. Thus, ensuring a successful Product Launch with a modest Product IMC.

IMC Tools Employed

Brand Image- A special mention. production in India VW Having started

has been aggressively drilling hard, in the mind of the average indian, the message of the german quality and technology and Indian make. By constantly promoting their crisp & clear tag line German engineering. Made in India. Making it amply clear that it is aimed also at the budget minded buyer who is not as aware about brand VW as an above average auto enthusiast. The target buyer of the VW Polo.

Advertising

The TVC used by VW has taken a unique approach a campaign designed by the agency DDB Mudra. The Polo target segment as well as most Indians believe strongly in buying those product which seem to deliver value for money. Thus, along with the cars performance, due to the high competition levels this market segment has become equally feature driven, some may take the liberty of calling it feature obsessed, too. VW ads have exactly addressed that in a simple and humorous way that can easily strike a chord with the Indian buyer. They have created 4 Ads, each addressing a different feature viz., fuel efficiency, safety toughness, ground clearance & road handling. The creative idea of the ad is weve done the testing, so you dont have to, enrolling the consumer into making a buying decision even before they have visited the showroom. The ad has been well received by the average indian

Advertising

Print Ads

The VW used the Times Of India newspaper media to publish print ads extensively. As mentioned earlier the VW DAS Auto engaged in a roadblock activity incorporated the launch and publicity message for the VW Polo. The print ad again is a simple and visually pleasing ad using lush green environment as the background that drives the feature driven message clearly as well as including the VW tagline, German Engineering. Made In India.

Publicity or Public Relations (PR)

The PR activity comprised publicity through the official VW website www.volkswagen.co.in that provides all the information about the company and its product. They have a sleek e-brochure that gives you all the product specific information. The website has also established association with social networking websites such as facebook & twitter. They also used the Car Racing concept as a launching pad for VW Polo. The motor racing rally is called Polo Cup India which is carried out in association with the JK tyre National Championship. They have entered into a partnership with the Sports channel Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt. Ltd for the Live telecast of the Polo Cup India 2010.

Distributor /Distribution
The Volswagen Polo is being distributed by 40 dealers in India. We plan to increase our dealer network from 150 to 1,000 by 2018, a time by which we should have a market share of 20 per cent in comparison to the existing 2.6 per cent, Volkswagen (India) Director Group Service.As reported in The Hindu.

Conclusion

The Volkswagen Polo has been successfully launched with an intention of not just launching the product Polo but also creating a foundation for the brand Volkswagen.

Thank You.