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

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter II: Review of Literature

Chapter III: Research Methodology

Chapter IV: Data Reduction, Presentation & Analysis

Chapter V: Data Interpretation

22

Chapter VI: Summary & Conclusions

24

References/ Bibliography

26

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

2.1.

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.
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
1

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.

VOLKSWAGEN CARS IN INDIA

VOLKSWAGEN POLO

VOLKSWAGEN VENTO

VOLKSWAGEN JETTA

VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT

VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE

VOLKSWAGEN TOUAREG

CHAPTER-2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
MARKETING COMMUNICATION:
1. Modern marketing is the management of the 4Ps - 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

convenience

of

and

the

since

thinks

beauty.

This

of

his
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

factor

in

evaluating

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.

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.

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 customers views
and dealers views and Scheduling methods, for analysing the customers and dealers
satisfaction

and

the

effectiveness of the branding after sales

Scheduling methods are those methods in which a

schedules

containing

service.
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.

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

Table No. 1: Car Usage

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 nonuser 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 respondents 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% respondents 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 doesnt
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 cant 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%

NO. OF RESPONDENT

21.39%

127

Table No. 2: Brand Recognition

Fig. No.7: Brand Recognition

17

35

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 respondents 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 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%
respondents 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.
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
22

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.

CHAPTER-6
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS

23

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

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.

24

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

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
25

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

APPENDICES
QUESTIONNAIRE

A market survey on Volkswagen

(Questionnaire)

26

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)
a).Price
b). Look
c). Brand
d). Engine Capacity
e). Seating Space
f). Mileage

27

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:
(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
28

LIST OF TABLES
Table No.
1.

Title
Car Usage

29

Page No.
9

2.

Brand Recognition

17

3.

Need For Financial

19

4.

Assistance
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

14

each rank
6.

Price and Mileage Line Graph

16

7.

Brand Recognition

17

8.

Need For Financial Assistance

20

30

31