Report on Marketing Strategies of

Volkswagen in India

By: Prateek Singh – 37234Shekhar Rai – 37268Sidharth Khanna – 37276

Table of Contents

Introduction…………...…………………..……………………………………………………..2

Importance of Marketing in Passenger Car Segment India………………………….

Objectives & Methodology

Volkswagen India……………………….……..……………………………………………05

Volkswagen Marketing Campaigns...……...….……….……………….…………………07

Volkswagen Marketing – Going Foreward…...…….……….….……….…………..….…..21

References…………………………………………………….……………………………….22

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Introduction

India is one of the fastest growing automotive markets in the world; it is also emerging as a global sourcing hub for the entire automotive industry. Indian automotive industry is at a good position and is witnessing a rapid transformation phase and growth driven by stable economic growth and infrastructure development. It is currently the seventh largest in the world, and the auto components industry is gearing up to match the vehicle industry’s growth. Over the last few years, post the introduction of liberalization policies the market dynamics in the Indian auto industry has changed drastically. The national GDP share from the automotive industry has risen to almost 6% from 2.77% in 1992-93.

Although the passenger car penetration in India is one of the lowest in the world at 10 cars per 1000 people, the automobile industry has seen distinct shift in demand patterns across vehicle categories in the last few years. Within the passenger vehicle segment, there has been a steady increase in demand for compact cars away from mini cars. Though it is small in terms of market share, the high-end/luxury car market is growing fast, driven by changing preferences and aspirations and launch of more models by foreign OEMs. In the last five years, the average age of a luxury car buyer has come down from 45 to 40 years. In another five years, it is expected to decrease to 35 years. Although the demand for high-end cars continues to be strong, the small car market will continue to dominate the Indian market.

Foreign OEMs who entered the market with large/high-end vehicles are now looking to play the volume game and are increasing their focus on smaller segment. Moreover, amidst stiff market competition, in the view of the price and value conscious Indian preferences for smaller vehicles (unlike developed economies), OEMs are even introducing smaller cars with certain features that are usually found in high-end vehicles. In urban population along with the smaller segment, we are seeing a rising demand for entry level sedans in the ever growing Indian car industry.

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Importance of Marketing in Passenger Car Segment – India:

India’s competitive passenger car segment has forced its key players to come up with a ‘Strategy’ in all its operational methods. Gaining a good market share is extremely crucial for all businesses. Presently,

organizations have started realizing that customer centric and aggressive marketing strategies play vital role in becoming a successful leader. Although globalization has opened the doors of opportunities for all, the market is still crowded with some unknown risks and lot of competition. Because of this competition, a marketing strategy must aim be unique as well as advantage-creating. To obtain a unique and differential advantage, an organization has to be creative in its marketing strategy. Companies also have to adopt unique Brand positioning, Advertising, distribution strategies to

capture the market share. The major car manufacturing competitors and their central locations are as shown here in the map.

Objectives & Methodology

Volkswagen has emerged as a key player in the Indian automotive sector in the last few years. Understanding competition and the key marketing strategies they have implemented which have helped them gain market share in a very short time is the main objective of this project.. We have relied on

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Figures for Financial Year– April to March (*Estimates)

Passenger Vehicles Production

secondary data from the internet and published journals. Upon analysis we want to provide ways to improvise the marketing connect through various communication channels available to reach out to the ever growing Indian consumer base.

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Volkswagen India

Volkswagen is German automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Volkswagen is the top-selling and original marque of the Volkswagen Group, the biggest German automaker and the second largest automaker in the world.

With three cars in the top 10 list of best-selling cars, Volkswagen has the most cars of any automobile manufacturer in the list that are still being manufactured. Volkswagen was ranked first in spending of any automaker on research and development as of 2011.

Uniting a wide variety of brands and companies with all their individual characteristics and focuses under one umbrella is a great challenge, especially as the Volkswagen Group is committed to maintaining their individual identities. But this is the only way all the brands and companies can make their own contributions to the common value stream and form cornerstones of the Group.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German. Its current slogan is "Das Auto" ("The Car").

Headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, the Volkswagen Group in India has 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, whereas Lamborghini and Porsche were introduced in 2012.

The year 2009 was iconic, when Volkswagen brought in two of its globally popular vehicles into India - the New Beetle and SUV Touareg. The following year saw the launch of the much-awaited Volkswagen Polo and Vento, and high-end car Phaeton. Volkswagen also introduced the all-new Passat in March 2011, followed by the all-new Jetta TDI for India in August 2011. 2011 was a landmark year with the launch of the Jetta TSI. The Polo GT TSI was the happening new launch of 2013. In the same year, the TSI engine won the 'International Engine of the Year' award for the 8th time in a row.

At the backbone of all cars (and the many more exciting entrants in the pipeline) is Volkswagen's extensive dealer network. A workforce determined to provide premium services for Volkswagen in India. Volkswagen brand has set up 122 dealerships in 113 cities now. They did not only lay the foundation for a good increase in sales, but also did the groundwork for offering a first-class all-round service, taking customer satisfaction to the highest level.

Today, Volkswagen Group India has around 5,000 employees working at its various locations in India. Over 3,500 employees work at the Pune plant with about 1,000 employees dedicated to the Aurangabad plant and around 300 people employed at the National Group Sales Office in Mumbai.

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Marketing Campaigns

Volkswagen India: Brand Awareness Mission

As Volkswagen was a late entrant in the Indian market which was world’s fastest growing car market, it was tough for them to make a mark. Secondly, they were to face competition with brands like Maruti and Tata with a huge brand awareness and equity.

Against this background, Volkswagen was all set to introduce its products in the Indian. The question was how best to achieve the set goal and create brand awareness.

Campaign background

Volkswagen, a relatively unknown brand in India with a brand awareness of only 8% in 2009, wanted to capture the Indian roads and mind-space by the end of the year 2010. To make the challenge more clear, this meant raising the brand awareness to upto 40% in just one year.

In 2010, Volkswagen globally was focusing on one key value, i.e. innovation, across all of its functions. So the task was not just to double the awareness numbers but to do so while following the company's values. Three launches from Volkswagen in India were slated for the same year. They had to build a prominent model for each and every campaign that left the consumers wanting more.

The key challenge Volkswagen had was to make Volkswagen into one of India's most desired car brands against the well-established heritage of big brands such as Suzuki, Tata and Hyundai. 2010 also saw India becoming the second-fastest growing car market in the entire world. Demand for passenger vehicles was booming despite of global recession and most of the car manufacturers went into overdrive on launches in India. Overall, 30 new cars were launched with average media investments ranging 200–400 million rupees.

Media usage in car brands followed a very typical pattern. Launches meant larger-than-life formats in print and outdoor. Television was used only for mass branding and mostly used male-skewed properties such as sports. Radio and activation were domains left to the dealerships to drive walk-ins. Every day, newspapers carried at least two or three large-format car ads, magazines followed suit and large car hoardings were commonplace.

Consumers were exposed to multiple brand messages every day. Over-exposure of consumers to car ads resulted in high ad avoidance. Due to the nature of the product, there was hardly any differentiation in the car ads too. In this scenario, how could Volkswagen carve a niche for itself?

Insight and strategy: The primary target of Volkswagen was male, aged 25–44 years and SEC AB, and Volkswagen had a range of cars that would suit all from a mid-level executive to Indian royalty, so understanding this segment of audience group was critical for a successful entry. To understand what a car means to an Indian, dipstick research was carried out, which threw up interesting facts. The

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Volkswagen Polo audience had a youthful zest for life, the Vento audience wanted status and the Phaeton was above the usual material motivations of life. A very common feature running in all these car segments was 'wanting products that were the most talked about'. Volkswagen had found the central idea and their roadmap was clear: 'make Volkswagen the most talked about brand in India … make India talk Volkswagen.’ Impactful idea which was disruptive enough to cause a buzz was the need of the hour.

Channels used:Branded content, Cinema, Direct marketing, Email marketing, Events and experiential, Internet - display, Internet - general, Internet - microsites, widgets, Internet - search, Magazines - business, trade, Magazines - consumer, Mobile and apps, Newspapers, Other and ambient media, Outdoor, out-of-home, Print - general, unspecified, Radio, Sponsorship - event or property, Sponsorship - media, Television.

Implementation:

The Times of India was printed with a VW Polo shaped hole. This was the first such initiative ever in the world and it went across all editions making it the most ‘searched-for’ story on the Google. It reached around 6.8 million people.

Polo Ultimate Drive Challenge: India's first reality series shot inside a car. It ran on MTV and reached around 93 million people.Polo Cup: The first-ever hatchback racing championship held in India. A live telecast on Neo Sports reached around 69 million people while 90,000 people watched it live.Polo Stunt Shows: With Ronny Wechelselberger. The first-ever stunt performance by someone in a mass-manufactured car. The shows ran in 19 cities and was watched by 15,000 potential consumers resulting to a 5% sales closure and 5,500 leads. Polo racing on top of steep stock market curves on UTV Bloomberg and hoarding showcasing its features along with a heli-banner and really interactive 3D hoardings.

Volkswagen Handcrafted Extravagance: The goal here was to bring to life the handcrafted positioning of the cars and then get invited in to the exclusive club of the Indian elite. VW achieved this through the following activities:Hindustan Times handcrafted fonts. Handwritten fonts across the Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh editions announced the subtle nuances of the offering. This reached around 3.4 million people.

The Royal Phaeton event: An invitation-only fashion show of handcrafted designer clothes was organized for Indian royals with the entire event centering on the Phaeton. 150 royals attended this event with an exclusive showcase on Zoom TV.

Vento – The talking newspaper

Campaign Background

Auto ad spend was at record levels and engaging with well-off males was nearly impossible. For Indians a car is more than just a means of getting from place A to B. Its a life-style statement. Indians

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were only interested in brands that are seen around in town, talked about in the media or admired by their friends or family. To deliver instant sales, VW had to create something totally new: a press ad that literally talked to the consumers about the new VW Vento. As a result, they had made the new Vento the talk of the town.

This campaign was a unique 'the talking newspaper' all about the VW Vento. In a never-done-before coup, the launch of VW Vento was announced by talking ads on the 21 September 2010 in India's top two leading dailies.

As soon as the reader flipped open his newspaper it spoke to him about the features of the car – garnering consumer attention like never before pan India. The German carmaker had to spend close to Rs.5 crore for that much-talked about print innovation. It only reached 5.3 million people, but was reported in the Washington News, was the most searched-for story on Google and had many blogs dedicated to it.

DDB Mudra was the advertising agency behind this ad with Bobby Pawar as Chief Creative Officer, Mudra group.

The brand results were phenomenal: 12 per cent of the annual sales targets for the VW Vento were met in a single day. Dealer inquiries rose by 200 per cent.

Volkswagen Vento was the hottest’ search word on Google trends on that day. By 10 AM that morning there were 46 videos of the talking newspaper uploaded online which created such a buzz that the Police Commissioner of Mumbai had to send messages re-assuring people that it was just an ad and not a terrorist attack!

Awards won:GRAND EMVIE, 2011GOLD, BEST MEDIA INNOVATION (PRINT) EMVIES 2011GOLD, BEST USE OF MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS, GOAFEST 2011RESULTS AWARDS 2011, HONORABLE MENTION

The vibrator newspaper

In 2012 VW went back to its black-box routine. In a two-page ad for the Polo and Vento, the first page is bare but for the headline "Feel the shiver of excitement?" Turning on to the second page a light-sensitive box – on the lower left in the picture above – goes to work again, only this time the box doesn't start talking, it just starts vibrating. German automaker's campaign targeted around 25 lakh readers across the six metro cities. The ad took 3 months to execute and was a logistical challenge.The reaction was negative, and folks flocked on to Twitter to make lewd jokes. Nevertheless, VW’s new ad had gotten the attention of the press.

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The Roadblock Campaign

Times of India had created a print roadblock for Volkswagen across its daily edition in the 11th November 2009. The roadblock includes a spread of Volkswagen's various brands Skoda, Passat and Touareg in the country.  The print campaign looked at creating awareness about VW's German technology and the company's history. The company had said that the idea was to co-create a single-engagement proposition for VW, in order to create an impact. This is the first time there had been a print roadblock by a single brand in The Times of India's edition.

The campaign was also coupled with TV advertisements aired during the same week. The total size of the campaign was approximately Rs. 40 crore and the firm had budgeted Rs. 8 to 10 crore for printing, Rs. 10 crore for outdoor and digital and Rs. 20 crore for the TV ads. The campaign to build its brand in the run-up to its 2009 December launch of small car Beetle and sports utility vehicle Touareg and the 2010 launch of another small car, the Polo.The resultant effect: brand awareness believed to be increased to 50% from 4% and 169% increase in sales.

Post-It Campaign

Volkswagen launched its latest marketing strategy targeted for the 2012 festival season with its 'Post it' campaign. Yellow notes were stuck on the front page of the Hindustan Times in Delhi and Mumbai, and the Deccan Chronicle in Hyderabad to invite readers to test drive its Polo and Vento range of passenger cars, along with a contest to win one of the two models. Also, billboards, buses and bus stands, parking lots and even airport conveyors, shopping malls and Helium Balloons were used. A tad mellow compared to its earlier innovative and outstanding campaigns such as the Talking Newspaper and Shiver, Volkswagen had taken a 360 degree turn in its marketing strategy this time with emphasis on on-ground activities with its dealer network.

The campaign launched on the Nov 1 was carried out for over 3 weeks to cash in on festive mood. Already unraveled in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad with a total circulation of around 2.5 million copies, the print campaign was then expanded to Chandigarh, Pune, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in the coming days, spread over 4.5 million copies.

Results: In the online marketing space Yahoo.com, got 2.1% hits where average is 0.2%.There was peak in traffic in the other websites also - cardekho,

zigwheels, carwale, etc.

Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the most popular media property in India. Volkswagen knew that this could be the brand's ticket to the big league. However, Volkswagen wasn't the first brand to think of

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the IPL. Many big-budget car makers had used this platform through ad spots and sponsorships. Vodafone's challenge was to be different.

A variety of initiatives were supported by a 360° support campaign across television, digital, press and activation. This case study cites increases in awareness and sales.

Campaign background

The IPL is one of the most prestigious cricket franchisees in the country. It is the perfect blend of glamour and entertainment. The league's association with the elite and a who's who of the entertainment industry added to the craze associated with the annual tournament. In 4 years since its launch, the IPL had become the most viewed television event – gathering 112% more share than the leading 4 channels combined together.

As a relatively new entrant into the Indian market, with awareness numbers only hovering in around 20% region, Volkswagen realized it could leverage this event to catapult the brand into a much bigger league. The timing was perfect as Volkswagen was launching its new Passat during the same time.

However, numerous car brands in the Indian market were already present, the deep-pocket media investors such as Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata had purchased ad spots in the past. Volkswagen had to think of something different and innovative to break through the competitive clutter and get the Indian customers to associate VW alone with the IPL. Regular sponsorships and spot buys really wouldn't have done the job.

Channels used:

Branded content, Internet - display, Internet - general, Internet - microsites, widgets, Internet - search, Newspapers, Outdoor, out-of-home, Product placement, Radio, Social media, Sponsorship - event or property, Sponsorship - media, Television

Insight and strategy

India loves cricket, Bollywood and gossip. IPL gave all of this in a complete entertainment package, resulting in the entire country coming to a standstill for 45 days to watch the spectacle. IPL is still one of the biggest media properties. It had all the ingredients to make it the people's favorite and Volkswagen was 'the people's car'. The connection between the two could not have been more apt.

The approach was a planned 360° spread over the biggest possible number of media to so as to create a huge bandwidth impact.

Television, radio, print, out-of-home, in-stadium, internet, digital and even stadium tickets carried VW communication. Putting the logo on the tickets, on the site itself we also painted the ground and car stickers. To prove that driving a VW Passat is as much fun as watching an IPL match, a Passat was placed in the stadium itself. No IPL follower could have missed that VW was associated with the tournament.

The other brand to have gained from this association was VW Vento. In order to make it memorable, an IPL limited edition of the Vento was also launched. It was the first time that a car brand had launched an edition for an event. VW Vento managed to merge VW and IPL into one unit, into the VW IPL Vento.

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A Passat was put up for an online auction and the winning amount was donated to WWF. The auction started on 25 April 2011 and took place online for 10 days through the official website of IPL and eBay for the final transaction. The highest bidder won the Cashmere Gold Passat Highline with autographs of team captains on the bonnet.

Under the category for Best Individual Performance, a VW Passat was awarded to the player who made the most valuable contribution to his team during the tournament and this prize was covered across different media. Along with the in-stadium sponsorship, had a high buzz television and digital campaign around the IPL promoting the new VW Passat which was viewed by 122 million people.

Many popular radio channels were used to run a ‘Spot the Vento’ competition. People were asked to call the radio station if they spotted an IPL Vento Edition driving through the hustling streets of Mumbai. The route was announced over the radio and people would wait to get a glimpse of this special IPL car, which also had some interesting IPL merchandise to distribute to a few lucky winners.

The internet was an effective way to reach out to the techno-savvy target group and VW used it in multiple ways:

Advertising on cricket websites: In the form of banners and pop-ups were placed on popular cricket websites like Cricinfo, Yahoo!, Rediff and Cricketnext.

An app was developed on Facebook especially for the IPL campaign. A few lucky winners won free tickets to some of the IPL matches. This not only created a craze for a Facebook game but also built heavily on word-of-mouth advertising too. Hordes of people played the game to get the chance to win free tickets to the IPL matches. The power of the internet was used to generate traffic for the Facebook game.

The mobile digital space was used for creating awareness for Volkswagen. When a user asked for their score, an ad would play by default and then the scores would come up. This was to ensure undivided attention and reach. Mobile streaming for VW ad effectively garnered enormous reach for campaign.

As a result of all this, IPL and Volkswagen became synonymous with each other by the end of the campaign. Volkswagen successfully created mass brand awareness. Agency’s research proved that every person in the target group was aware of Volkswagen as a brand. By becoming the sponsor for the IPL, VW not only ensured that it got maximum possible eyeballs but also popularized its brand image. VW ad awareness went up from 38% in March 2011 to 60% in June 2011. More than 10 million viewers had been exposed to Volkswagen during the four months of this campaign.

VW Passat sales increased by 1,900% from January–March as compared to April–May.

VW Linked-In Marketing Strategy

VW India was approached by LinkedIn with an opportunity to be the first automotive major to establish a presence on LinkedIn Company Pages. ‘Company Pages’ provided a branded home base within the LinkedIn community where businesses can showcase their company, products, and services in a trusted as well as a professional environment.

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VW India participated in the worldwide launch of the Company Pages in the November 2010, and soon thereafter opened up their pages to allow LinkedIn members to post reviews and recommendations of their cars in India including the New Beetle, Vento, and Polo.

Next, VW launched a series of the Recommendation Ads which encouraged more customers to join the conversation. Each ad showcased endorsements of the actual LinkedIn members, and invited the community to recommend their favorite VW model and make. VW used LinkedIn’s broad reach (100 million members worldwide, 9 million in India) and precisely targeting capabilities to connect with working professionals who matched the buyer profiles for their different car models.

VW was the first company in India to use LinkedIn’s Recommendation Ads, and the campaign was a huge success. The team went in with a goal of inspiring around 500 recommendations among current and prospective car buyers. In less than a month, over 2,700 Volkswagen fans had stepped forward to recommend their favorite cars and shared these recommendations with their professional network(s). At the same time, they gained over 2,300 followers who asked to stay abreast of the latest news and developments.

Skoda Octavia: The legend is back - bigger, bolder, better

Brand owner: Volkswagen GroupLead agency: BBH IndiaBrand: SkodaCountry: India Industry Mid-size, large family carsChannels used: Earned media, buzz, Events and experiential, Internet - display , Internet - general, Internet - microsites , Internet - search , Magazines - consumer, Mobile and apps , Newspapers, Outdoor, out-of-home, Print - general, unspecified, Public relations, Social media , TelevisionMedia budget: 3 to 5 million

Skoda Laura, now in its seventh year in India, was bearing the brunt of the slowdown. In an attempt to revive the market, manufacturers launched a host of new body types at attractive price points which hurt the ageing Laura even further. Skoda was looking at launching the new Octavia to reclaim its dominance in the mid-size saloon segment. The campaign 'The Return of the Legend – Bigger, Bolder, Better' joined the profound equity of the original Octavia with the striking features of the new Octavia to create a successful launch of 2013 in the mid-size saloon segment. The launch brought Skoda the brand back into the conversation for the Indian customers. The new Octavia sold the highest number of cars in one month in October 2013 and then sold 1,000 units before the end of the year, putting it back on top of the segment that it had created in India.

A true legend inspires stories and Volkswagen decided to tell the story of the new Octavia through its most uninhibited imagination available – a child's. In this conversation between father and son every feature and nuance of the Octavia became a thing of wonder in a manner that anyone within an Indian family could actually relate to.

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Volkswagen Polo: Youth marketing

Volkswagen, a relatively unknown brand in the Indian automobile market with awareness of around 22%, was launching its flagship Polo brand in the highly competitive hatchback segment, with a sales target of 14,000+ units and aiming 40% awareness. The challenge was to make Polo stand out from all of the competitive clutter and becoming India's most talked-about car.

An all-round innovative touch point program was launched to address young people, including the first-ever car shaped hole in the newspaper, the first-ever reality show on MTV to be shot inside a car, stunt drive events at malls and innovatively using outdoors.

Campaign background:

The Indian car segment had been on a rapid rise for the previous decade. Increase in the number of international players setting up shop in India and the existing Indian car manufacturers had become the industry big boys with new model launches and variants each year.

VW, a relatively unknown brand in India (awareness of around 22% versus 80%+ for its competitors) was launching its flagship brand, the Polo, in a competitive hatchback segment with an ambitious sales target of 14,000+ units. The Polo launch was also expected to contribute to overall Volkswagen awareness. The aim was to achieve 40% brand awareness by the end of 2010.

VW needed to a 125% somersault on brand awareness goals and Polo was going to be a key ingredient in achieving this. Also, VW was banking on the Polo to drive their numbers and be visible on Indian roads. This was important, as in a market like India, consumers want what everybody else has. The Indian car market runs on the philosophy 'Jo dikhta hai, woh bikta hai ', meaning 'What is very visible to the consumers is what they will buy'.

The primary target for VW Polo, VW's entry level car in India, was the young male market. These young men used to seek attention and love to own anything that was looked upon as trendy or was talked about. This particular audience looked upon cars as an expression of freedom, thrills, style and trendiness. Their media consumption was also very unconventional; they sought excitement and freshness in the content they consumed and getting attention through mundane ad spots was almost impossible.

The challenge was to make the VW Polo a hit within the young people of India. They had to convince them that Polo was the car to have, the cool car with great functional features and that extra, exciting edge.

Channels used:Branded content, Events and experiential, Games and competitions, Outdoor, out-of-home, Radio, Sponsorship - event or property and Word of mouth

Insight and strategy

Based on the VW research on identifying the target audience's likes, behavior and media consumption patterns, they could establish the insight that the ad-avoiding young people connected much better with

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fast-paced content, loved speed and thrills. They were also very well informed and were always up to date with all the latest launches for all the cars, bikes and gadgets.

Another critical aspect to the target group was that they looked for functional benefits in the products they buy and were skeptical of advertisers' claims, unless their own first-hand experience proved otherwise.

It was also noted that young people were spending a lot of time in malls and multiplexes in the targeted cities. They were also very receptive to the reality shows and really loved motor racing. In fact, motor racing was one of the sports that showed the highest affinity amongst young people especially men. Research on target audience media showed that MTV had very high affinity within this group.

So the entire Polo launch strategy hinged on connecting their target audience when they were at their most receptive. Associations with different and innovative formats gave Polo the aura of being a cool, fresh and youthful brand.

Implementation:

Volkswagen partnered with MTV – the most iconic youth brand in India – to create a show with content that showcased the functional benefits of the new Polo in a fun and competitive format. Rather than run-of-the-mill 30-second spots in cluttered ad breaks, Volkswagen gave Indian young people a 23-hour test drive to experience the new Polo.

Volkswagen came up with this television hit and the first-ever reality TV series funded by a car brand which ran on prime-time television for six weeks. At the well-attended auditions, 16 contestants were selected in four groups from each selected city and quizzed on their Volkswagen knowledge before they were challenged to perform certain tasks, such as playing polo, in the Volkswagen Polo.

Each city was set a different task designed to highlight a core feature of the car such as:Superb road handling: including maneuvering footballs to a goal post using hockey sticks while driving in the Polo and driving blindfolded.Higher ground clearance: this came through when the Polo was driven over other team members.

Safety features: to stop closest to an obstacle without touching it.

Winners from each city competed against each other at the final in Chennai, for the chance to race around the iconic and classic German Formula One circuit at Nurburgring.

A combination of human drama, car thrills and arduous tasks made for six weeks of entertaining prime-time content on the leading youth channel in the country. Along with the MTV reality show, Volkswagen launched the Polo Cup where 20 super-fast, super-cool specially modified Polo race cars competed against each other across the year in races at venues all over the country in front of packed stands and over 69 million television viewers .

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To add to the 'oomph' factor, Volkswagen held stunt shows in the parking lots of malls across 13 cities across India where international stunt drivers showcased the agility, speed and power of the Volkswagen Polo. The Ultimate Test Drive became a unique consumer engagement program to demonstrate the features of the new Volkswagen Polo. Volkswagen brought down international celebrity stunt drivers such as Ronny Wechselberger, who performed amazing stunts with the Polo and demonstrated the car's features such as ground clearance, speed, brakes, steering control and turning radius.

Instead of talking to consumers about the superior, cool features of Polo, the Ultimate Test Drive actually enabled them to see how amazing the Polo could be. This was an entirely new way to test drive the car. The stunt driver actually invited people to sit in the car and experience the stunts first hand.

Objectives:Make Volkswagen Polo the most talked-about car brand among young people. Increase Volkswagen brand awareness from 22% to 40% by the end of 2010. Sell 14,000 Volkswagen Polo cars by the end of 2010.

The MTV Volkswagen Ultimate Drive show had over one million viewers over the six weeks that it aired and it was also among the top five programmes on MTV (Source: TAM India). Extremely popular hosts such as the charming and brilliantly funny Cyrus Salgaocar and VJ Anusha Dandekar, along with international stunt driver Ronny Wechselberger, packaged with extremely exciting stunts, not only helped the show in getting one million-plus viewers but also made it the talk of the town among young people.

The results for the stunt shows and mall activations that were held across the 13 cities in India were record breaking for Volkswagen:

12,000 potential consumers experienced the Ultimate Test Drive.

5% sales closures during the event – a larger conversion in comparison to the dealer outlet test drive format. A total of 5,500 sales leads collected.

PR and media coverage worth more than 5 million rupees in free media added to the fantastic response to the stunt show and flagship property – the MTV show, the Volkswagen Polo Cup only added to the positive image created:

Over 15,000 youngsters attended the races across all of the venues and were engaged face-to-face with the Volkswagen Polo brand. Live telecast partnership with NEO Sports for the complete season, recorded a viewership of 69 million. There was non-paid PR and media coverage worth 15 million rupees. The combined effort of the marketing activities and shows resulted in:30% of the annual sales target met within a month of the campaign. 18,640 polo cars were sold by the end of 2010. This was 4,640 more cars than the target. Volkswagen achieved their target of 40% awareness by the end of 2010.

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Going Forward

Reasons like high inflation, fuel prices and unfavorable interest rates, resulting in high cost of ownership, have affected car sales in India over the past year. According to a study by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger car sales fell 9.6% in 2013 to 1,807,011 vehicles from 1,998,703 in 2012.

A robust digital-marketing strategy must assume a holistic online-offline perspective, and one way to achieve this goal is to make use of the consumer decision process. This framework helps OEMs develop a customer segmentation based on a combined perspective on buyers’ attitudes and usage of channels and touchpoints.

OEMs should increase digital marketing budget, especially on social media. There will likely be emphasis on innovative promotion tools such as live launch webcasts and online customer service, among others. In rural markets, OEMs are expected to increase their focus on non-traditional distribution methods, including resident sales executives and satellite outlets.

Mobile applications, mobile advertising, mobile video marketing, and marketing on popular mobile networking apps such as WeChat, Line, Whatsapp, Vine, Snapchat, Instagram and others will increase exponentially in the coming years. Application of marketing strategies on the mobile commerce platform using innovative ideas will be the challenge for Volkswagen and other car manufacturers in India.

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References

1) http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Marketing/Volkswagen%20Marketing %20Strategy-India-Case.htm

2) http://www.volkswagen.co.in/en/volkswagen_world/volkswagen_india.html

3) http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/content/en/brands_and_products.html

4) http://www.digitalintheround.com/digital-marketing-trend-india-q1-2014/

5) http://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/luxury-marketing-trends-in-india- marketing-essay.php

6) http://www.ey.com/IN/en/Industries/Automotive/Mega-trends-shaping-the-Indian- passenger-vehicle-industry

7) http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/report-brochure.pag?id=P3E0-01-00-00-00

8) http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/marketing_and_sales/latest_thinking/ eight_trends_shaping_digital_marketing_in_the_auto_industry

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