Klausurpapier Vorlage Spring Semester 2021 Prueba Marketig I en inglés en Erasmus de la universidad Zeppelin University PDF

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Esta asignatura es de mi Erasmus cuando fui a Alemania en la universidad zeppelin university con el profesor Meissner, profesor de Marketing I y también de understanding consumer preferences...

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Kursnummer und -name:

Marketing I, 122131

Vor- und Nachname: Rocío Maestro Villanueva Matrikelnummer: 20204100

1. Discuss potential advantages for Volkswagen if the company decided to rebrand to “Voltswagen”. Use your knowledge about the associative network memory model to explain the potential advantages. If Volkswagen decides to rename the company, it will get a series of advantages in terms of its relationship with consumers and the integration in the current market. In the recent years, Volkswagen has faced a big amount of challenges regarding their pollution politics, and, after certain incidents like the well-known “Dieselgate”, does not have the best reputation in terms of ecology and sustainability. In terms of the Associative Network Memory Model, we can easily say that one of the nodes is “contamination”. In a world with more and more ecological awareness, this type of association is highly dangerous and a great disadvantage. A change of name can help to solve this association if it is done well, and what is more important, to build new and positive associations for the brand. In this case, changing the name of the firm Volkswagen for “Voltswagen” would be an advantage because, regardless of the new pollution policies that the company (may) have, but that barely no one of the customers will investigate, the new name will set by itself the idea of a greener company that uses clean energy and it is friendly to the environment, breaking the old links with “contamination”. Volkswagen is a German company with a long history, founded in 1937. It is a large company that has many more associated brands, like Audi or Porsche. Being one of the largest and older car companies, it has a need of adjustment to the actual markets and publics. Even if their associated brads have also been involved in the pollution scandals, Volkswagen, as the head company, has been more attacked and has had most of the bad press. Also, brands like Seat, Audi or Skoda have had more facility to integrate in the international market thanks to its fresher and newer appearance. Volkswagen, on the other hand, it is still seen like 1

Kursnummer und -name:

Marketing I, 122131

Vor- und Nachname: Rocío Maestro Villanueva Matrikelnummer: 20204100

the classic German car, is a brand in need of a makeover and adjustment to modern times, and this is something that a new name can provide.

One of the biggest inconvenient of the Volkswagen name is how complicated is it to write it correctly, at least, for a non-German person. Hearing it, you are tempted to write it like “Volswagen”, “Wolkswagen”, “Wolswagen”, and many other variations. That creates confusion, because one of the main purposes of a brand name is to be clear and recognizable. Changing the name to “Voltswagen” will make it not only easier to write but will give to the company name a recognizable international meaning. Talking about the choice of a new name, the selection of Voltswagen seems to be a good one not only because of the association to a clean energy, but because it does not change the logo or the acronyms of the company, which would cause a lot of inconvenients in terms of design. As we have read in the case study, change gets attention, does not matters if it is considered a good or a bad change. If Volkswagen changes its name, all the press and the competing companies will be aware of it. Despite of the fact that a name change can cause confusion in the public until they get used to it, it will also generate a lot of free advertising announcing this change of name. As it is an easier and more international name with positive associations, the name will be easily integrated and accepted with the public. A change of name is a challenging, complicated, and complex process that has to be done very carefully and well planned. But if Volkswagen makes the change well, it will change the perception that people have about the brand. Voltswagen would help the company to look

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Kursnummer und -name:

Marketing I, 122131

Vor- und Nachname: Rocío Maestro Villanueva Matrikelnummer: 20204100

more ecological, clean, modern, and international, and it would give to the company a lot of free publicity and attention. 2. Given your knowledge about brand names as a key brand element, please outline what key challenges Volkswagen would face if they decided to rebrand to “Voltswagen”. The biggest challenge that could be identified in this process is to translate the new vision of the company to the market, because there is always a possibility of resistance from the audience. Next, Volkswagen might find it difficult to reposition itself on the web, as its old name would disappear from everywhere and it would mean a new introduction to the world. Also, it would take some time for consumers to change the "chip" that the current Volkswagen brand is no longer called what it used to be called. In addition, the name change option is always a riskier challenge because this change is recommended when the brand is already positioned and the market can identify it immediately, but in a way, this challenge could be overcome in a relaxed way. Another challenge could be that refreshing your image, should be a clear fact focused on the consumer and not just to follow the trend, so it must be done in an accurate way to avoid confusion in the audience. On the other hand, another challenge for the company is that consumers do not feel deceived and think that this new image is "pure makeup", so they should be adapting gradual and comprehensive changes to consumers. The company must be able to evolve along with any change in the industry, so they must try not to become obsolete and demonstrate that they can cope with this change in all aspects. They must continue to be able to provide value to their customers and keep them always at the center of their business, making the necessary decisions that make them maintain greater competitiveness and quality of their products. Finally, I would like to mention that other reasons that would involve a cost, would be the investment in advertising, such as creating new posters, but in addition, they will have to make a change in all senses, in contracts, in their company folders, etc. 3. Please outline the meaning of the country-of-origin effect for Volkswagen. Please explain whether rebranding to 3

Kursnummer und -name:

Marketing I, 122131

Vor- und Nachname: Rocío Maestro Villanueva Matrikelnummer: 20204100

“Voltswagen” would affect the country-of-origin effect and why. The country-of-origin effect is the type of product that comes to your mind or you relate while thinking of a specific country, that is, it is the product that you associate with a country, such as pasta with Italy. In the case of Volkswagen, most people associate this company with the country of Germany, clearly because the name is a German term and because it was created in this country. However, not everyone knows that the real creator of this brand was Chancellor Adolf Hitler, since he gave the order to create for the Germans a strong and reliable automobile not worth more than 1,000 Reichsmarks (current currency of 1933). The main idea to this brand was "the people's car", besides that is its literal translation, this was associated with the idea that Hitler had, a comfortable, strong and economically affordable car. If Volkswagen finally changed the name, there could be a change of mentality in all consumers and instead of associating it with Germany, it could directly not be associated with a specific country and would be more internationally linked. However, this process will only be possible with the help of advertising.

However, I consider that this name change is not a very different change for people outside Germany as they would not really understand the meaning of the name change (which is really due to the introduction and importance of electric cars) and would consider the term very similar to the previous one. In addition, I believe that the best way to "do marketing", as much as it seems to be "linking the brand to a country or product to give more prominence or glamour" is not exactly necessary. If brands were known internationally, many people would not have these "prejudices for being a brand from x country" and would consume more from it. Surely, many people do not consume certain types of products because they come from x places. For example, in Spain, many people do not consume products of Catalan origin because there have been internal political conflicts. And in the case of Volkswagen, it is possible that certain types of people have the same "feeling" for some reason and do not consume. 4

Kursnummer und -name:

Marketing I, 122131

Vor- und Nachname: Rocío Maestro Villanueva Matrikelnummer: 20204100

Therefore, if the change of name could give another more innovative image and less linked, in this case, to Germany, it could possibly be something beneficial for the company. 4. The text mentions the popular saying “all-press-is-goodpress.” Discuss whether and why you think this is true or not true based on your understanding of the Customer- Based Brand Equity Pyramid. The Equity Brand Pyramid is considered to be the combination of the perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours towards a precise brand, in this case, in reference to Volkswagen. As a matter of fact, businesses and companies and even individual actors such as celebrities, have always tried to produce Press, and to create a focus of attention within our society. This attitude is due to the fact “all press is good Press”, since, as we can appreciate in one of the most known CBBE (customer-based brand equity) pyramids, “resonance” is the top factor to appreciate. It is at the top because it represents the outcome of all the different stages which lead up to it (judgements, feelings, performance, imagery, and salience); alongside, these different stages which are represented in the pyramid, are contributions to social attention and general “press”, since it develops into communication about the brand in our society. Moreover, it is also important to take into account the importance of a good press, in terms of a brand´s impact in society, since even though “all press is good press”, companies and genuinely every entity will generally always look for good press, because it means a solid source of clients and new customers. Whenever an individual receives positive information about a certain brand, they automatically associate the brand to something which they would perhaps consume or at least bear in mind to consume in a future moment. However, whenever a potential customer receives negative information about a brand (which would be identified as “unliked brands” in the brand building block inside research focus), they will not have the aim or impulse to consume its products. There are various cases in which brands (for example the ones already mentioned in the text) and even individual artist such as celebrities, have tried to introduce fake news inside the press, in order to create publicity and generate debate within the “good or the bad” among our societies. However, even though, as mentioned earlier on, we can create a relationship about celebrities’ aim (in some cases) of bringing up bad press in order to generate debate and be talked about within our society and generate some type of propaganda, it is not correct to 5

Kursnummer und -name:

Marketing I, 122131

Vor- und Nachname: Rocío Maestro Villanueva Matrikelnummer: 20204100

strictly relate these forms of propaganda with brands such as Volkswagen, since, for the company, it´s real aim is to share a sincere and positive information about it´s product (in this case, cars, which it is also not a cheap product, and therefore its customers need a potential motivation and trust to buy its products), instead of generating and cultivating a negative image of the company. This is always related to the long term, since it is important to differentiate between bad press in the short term, which it can be used to only generate debate and awareness about the company, as well as general publicity, however, in the long term, having bad press will not generate an advantage for the brand and it´s image. Furthermore, inside the block of “brand relationships”, we can identify two consequences of brand hate (which could represent a strong “bad press”), the active form, which is the general consequence of anger, disgust or mistrust towards a company, and the passive form, in which the customer is conscious about the press and the general bad image of the company or brand, and still consumes it. This makes a straight correlation to those brands which have had a bad image at a certain point of their well-known “maturity stage”, such as a sexist advert that directly disrespects a certain part of our society (it used to be very frequent within cleaning products and women in the past years), but their customers will still buy it. Alongside, it is important for a company not to find itself comfortable within bad press, since it is a form of communication that, alike social media, it travels at full speed, and it can result in an irreparable damage to the company or brand´s relationship with its customers in the future. Therefore, we cannot identify “bad press” as a positive factor for a company, since the aim of brands and entities is to gain customers and general good opinions about them; but it is true that, in terms of communication about the product and it´s promotion, bad press is still a form of press and it does give the company another form of advertising, which, at the end of the day, it does already generate controversy and a topic to talk about in relation to your company, and therefore, this means your company is already “in the spotlight”, meaning there is more awareness of it and it´s products.

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