Brand Repositioning Story

Group 7 Tanweer alam

Roshni rajAshiq

• Type Private company• Industry: Automotive• Founded: 1895 as Laurin & Kleme.• Founder(s): Václav Laurin and Václav Klement.• Headquarters: Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic.• Number of locations: Manufacturing facilities in China,

Czech Republic, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine.

• Area served: Eurasia, South America, Africa, Australasia.• Production output: 875,000 units (2011).• Profit: 30.75 billion (2010).• Parent company Volkswagen Group(2001)• Subsidiaries:

Škoda Auto DeutschlandŠkoda Auto IndiaŠkoda Auto PolskaŠkoda Auto Slovakia

• Website: www.skoda-auto.com

The first Skoda to be built on the Volkswagen platform was Octavia launched in 1998.

Octavia was launched in the UK with Skoda’s highest promotional budget ever (approx. £10 million).

Only 6,154 cars were sold over the year after launch despite very good reviews in leading car magazines.

Research suggested that over 60% of the target promised that they would never buy a Skoda due to its unfashionable, poor quality image.

An image that was no longer in sync with the very good cars that Skoda now offered to the public.

VW understood that they needed to close the gap between Skoda's poor image and the reality i.e. the good value, high quality cars.

“Fabia- supermini”.

“GREAT CAR MEETS DISBELIEVING PEOPLE”

“The Fabia is so good that you won’t believe it’s a Skoda”

“It’s a Skoda, honest!” and “No, really”.

Skoda sales grew by 34% in the year of the campaign. By the end of 2000 more than 11,000 Fabia had been sold in the UK and even Octavia saw an increase in sales of 29%.

Instead of seeing the “old” Skoda they now saw a cut-price, high quality VW.

The ad campaign won , bronze, silver and gold places at the annual British Television Advertising Awards in London.

THE INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

German automotive giant Volkswagen has three brands -- Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda -- in the Indian market.

Audi is in the luxury segment.

Skoda, however, has taken a more premium positioning compared to the Volkswagen brand.

Volkswagen is yet to catch up with desired position

contrary to the group's global practice.

HATCHBACKS: Polo

SEDANS: Vento, Jetta, Passat and Phaeton

HATCHBACKS: Fabia

SEDANS: Octavia, Laura, Superb, Rapid

SUV: Touareg SUV: Yeti

Tapping into the growing potential of the premium hatchback segment in the Indian market, Skoda has broken an ad campaign

for the newly designed version of the Fabia.

The campaign positions the car as a "fabulous package that appeals to people who have impeccable taste“.

The Fabia launch campaign,

'Feel Special', - ran from January to June 2008.'Testimonial' campaign - ran from August to October

2008. 'Superhatch' January to March 2009 and September through October 2009;

Fabia 'Car of the Year' campaigns went from January to March 2010;

'Test Drive and Get Hooked' campaign (April to July 2010).

The current campaign primarily aims to target both male and female audiences across India, within the 25-45 years age bracket.

Volkswagen Group board Member and executive vice president Ulrich Hackenberg said,

“It's a question of how different brands are placed against themselves in the market. Skoda has a quite high position (in India). In the group, Skoda is little bit positioned under Volkswagen. So, we are on the way to make a correction.”