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FAW-VW: online pitch for digital age
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FOR FAW Volkswagen, which is in the same business of manufacturing and selling VW vehicles in China as Shanghai Volkswagen, branding can be a tricky game amid “sibling” rivalry.
“We are a big family, and in a family, there is always a bit of benign rivalry for recognition from your parents and to prove you are better,” said Stephan Woellenstein, executive vice president managing director of the VW brand at FAW Volkswagen Automotive.
Woellenstein is one of only two German marketing executives of the VW brand with experience working with both joint ventures.
In general, Shanghai Volkswagen leans toward business-oriented positioning while FAW Volkswagen aims at a more sporty audience, he said.
For example, the company’s latest generation of Golf is now on a rally championship in China to revitalize the motor sport image achieved by the company’s old Jetta model.
Sportiness is believed to have a natural appeal to young consumers, most of whom are first-time buyers that make up 60 percent to 65 percent of FAW Volkswagen customers today. Ten years ago, it was fleet sales to organizations that comprised more than 50 percent of the total. That figure has dropped to 10 percent.
The young generation can be a tough nut to crack in terms of marketing. It’s a generation growing up in the digital age, with no particular fondness for old-fashioned communication models. That’s why FAW-Volkswagen is heavily into new media today, said Woellenstein.
Up to 40 million people have watched a mini-movie online for the new Volkswagen CC, the first car in China launched mainly via the Internet. The company also has an application that enables car buyers to view the Golf GTI digitally in 360 degrees configuration.
In preparing campaigns for a series of product launches next year that will include some sporty variations of high-volume models, FAW Volkswagen is faced with the challenge of keeping everything together the more it diversifies.
The unified image of FAW Volkswagen cars is German engineering that stands for reliability and innovation, said Woellenstein.
But new technologies can sometimes be a two-edged sword. The double-clutch gearbox hailed by Volkswagen as one of its biggest technology selling points was caught up in a quality problem last year. FAW Volkswagen certainly felt an impact on its brand image, but the impact was quite limited, Woellenstein said
The Magotan, which has a 100 percent double-clutch gearbox installation rate, recovered normal sales levels only three or four months after the problem broke.
“The more sophisticated you are in technology, the more vulnerable you become, in principle, to minor problems,” he said. “This is something we will see all over the industry in the years to come.”
In a sense, what matters most is solving problems in the shortest amount of time and in a manner satisfactory to customers. Woellenstein said he is proud that FAW Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen were able to offer solutions to the double-clutch gearbox problem ahead of schedule.
“We worked together to remove this threat,” he said. “Whenever necessary, we stand on the same line, firmly.”
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