Just today, Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller announced that the brand was unrolling a new strategy for summer 2016. Hoping to reinvigorate its appeal to cost-conscious, environmentally-minded customers, the German auto maker has pledged to focus less on selling products en masse and more on designing vehicles that can most efficiently transport drivers/passengers from place to place. Of course
, this campaign comes at a time when Volkswagen is suffering from serious scandal. Just eight months ago, it was found that VW had been tampering with the emissions tests required industry-wide for their fleet of diesel vehicles. Using software to fabricate passing results, the company had cheated their customers of information necessary to make a smart buying decision. Therefore, it makes sense that the CEO is being this vocal about the mission and direction of the company. Call it damage control. Call it scrambling. Regardless, it seems like we can expect VW to make concerted
efforts to redeem themselves and the integrity of their brand to their current customer base if not future generations of car owners. Optimistic as always, I believe big moves are to come.
It makes sense after getting caught for the emissions scandal, that VW’s new strategy would focus on “reinvigorating its appeal” to the environmentally-minded customers. I am interested to find out what exactly these new plans entail and how they plan on rebuilding the customers trust. I don’t know if customers will now trust their numbers more because of the heavy scrutiny that they will be under or whether customers will still be skeptic and avoid buying VW automobiles.