VolksWagen BACKGROUND OF COMPANY VOLKSWAGEN Volkswagen was founded in 1937 to manufacture the car which would become known as the Beetle. The company's production grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1965 it acquired Auto Union, which subsequently produced the first post-war Audi models. Volkswagen launched a new generation of front-wheel drive vehicles in the 1970s, including the Passat, Polo and Golf; the latter became its bestseller. Volkswagen acquired a controlling stake in SEAT in 1986, making it the first non-German marque of the company, and acquired control of Škoda in 1994, of Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti in 1998, Scania in 2008 and of Ducati, MAN and Porsche in 2012. The company's operations in China have grown rapidly in the past decade with the country becoming its largest market. V-Charge is a collaborative research project being coordinated by ETH Zurich with contributions from the universities of Braunschweig, Oxford, and Parma together with Bosch and Volkswagen AG. The project is receiving funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research (VCharge, project number 269916) and has an overall budget of 5.63 million euros. It is set to run from June 1, 2011     After four years of intensive research and development, the European project V-Charge will demonstrate driverless parking and charging using solely close-to-market sensors during a one-day event at the Mobile Life Campus in Wolfsburg. The event features live demonstrations of the system and provides opportunities to discuss with academic and industrial experts in the fields of automated driving, computer vision and network communication. During the live demonstrations, all components involved in driverless parking and charging such as camera-only localization, obstacle avoidance, reaction to pedestrians and vehicles in mixed-traffic scenarios and smartphone-triggered dropoff and pickup of the vehicle will be shown to a selected audience. 1. The project V-Charge is based on the vision that, due to required drastic decrease of CO2 production and energy consumption, mobility will undergo important changes in the years to come. 2. This includes new concept for an optimal combination of public and individual transportation as well as the introduction of electrical cars that need coordinated recharging. 3. The objective of this project is to develop a smart car system that allows for autonomous driving in designated areas (e.g. valet parking, park and ride) and can offer advanced driver support in urban environments. 4. The final goal in four years is the demonstration and implementation of a fully operational future car system including autonomous local transportation, valet parking and battery charging on the campus of ETH Zurich and TU Braunschweig. 5. The envisioned key contribution is the development safe and fully autonomous driving in city-like environments using only low-cost GPS, camera images, andultra sonic sensors. • Within the proposed project, the focus will therefore be set on the following main topics: • Development of machine vision systems based upon close-tomarket sensor systems (such as stereo vision, ultrasonic etc.) as well as the integration and fusion of each sensors data into a detailed world model describing static and dynamic world contents by means of online mapping and obstacle detection and tracking. • Computer-base situation assessment within the world model as well as describing dependencies and interactions between separate model components (e.g. separate dynamic objects). For this purpose, the integration of market-ready map-material (i.e. originating from navigation systems) as well as the use of vehicleto-infrastructure communication shall be explored. • Precise low-cost localization in urban environments through the integration of standard satellite-based technologies with visual map-matching approaches combining both the onboardperception system and available map material. • Highly adaptive global and local planning considering dynamic obstacles (cars, pedestrians) and their potential trajectory Navigation in Mixed Traffic • On its way to the designated parking spot or charging bay, the vehicle is constantly using its onboard sensors to monitor its local surroundings for static obstacles and other road users, and seamlessly integrates with them in traffic. The system automatically distinguishes between vehicles and pedestrians and accounts for their differing movement patterns. • With the final demonstration in Amsterdam, the V-Charge team shows that automated valet parking can be realized with a contemporary, close-tomarket sensor setup. Work remains to be done to achieve higher levels of automation in the mapping processes and enable multiple automated vehicles to constantly contribute data to keep maps up to date. Allowing the system to learn behaviours of other road users and improve navigation over time will further promote smooth integration into everyday mixed-traffic operation. SECONDRY RESEARCH OR TARGET MARKET Describe your consumers or target market ✓All people ✓Disabled ✓Elderly Identify who are your target market Capital Market Population density The culture of people in the capital is better than other areas because of different nationalities Secondary Research :Market Size • Lifestyle People need such features in a unique car to facilitate a person's style • Social Belief The concept of the car is very modern and has features and features Primary research on consumer Bchanior ➢ : Conducted interview with 10 people. The following questions were asked Question Answer Yes No 1 Do you have car V-Charge? 0 10 2 Do you know about car V-Charge ? 0 10 3 Do you have knowledge of characteristics car VCharge ? 1 9 4 You write the important characteristic of the V-Charge 1 9 5 Why Do you like to characteristics car V-Charge ? 10 0 therefore, the attitude of the customers is innovative . Because, customers want new technology Communication Strategies News paper : ▪ ▪ English Newspaper: Times Of Oman - Oman Observer. Arabic Newspaper: Oman and al-shabiba - al-watan - broadly by Omanis and nonOmanis classified ad extensions Television : • Oman TV - Main channel and Live channel- Sports channel -Majan TV , most of the people watch it Mobile Omantel & Ooredoo SMS • • • The must of the population of oman have use Omantel & Ooredoo A text is read within minutes First of all you can reach your customers or prospective CONCLUSION To launch Volks Wagen Company, in Oman the following is recommended: Appropriate awareness programs that you want to do. Media Reviews. Advertisements in newspapers. Group discussion about product necessity. The need to conduct training how the car works in each area. To make customer enthusiastic product. The price of a car should be competitive. During the preliminary stage, the price cut. REFRERNCES • vcharge-energy.com • www.v-charge.eu • www.autoblog.com/2015/07/20/vwpreviews-automated-ev-parkingcharging • www.epsolarpv.com/en • www.volkswagen-me.com/ Consumer behavior 1|Page 1. Introduction 1.1 General discussion of the consumer behavior Consumer behavior can be defined as the study of the individuals or groups together with the process which they employ in the selection, securing, using and dispose of products and services to help in satisfying the individual or group needs (Lynn, 2012). It can be related to the impacts that the purchasing and consumption processes have on the social and economic factors of the individual and the entire society in general. The behavior of the consumers mixes many elements including the psychology, the sociology, the social anthropology, the marketing process and the economics to help in determining the emotions, behavior, attitudes and the preferences that affect the buying behavior. In order for the producers and the sellers to understand the behavior of their consumers, they investigate factors such as demographics, the personality lifestyles and the behavioral variables including the usage, the brand advocacy and the willingness to purchase products. In addition, the consumer behavior can be influenced by the families, the friends, the sports, the classmates and the society (Jain & Sharma, 2013). 1.2 Overview of company and its products The company considered in this case is the Shopping Trolley LLC that is specialized in the design and the marketing of the shopping trolleys. The company produces trolleys with different shapes, different designs, and features among many more. The most obvious products from the company is the electronic trolley that has features such as a chair, a mobile device, a bar code, a basket for the products bought together with a map of the store indicating the locations of all the products that are being sold in the store. The company has been in operation for 12 years since 2005. They have employed a number of communication techniques to facilitate operations within the company. 2|Page 2. Discussion of the consumer decision making process The consumer decision making process contains a number of processes. The processes for purchasing an electronic shopping trolley are as follows: Fig 1: Decision making process (Source: Mishra, 2015) Need recognition The first step of the consumer decision making process is the need recognition that involves the consumer recognizing that the product or service that is being sold is capable of solving their needs and fulfill their unfulfilled desires. There are a number of risks that may be encountered during need identification and therefore consumers should be ready to deal with it (Mishra, 2015). An example is that the consumer recognizes the electronic shopping trolley and finds out if is satisfies their needs. Information search Collecting all information about the products and services and their alternatives that would solve the same problem. An internal of external search can be conducted including identifying the prices of different alternatives. After information has been collected, the consumer determines if their needs can be satisfied by one of the alternative products or services identified (Kotler & Armstrong, 2014). 3|Page Evaluation of alternatives The consumer studies the alternatives to the products or services identified to find out if the alternatives can fulfill their desires in a similar manner. They rank the alternative properly before they make a choice (Fill, 2013). There are different types of shopping trolleys that are sold by the store with different designs and shapes, the consumer compares them with the electronic shopping trolley and decide if to buy the electronic shopping trolley or a different trolley. Purchase decisions This is the process in which the product is bought by exchanging it with money or a promise to pay later on. The consumer pays money or makes a promise to pay as they are handed the product. In addition, to making a promise or paying cash, the consumer can give another product that they purchase in exchange for what they need. This is the main step in the consumer purchase process since the consumer is able to acquire what they need (Neal, 2012). Purchase evaluation/post purchase behavior This involves a situation in which the purchase of the first item may lead to the purchase of second one. In addition, the consumer may be requested on the feedback of the entire process by the sellers to help them improve the entire process to increase customer satisfaction. The consumer is able to rate the entire process for the producers (Soch & Aggarwal, 2013). 4|Page 3. Analysis of how consumers go through the process of decision making in purchase of products The consumers follow the entire process conducting each of the steps that are discussed above as indicated in the figure below in the purchase of an electronic shopping trolley. Fig 2: process of consumers (Source: Mishra, 2015) The first thing the consumer does is self-evaluation to determine what they need, what they already have and what they are lacking and they identify that they are in need of the electronic shopping trolley. After identifying the electronic shopping trolley, they walk to the stores that are selling it which is Shopping Trolley LLC and identify the product that are being sold at the store. After identifying the electronic shopping trolley, they identify the alternatives that are available in the same store. They compare all the types of trolleys through a number of factors including the prices, the need to be full filed, the efficiency in usage, the survival rate and the quality among many more (Belch & Belch, 2012). After comparisons are done, the consumer selects the electronic shopping trolley. They pay for it by walking up to the counter in which they are given the packed product in return. After the purchase, the customer may decide to go around the store to identify other products or they may agree to feel a feedback questionnaire or write an anonymous note about the electronic shopping trolley before they walk out of the store (Carroll, 2013). 5|Page 4. Conclusion In general, consumer behavior is determined during the selling and purchasing process that occurs between the sellers and the purchasers. During this process, a number of activities are carried out and it involves a number of steps in which the customers should go through all of them to purchase the products or services that they need. The entire consumer purchase behavior has been discussed together with the steps that are undertaken during the entire purchase process. Recommendation To motivate a positive consumer behavior, the sellers should make the process of product or service purchasing friendly to the customers making them t enjoy the entire process motivating them to come back next time. In addition, the products or services that are offered should be able to satisfy the needs and requirements of the customers. 6|Page References Belch, G. E. & Belch, M. A (2012). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Fill, C (2013). Marketing communications: Brands, experiences and participation. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited Kotler, P and Armstrong, G., (2014). Principles of Marketing, Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson. Soch, H. and Aggarwal, N, (2013). “Influence of Commitment on Customer Discretionary Behaviour: A Survey in Retail Sector,” Universal Journal of Management, vol. 1, no.2, pp 103-110. Jain, R. and Sharma, A., (2013). "A Review on Sproles & Kendall's Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) for Analyzing Decision Making Styles of Consumers," Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43, no. 3. Mishra, A., (2015). "Consumer innovativeness and consumer decision styles: a confirmatory and segmentation analysis," The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, Vol. 25, no. 1. Neal, D., (2012). "The Ferrari with the Dragon Tattoo," Wall Street Journal. Carroll, C.E., (2013). The Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation, Chichester, Sussex, Wiley, p. 44 Lynn R. Kahle; Pierre Valette-Florence (2012). Marketplace Lifestyles in an Age of Social Media. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7656-2561-8. 7|Page Task 2 - Marking Criteria Criteria SN Weight % Introduction: 15 General discussion of consumer behaviour (10 marks) Overview of the company and its products (5 marks) 2. 25 Discussion of consumer decision making process Analysis of how your consumers go through the process of decision making in purchasing your product 3 25 4 Conclusion and recommendation 10 on Presentation, organisation, structure, and language proficiency 15 6 Proper Harvard referencing and citation (minimum of 5 references) 10 Total 100%
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