VW come back to Indonesia market in 2001 under Pf. Car & Cars Indonesia (CCI) after 20 years absent. CCI sell 3 variants of VW : Golf, New Beetle and Passat. The target sale from September 2001 to December 2001 is 60 units with the composition 70 % Golf, 25 % Passat and 5 % New Bettle. The target sale for January to December 2002 is 300 -400 units. VW Golf is the backbone of the CCI business strategy that is why we concentrate on this product on our market research.

CCI together with the agencies has developed the new positioning statement for VW in Indonesia. The advertising theme is 'Rethink Luxury'. The terminology itself contain the understanding of high standard quality, good design, performance and comfort. CCI offers premium price for all of VW car models to the consumers. This price level is higher than hatchback car for the same class product. For communication, CCI use Public relation and advertising agencies. The goal of this activities are to enhance the corporate and product image. In 2001, CCI opened one show room at Wisma Indomobil 1 st floor at Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, one workshop at Pantai Indah Kapuk, North Jakarta and one warehouse for spare part at Sunter, North Jakarta.

Research was done to collect the data from target market and to confirm the effectiveness of CCI strategy. The objective is to recognize product usage, market awareness, attitude, and product image toward VW Golf as initial indication. The research methodology is monadic and also we explore the respondent opinion toward competitor of luxurious car segment. The respondents consist of three: fIrst, is the potential customers who has car that valued more than IDR 300 million and has age between 20 to 60 years old. We got 62 respondents from this category. Second, is the VW Golf owner. We got 14 respondents out of 45 VW Golf owners that listed in CCI data. Third, is the intermediary that consists of showrooms and workshops. Six respondents well cooperated with us to answer our questioners.

The survey showed that there are discrepancies in expectation on luxury car features between the target market, the target market who has done test drive and VW Golf owner. The target market perceived that comfortable suspension and after sales service are the most important followed by resale value, acceleration, machine performance, design and interior sun roof.



The target market perceived that price of luxurious car is about IDR 315 million. Most respondents claimed that the reason not to chose VW Golf is due to lack of information to them. There is perception gap between target market and VW Golf owner in seeing VW Golf competitors. Target market see Peugeot as closest competitor, meanwhile Golf owner see Audi A3 as closest competitor.

TV is the most exposed media to the respondents, but this media has not been use effectively yet. It is proven that most respondents got the information about VW Golf through printed media. Test drive is a powerful tool to introduce VW Golf. Respondent have positive opinion after they do the test drive.

Branding is very important for luxury market car because customer not only concern about quality of product but also about status -prestige - self-expression. Therefore, the brand of VW must define the three values to get succeed in this market.

We recommend CCI to focus on VW brand in developing luxurious image and put VW Golf as 'the most advanced hatchback' to avoid direct competition with Mercedes Benz and BMW. TV and printed media should be used effectively to convey advertisement. The frequency, TV station and program selection are very important. Testimony advertising with various background' of people like businessman, high class housewife or family and children et cetera need to be considered to invite the influencer group to think about VW Golf. It is recommended to expose the target market with features of VW Golf through test drive experience. The other challenge is how to improve the after sale service by increasing the number of workshop and distribution channel.



Reseach Location: PT Car & Cars Indonesia (CCI).

Supervisor: Ir. Mudzaffar Daud, MBA.

Accepted on 22 Augustus 2002



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