Strengths: Volkswagen has one of the largest brand portfolios among automakers, including Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini Porsche, SEAT, Škoda which they sell over 10 million cars a year. Allow the company to diversify into automotive markets. For example, they play a huge role in the truck and bus sector under Scania. This diversification has allowed them to become one of the largest companies in the world. The synergy between all Volkswagen brands appeals to both ends of the spectrum, from luxury cars to family cars, creating a huge target market, satisfying every customer need. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayVW operates in all corners of the world with a strong global presence, 70 manufacturing plants in 150 countries with 350,000 employees worldwide. Including joint ventures with local Chinese automakers entering the world's largest market with 1.4 billion potential customers, if VW were to dominate the Chinese market, it would consolidate its position at the top of the auto industry. Furthermore, another strong point is that VWs are very popular: 26,600 new cars are produced in a single day to meet current global demand. 57th highest mark in the world even after the emissions scandal (2016). (It ranked 18th in 2015), this is helped by VW having well managed operation, a good supply chain and links with hundreds of VW dealers in the UK alone. Volkswagen cars have the highest gross sales in the United States and Germany, more than any other VW brand. After investing profits in research and development, VW was able to produce high-performance, hybrid and electric cars. For example, the new Golf GTE is one of VW's latest models. Offering an electric alternative could entice anti-emissions consumers to buy a car, increasing VW's market share. VW is one of the oldest automobile manufacturers, resulting in greater reach to the masses. The more people know about VW, the more people will consider them when looking to buy a new car. Automotive companies can rely on word of mouth for many car sales when people talking about the reliability of a car is what most people want. VW must have good word of mouth just because it has been around for so long. Excellent brand recognition, advertising and marketing via TVC, print media, online ads, billboards etc. Audi is the best performing brand of the VW Group with an estimated value of $7 billion. Weaknesses: Volkswagen's biggest weakness recently has been the 2015 emissions scandal, the negative publicity surrounding it has profoundly affected the main umbrella brand with almost 5 million cars returned to the organisation. This resulted in the weakening of a good brand reputation, which took years of good service to build. A huge loss of customer loyalty will lead to customers sticking with VW when it comes to purchasing their next car. Ultimately, trust was betrayed, especially because the decision to install the wrong software came from the company's top management. However it can be rebuilt and they have paid fines for the damage caused, plus the statistics tell us that sales have not really been effective, suggesting that most consumers are not bothered by emissions when it comes to buying a car. They have the highest withdrawal rate in the United Statesthan any other car manufacturer and, to make matters worse, their US market share is very low compared to Europe. There must have been problems with production or quality control in the past. An easily correctable mistake, but one that proved costly in the long run, led to VW cars not being as popular as they should in the United States. Another problem for Volkswagen is that competition is eroding its margins. There are many competing brands that are penetrating the market and the price competition is tremendous. As a result, this competition benefits customers but negatively affects the brand. In India, for example, the brand had to lower prices significantly to encourage acceptance. As a result, many margins have been lost to competition. Volkswagen brand positioning is quite weak in India. Maruti and Hyundai have a very good overall turnover and Volkswagen is not able to compete with Maruti. Volkswagen spends a lot of dollars on advertising to build a brand for Audi, Bentley, Porsche and other brands that make more money. Volkswagen itself needs to invest in creating more brand value for the parent brand: Volkswagen. There are some hand-picked cars like Passat or Beetle that are a success under the Volkswagen brand. But the brand does not make much noise for these models, as required by the market. A reboot of new models for such cars would significantly increase popularity. Finally, most high-performance VW cars are not environmentally friendly, for example Bugatti and Lamborghini, two of the fastest and most expensive cars in the world. Opportunity: Fuel is expected to increase in the near future, resulting in increased demand and creating a larger market for hybrid. and electric cars, of which Volkswagen currently owns a small share. This could be an opportunity to invest heavily in electric car research and development to increase its presence in the electric car market. In addition to investments in electric cars, the market offers the opportunity to invest in the autonomous car market. A market not yet explored by most car manufacturers, with few and very limited fully autonomous cars existing. Volkswagen has the size and power to become the new world leader in the supply of driverless cars, it just needs to get demand off the ground like electric cars have done. A respected brand like Volkswagen has to potentially offer driverless cars at an affordable price. There is also an opportunity to focus on significantly improving sustainability policies to remedy the brand's damaged reputation and maintain the trust the public once had in the Volkswagen brand. Furthermore, purchasing power is increasing globally and cars are no longer seen as a luxury good but increasingly as a necessity. Increase in total demand for cars. Even if you can't afford the car outright, there are now options to finance and pay overtime, meaning more and more people have access to the sports cars offered by VW. Threats: VW brand reputation has been severely damaged, one of the major threats to Volkswagen damages brand reputation due to emissions scandal. More than 5 million cars had to be recalled, including Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT and many others. Once people had to return their cars, they were not sure if they would get another Volkswagen car again. Volkswagen will have to spend a lot of money on brand building to regain its brand strength, otherwise we could see a decline in VW sales. There.