Volvo Marketing Strategy
Bachelor Thesis (15pt)
Does Volvo Cars’ marketing strategy differ according to consumer behavior in Sweden and in France
A study of how Volvo Cars adapts its marketing strategy in France compared to Sweden Deborah Samama Jessica Vega
Supervisor : Owe R. Hedstrom Spring Semester 2010 Umeå School of Business
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our supervisor Owe R. Hedstrom who, with his experience, has helped and guided us in the writing process of our Bachelor thesis. Our thanks also go to our Swedish acquaintances who have helped us translating some of our sources concerning Volvo Cars from Swedish to English. They also gave us precious information about the Swedish culture and values and allowed us to understand better the signification of the results of our questionnaire by explaining us how they and most Swedes they know perceive Volvo Cars. Finally, we believe we should thank Umeå University, the University library and all the librarians for having made available to us interesting and rich literature for our project.
Abstract
There is a great diversity in marketing strategies that brands can use to develop their name, image and products. The selection of the appropriate strategy is the basis of the image a brand wants to present and how it will be perceived by the market it attempts to approach. However when a brand aims at different segments of a market it has to adapt its marketing strategy to suit better the new segment compared to the first one. Hence in this thesis our interest has brought us to compare Volvo‟s marketing strategy in Sweden and in France as we study in the first country and we come from the second one. We tried to identify the similarities, the differences, and understand how Volvo manages to evaluate and adapt to the needs and expectations of the different consumers in those two countries One of the first things we noticed when arriving in Umeå was the number of Volvo cars in the street in contrast to what we are used to
Does Volvo Cars’ marketing strategy differ according to consumer behavior in Sweden and in France
A study of how Volvo Cars adapts its marketing strategy in France compared to Sweden Deborah Samama Jessica Vega
Supervisor : Owe R. Hedstrom Spring Semester 2010 Umeå School of Business
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our supervisor Owe R. Hedstrom who, with his experience, has helped and guided us in the writing process of our Bachelor thesis. Our thanks also go to our Swedish acquaintances who have helped us translating some of our sources concerning Volvo Cars from Swedish to English. They also gave us precious information about the Swedish culture and values and allowed us to understand better the signification of the results of our questionnaire by explaining us how they and most Swedes they know perceive Volvo Cars. Finally, we believe we should thank Umeå University, the University library and all the librarians for having made available to us interesting and rich literature for our project.
Abstract
There is a great diversity in marketing strategies that brands can use to develop their name, image and products. The selection of the appropriate strategy is the basis of the image a brand wants to present and how it will be perceived by the market it attempts to approach. However when a brand aims at different segments of a market it has to adapt its marketing strategy to suit better the new segment compared to the first one. Hence in this thesis our interest has brought us to compare Volvo‟s marketing strategy in Sweden and in France as we study in the first country and we come from the second one. We tried to identify the similarities, the differences, and understand how Volvo manages to evaluate and adapt to the needs and expectations of the different consumers in those two countries One of the first things we noticed when arriving in Umeå was the number of Volvo cars in the street in contrast to what we are used to
References: Volvo Cars‟ Corporate Website (last consulted the 28th of March 2010) http://www.volvocars.com/fr/top/about/corporate/pages/default.aspx 2 13 French website Caradisiac dedicated to cars (last consulted the 29thof March 2010):