Volkswagen (Germany)

Volkswagen is far and away Europe's top-ranking carmaker with a broad portfolio which includes VW itself, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini and Bentley. On the world stage, VW currently ranks third behind Toyota and GM, and could well move into second place during 2009 from the possible break-up of its American rival. Yet despite its range, Volkswagen has been struggling to combat flat performance in its home market and in the US, as well as fierce competition in its #2 market, China. Some of those problems are being addressed successfully with an aggressive new strategy inspired by the group's new controlling shareholder, luxury sports car manufacturer Porsche. In 2009, Porsche and Volkswagen agreed to merge to form a single company. However, the precise structure of such a group has yet to be decided and by the end of June negotiations were close to collapse because of increasing friction between the two companies' controlling shareholders. Advertising Age estimated global measured advertising expenditure of $1.7bn in 2007, making Volkswagen the world's #18 advertiser. 

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The Adbrands Company Profile of Volkswagen summarises the company's history and current operations. Subscribers may access the following website links: volkswagon

Volkswagen website

Audi	VW Golf
Seat	New Beetle
Skoda	VW Bank Direct
Lamborghini	Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles
Europcar	Gedas
Rolls-Royce	VW Immobilien
Autostadt	VW-BKK
Scania	Scania
Bentley	Bugatti

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