In response to the discussion we had in the last COMM 101 class regarding Volkswagen, this blog post will focus on the recent issue faced by the company and analyze its recent strategy of changing its CEO. In short, Volkswagen have been facing an issue regarding the company being admitted cheating emissions tests in the United States.

A CNN.com article thoroughly discussed the consequences that the company will likely to face. Volkswagen’s brand image is now in its worst condition, and now the company has to find way to reestablish its brand image as well as regaining their customers’ trust and loyalty. In pursuing this, Volkswagen have appointed a new CEO, Matthias Mueller, who was the head of Porsche before he took on the position of being the new CEO of Volkswagen. Mueller came in with great confidence saying that Volkswagen could even emerge from this crisis with an even better image before the scandal had spread.

Source: http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article6517275.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Matthias-Mueller.jpg

A new CEO as a new face of the company could help Volkswagen in regaining the trust of their stakeholders, however it could also just emphasize their unprofessionalism regarding the matter at hand. The decision could be beneficial in a way that it sends off a message that Volkswagen is trying their best in restructuring their company due to their unethical methods in conducting their business activity. On the other hand, if the position would have been still filled with Martin Winterkorn, the former CEO, it could have also sent a message that the company would like to sincerely change its ways of conducting their business. The change of CEO could just be interpreted as the approval by the company that it did deliberately cheat in their emissions tests.

Volkswagen would be facing lawsuits from their consumers as well as car dealers due to decrease in value of their cars. Volkswagen now would have to find a way in order to gain credibility in the market to reestablish its brand image.

Source:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/24/news/companies/volkswagen-emission-scandal-ceo/index.html?iid=SF_LN

It is unarguable that a business should not lose sight on ethics while running its business activities. The interplay within a business and its stakeholders are so delicate, that slightest ethical misjudgement done by a business may cause harm towards its stakeholders, both internally and externally. The act of advertising is essential in the marketing activity of a business, however, due to the increasing transparency of the media, a business could advertise its product to an unintentional market segment.

This could be a good thing, for it expands the market segment, on the other hand it could also be harmful if unintentionally reaches a market segment that is not appropriate for your brand. The issue of advertising and its effects on children has long being argued due to the some of the harmful effects that could arise such as disrupting children’s brain development. Nevertheless, it is arguable from businesses’ point of view that they have no control of whom could view their advertisements due to the high accessibility of the media in this generation. Knowing the fact that there is a lack of control in the media distribution, businesses should consider this while producing its advertisements in order to be ethically responsible for the well-being of children. Businesses could benefit by being ethically responsible from experiencing enhanced brand image in the society. However the extent of how advertisements should be produced in regards of being ethically responsible for the children’s well-being is still open for discussion due to the lack of research on children’s brain activity.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/sep/16/how-far-is-too-far-when-it-comes-to-advertising-to-children