Audi 2009 Annual Report Download - page 139

136
Continuous growth
Amid its efforts to capitalize on future opportunities for growth in key premium markets, the
focus will remain on continuity and quality of growth.
The Company’s springboard for this undertaking is a fresh, attractive product range, to which
numerous new models were added again during the past fiscal year as part of its long-term
model initiative. The particular appeal of the new arrivals, such as the Audi A5 Cabriolet, the
A4 allroad quattro and the A5 Sportback, lies in their successful blend of emotional design,
sportiness, efficiency and everyday suitability.
The Audi brand will continue with its model initiative in 2010 in adding further new members to
its product family. Among the most notable new arrivals will be the Audi A1 – which will appeal
above all to young drivers and therefore give customers a taste of the excitement of the Audi
brand from an early age – the next generation of the Audi A8 luxury sedan and the new Audi A7.
At the same time, the Audi Group is stepping up its activities in international car markets. In the
past fiscal year the Company established a fully owned subsidiary in China, its most important
international market, to serve as an umbrella organization for all its activities there. A new
assembly hall was also erected at the Chinese production plant in Changchun. The Audi Group
furthermore has local manufacturing operations in India; the gradual creation and expansion of
the sales and dealer structure is helping to boost its presence in the growing Indian market. The
Audi Group also has plans for further growth in the United States. The cornerstones of this un-
dertaking will be the extended product range, which received a major boost in 2009 with the
advent of the Audi Q5 and Audi Q7 3.0 TDI clean diesel models, and the steady progress made
by the brand image in the U.S. market.
Image leader
The basis for lasting success is a strong brand. The Company is therefore eager to keep improv-
ing its image position above all through its attractive, fresh product range, and to establish an
emotional bond between its customers and the brand. Alongside outstanding quality and so-
phisticated design, customers in particular want vehicles that embody the Audi brand’s prover-
bial “Vorsprung durch Technik.” The Company again demonstrated that competitive edge in
2009 by implementing numerous innovative technologies such as lightweight construction,
powerful and efficient TDI and TFSI engines, and currently the cleanest diesel technology in the
world.
The public’s enthusiasm was again manifested last year in an array of national and international
awards. For example, the Audi brand yet again captured the coveted ADAC “Yellow Angel” award
for the best brand (ADACmotorwelt, issue 2/2009, page 24 ff.). In Auto Zeitung’s “Image Re-
port 2009” some 20,000 readers voted Audi their favorite car brand for the sixth time in a row
(issue 24/2009, page 80 ff.). The brand with the four rings was declared Germany’s most attrac-
tive car brand in a representative study conducted by Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK)
and commissioned by the brand strategy consultants Brand:Trust. In addition to brand recogni-
tion, this study investigated readiness to recommend (“Brands of the Future,” August 27, 2009).
In the high-profile reader poll “Best Cars” staged by the trade publication auto motor und sport
(issue 4/2009, page 135) the Audi A4, Audi A6 and Audi Q5 models all came in at the top of
their respective categories. The ADAC breakdown statistics, which identified the Audi A2,
Audi A3 and Audi A6 as the most reliable vehicles in their respective categories, furthermore
supplied evidence of the high quality standards of the Audi brand (ADACmotorwelt, issue
5/2009, page 30 ff.). In the “Auto Bild Design Award” reader poll (Auto Bild, issue 20/2009,
page 52 ff.) the Audi brand clinched top spot with the Audi A4 allroad quattro and Audi Sport-
back concept, as well as a second place for the Audi A5 Cabriolet. The German “Design Oscar” for
the Audi A5 Coupé, the highest official design accolade in Germany (“Design Award of the Fed-
eral Republic of Germany 2010,” October 23, 2009), and the “Golden Steering Wheel 2009” for
the A5 Sportback (Bild am Sonntag, issue 45/2009, supplement, page 16) completed the im-
pressive collection of awards received by the end of the year.