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NEWS
Who is Skoda?
New product launches will boost sales, but how many Australians will notice?It's been five years since Czech car maker Skoda relaunched the brand in Australia at the Sydney Motor Show in late 2007, but the car maker is still struggling to capture the imagination of Australian car buyers.
Despite offering accomplished, innovative vehicles at budget prices – pitching itself as a 'value' brand – the company's sales stagnated in 2012. It sold just one more new car compared to 2011's 3501 new vehicles sales.
Skoda signed a major sponsorship deal with the Western Sydney Giants AFL team in 2010, believed to be a multi–million dollar deal, to try and lift the brand's status in Australia. The company also has strong links to cycling, as a premier sponsor of the Tour de France and Tour Down Under.
But are the sponsorships working?
"I think there is always room for growth and to improve the brand awareness and Skoda has a lot of work to do in Australia," confessed Karl Gehling, Skoda Australia spokesman.
He says that the brand has "come a long way in the last five years and made some major steps," but concedes that good or even outstanding products alone won't win the war.
"It would be remiss of us not to continue to work on building the brand's profile in Australia," he added, but argued that throwing more cash at promoting the brand is not necessarily the answer to the company's relative anonymity in this country.
"It's not necessarily just about marketing dollars, there's a whole range of factors and we're certainly using all of our global brand activities including Tour de France and leveraging that with the Tour Down Under in Australia to make sure we maintain the consistency globally and locally to maximise brand awareness."
Nissan and Mercedes-Benz have taken the bold step of joining the V8 Supercars championship to boost awareness, and while Skoda is very unlikely to develop a V8 Supercar, the Skoda rep said "Never say never".
"There's always opportunities, but there's a lot on the priority list. Motorsport is a very expensive activity.
"I think motorsport is one of those tricky things... even the biggest brands have discovered it's a not guaranteed way of success and you have to have the right mix of product to maximise the impact of it," said Mr Gehling.
"And you obviously have to win, which is not always guaranteed in any event."
Skoda's first full year of sales, 2008, saw 818 cars sold, followed by a solid increase in '09 to 1252. The incremental growth continued in 2010 and 2011 with 1652 sales and 3501 respectively (the 2011 sales jump thanks to an updated Octavia and the arrival of the Yeti SUV).
But the growth screeched to a halt in 2012 despite a record year for the Australian new car market, with an increase of just one extra Skoda vehicle registration compared to the year before, 3502 sales.
Skoda Australia expects 2013 will be a strong year with the arrival of the all new Rapid small car mid-year, followed by the third generation Octavia in the fourth quarter. Mr Gehling confirmed the Rapid would be priced below Octavia, meaning a starting price of under $25,000.
But to get bums on seats Skoda needs more brand and product awareness in this country. Based on anecdotal evidence, some Australians have no idea that Skoda even exists, while others (with long memories) associate the brand with the unreliable vehicles from the 1980s.
Though it's catchcry of "Simply Clever" rings true, the company is "Simply Invisible" to many car buyers in this country. If Skoda is to become a significant player in Australia, much like parent company Volkswagen, it must find more ways to convince Australians to take a closer look.
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Written byFeann Torr
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