I. Rational
II. Situational Analysis
III. Theoretical background
IV. Conceptual Model
V. Research Design
VI. Sources
I. Rational:

According to James R. Healey (2011), reporter for USA Today, customers have lost confidence in Volkswagen’s quality. Volkswagen has been subjected to a real loss in the perception of its customers regarding its cars quality.

This situation results mainly from a quality problem. In fact, according to Marty Padgett (May 14, 2007), for the website www.thecarconnection.com: “The CEO of Volkswagen of America admits the company generated a lot of ‘venom’ with the massive quality problems it experienced earlier this decade.”

This position is emphasized by a Hallmark representative who observed: “Volkswagen …show more content…

According to www.businessdictionary.com, the brand image is developed over time through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme and is authenticated through the consumers’ direct experience.

To summarize the situation, the downswing in the perception of Volkswagen brand image is due to the last part of this definition. The company has failed to make the consumers enjoy the experience of having a Volkswagen car.
As explained before, this is mainly due to the high number of problems experienced by consumers.

In order to improve their brand image, the company has to improve its IQS score, which would prove to the consumer that Volkswagen cars are as reliable as they used to be, which would consequently improve the company’s brand image.

III. Theoretical background:

According to Narasimhan, Ram, Mendez and David (2001) and the Wacker Theory (1989) on quality and evaluative judgment «Product’s improved quality will take several periods of good performance before customers will recognize its performance as being related to quality”.

This means that customers’ point of view regarding brands’ quality will not change overnight. It will takes time to prove them that things have changed because customers are more and more dubious and because it takes time to have feedbacks concerning quality. That said quality is not the only factor when it comes to purchasing a car. Indeed, according to Nadia Huitzilin Jiménez Torres (October 2007) from the