VW’s JP Orbeta: “VW features Euro values at lower price point”

Last week, Volkswagen—under the aegis of the Ayala conglomerate’s Automobile Central Enterprise, Inc. (ACEI) and through Iconic Dealership, Inc.—formally inaugurated its first Philippine showroom at Bonifacio Global City. Measuring more than 6,000 square meters, Volkswagen BGC distinguishes itself as only the second VW dealership in the world to feature the new Interactive Showroom application (accessed through tablets within the premises) developed in Hong Kong. VW says this makes the showroom the most “innovative and digitalized showroom in the country.”

ACEI president John Philip Orbeta told the STAR that the company has broken ground on another Volkswagen dealership—this time in Cebu’s reclamation area—expected to open in the third quarter of the year. Two more dealerships in Alabang and Quezon City will begin construction within the year.

Here are excerpts from our exclusive chat.

STAR: Why bring the technology in?

John Philip Orbeta: I was in Hong Kong when (Volkswagen) presented the technology. We were in the midst of constructing this (showroom), and I said that it would be a good differentiator if we could bring in the same technology. I could really say that our showroom is powered by a digital solution.

Do you plan on having this capability in your subsequent showrooms?

Definitely. We want to set a standard. From now on, all our dealers will be digital. As you saw from the demo, everything from the selections, even up to signing reservation forms, will be online. We can send brochures via email; you can do a QR capture so it brings you to our website. It’s really a fun way of buying a car. People can experiment if a car had different interiors, colors, specs, and how much it would cost. Later on, we will have it linked to financing functions.

Is the information within the application also available on your website?

Some of it will be available on our website. (The rest) has to be here in the showroom because of our infrastructure, and there will be a real-time reservation feature—much like a seat map for a plane. Our sales consultants need to know in real time what’s available.

In terms of functionality, will your sales consultants have the full suite of functions to enable them to assist customers?

Absolutely, and the reason we chose tablets is that we can do this in a mall or wherever, and those can be linked to our main system so it would be in real time.

So you position Volkswagen as volume premium. How do you make people aware that European technology and its value propositions are now relatively accessible, price-wise?

The technology isn’t really a state secret. Even in the Volkswagen Group, we tend to share platforms and technology. What’s important is that we’re offering that same technology at much lower price points than what you would have had to pay if you were to buy a premium luxury car. Part of our challenge is really educating the market, and that’s why we have partners like media. We’re obviously doing advertising and education campaigns. That’s why it’s important for us to launch this digital showroom as a platform for people to learn more.

How much easier is it for VW to be under the aegis of the Ayala Group? What sort of benefits does VW get as being part of the Ayala brand?

It works both ways. We are two old organizations with very strong and similar sets of values. We don’t compromise on quality, integrity is second to none, and there’s a very strong customer orientation. The pedigrees of our companies are very similar. We’re an automotive holding company, with Honda and Isuzu as well. It gives us a breadth of product ranges that allows us now to offer a European brand.

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Volkswagen BGC is located at the 28th Street City Center. For a limited time, prices of the Polo (P950,000), and Jetta (P1.295 million) have been slashed to P888,000  and P1.098 million, respectively. For more information, call 459-5462, visit www.volkswagen.com.ph or e-mail [email protected].