Will the Volkswagen brand ever recover?

I just turned to my father and said "Dad, I'm writing a blog post on VW and whether the brand can recover, what do you think?". My Dad is a loyal VW fan and has driven their cars for years and replied "I hope so, because it's a great brand". The company have created a hugely loyal customer base and have fastly become one of the biggest and most successful car brands in the world holding the largest market share in Europe. We are talking one of the biggest brands in the world here. I myself have a SEAT, one of the VW group brands and have always felt proud in the fact I am driving one of the most reliable, best quality car brands in the world (especially in comparison to my old Renault!).

A few days ago, the world was shocked to hear, a brand they had regarded as ethical, high quality and strong- had been involved in cheating diesel emissions test. I think the fact that the brand was previously seen as producing such reliable products, shocked and outraged the public more. Their stock price has tumbled and they have had to recall millions of vehicles, costing them extensively.

However, aside from the cost implications, the brand reputation has suffered immensely and will potentially continue to suffer now Audi's cars have been announced as part of the scandal. The question is, will they ever recover from this scandal?

People bought the cars in question based on the promise they had low emissions and in lying about this, VW have not only broken their customers trust, but the law! It is not a typical crisis in the fact this was a deliberate defiance, not an accident as we saw in the BP oil spill or a lack of due diligence within standardisation checks such as the Tesco horse meat scandal- no, this was knowingly and deliberately done by certain VW employees.

Volkswagen's CEO has resigned despite claiming to know nothing of the cheat, the company have also pledged over 6 billion euros in restoring consumer's trust and correcting any wrongdoing. They have also pulled any new marketing campaigns- yet this is a small step in restoring not only brand equity, but stop the company from going under as a whole.

It will be an interesting watch to see how and if the brand recover and what steps they take in a case which is not a typical crisis management.