Int. J. Product Development, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2020

Access Article distributed under the CC BY license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Transforming brand core values into perceived

quality: a Volvo case study

Kostas Stylidis*

Department of Industrial and Materials Science,

Chalmers University of Technology,

412 96, Göteborg, Sweden

Email: stylidis@chalmers.se

*Corresponding author

Steven Hoffenson

School of Systems and Enterprises,

Stevens Institute of Technology,

NJ 07030, Hoboken, USA

Email: shoffens@stevens.edu

Monica Rossi

Department of Management, Economics and

Industrial Engineering,

Polytechnic University of Milan,

201 56, Milan, Italy

Email: monica.rossi@polimi.it

Casper Wickman

Department of Industrial and Materials Science,

Chalmers University of Technology,

412 96, Göteborg, Sweden

and

Volvo Car Group, Craftsmanship & Ergonomics Centre,

91300 PVÖS35, 405 31,

Göteborg, Sweden

Email: casper.wickman@volvocars.com

Mikael Söderman

Advanced Technology & Research,

Volvo Group Trucks Technology,

BF 40630, M1, 405 08,

Göteborg, Sweden

Email: mikael.soderman@volvo.com

K. Stylidis et al.

Rikard Söderberg

Department of Industrial and Materials Science,

Chalmers University of Technology,

412 96, Göteborg, Sweden

Email: rikard.soderberg@chalmers.se

Abstract:

Core values are an important part of Volvo Car Group’s and Volvo

Trucks’ strategic development plans. These two companies share the same core

values, quality, safety, and environmental care, but they approach these values

in different ways. This study seeks to understand how industry professionals

and customers perceive these core values and the attributes that are associated

with them, using semi-structured interviews with industry professionals from

both companies and quantitative survey methods with customers. The purposes

of this study are to investigate how designers convey core values to customers

through product attributes and how customers perceive those core values

through the same attributes. Such an understanding reveals the commonalities

and discrepancies between the perspectives of producers and customers, and

can contribute to more effective design processes that communicate company

values in the early product development phases.

Keywords:

automotive design; product development; communication;

perceived quality; core values.

Reference

to this paper should be made as follows: Stylidis, K., Hoffenson, S.,

Rossi, M., Wickman, C., Söderman, M. and Söderberg, R. (2020)

‘Transforming brand core values into perceived quality: a Volvo case study’,

Int. J. Product Development

, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp.43–67.

Biographical notes:

Kostas Stylidis is a Researcher at Chalmers University.

His primary research interest is the perceived quality of the cars. He focuses on

the premium and luxury segment of the automotive industry.

Steven Hoffenson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Systems and

Enterprises at the Stevens Institute of Technology. His research brings systems

thinking into interdisciplinary approaches to design, with an emphasis on

sustainability. This combines engineering models, decision theory models,

economic models, and a systems framework to build an understanding of how

different decisions with respect to product development and adoption will

affect the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the surrounding

world.

Monica Rossi is an Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Milano in the

Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering.

Casper Wickman is a part of the Research Group Geometry Assurance &

Robust Design at the Department of Industrial and Materials Science. He is

also holds a position as Technical Leader within the area of Craftsmanship and

Ergonomics at Volvo Cars. He is also a Theme Leader for Perceived Quality in

VINNEX phase III at Winquist Laboratory. The research is conducted in

collaboration with both Volvo cars and Volvo AB.

Mikael Söderman is a Project Manager at Volvo Group Trucks Technology,

Advanced Technology & Research.

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

Rikard Söderberg is a Chair Professor in Product and Production Development.

He received his PhD from Chalmers in 1995. After some years in the IT and

consultancy sector he went back to Chalmers to build up his research group

within Geometry Assurance and Robust Design. He was head of department

for Department of Product and Production Development until 2017 when

Chalmers reorganised and he is a Director for Wingquist Laboratory.

This paper is a revised and expanded version of papers entitled ‘Corporate and

Customer Understanding of Core Values Regarding Perceived Quality: Case

Studies on Volvo Car Group and Volvo Group Truck Technology’ presented at

the ‘24th CIRP Design Conference, Milan, Italy, 2014; and ‘Perceived Quality

and the Core Values in the Automotive Industry: A Corporate View’ presented

at the ‘3rd International Conference on Design Creativity’, Indian Institute of

Science, Bangalore, India, 2015

Introduction

The automotive industry today is characterised by a high level of competitiveness, which

among other factors has an impact on future car performance, features, and appearance.

The major manufacturers in the premium segment already have strict manufacturing

quality control (Robinson, 2000), so providing customers with a well-built vehicle is

considered a given and therefore not an area in which manufacturers can compete for

more market share. Thus, in the premium segment, automobile manufacturers seek an

advantage over their competitors by producing vehicles that customers perceive as “high

quality”, regardless of the minor differences in build quality. Corporate brand heritage,

linked to customer perceptions of corporate image and core values, can play a significant

role in communicating product and brand characteristics with customers (Rindell et al.,

2015; Urde et al., 2007). Brand heritage and core values represent a company’s beliefs

and character, and they are generally expressed by the companies through the physical

design of products that consumers can then perceive and evaluate to make purchase

decisions.

Volvo as a brand has a long tradition of three major core values (

quality, safety, and

environmental care

). These core values form the foundation of the brand (Urde, 2009).

Design processes that seek to address perceived quality and represent core values are

driven by a set of requirements that the final product must fulfil. This is challenging

because the evaluation of perceived quality attributes is often subjective and intuitive

rather than objective (Eckert et al., 2014). In design research the identification of, and

ability to evaluate, product attributes related to perceived quality are ongoing challenges

(Burnap et al., 2015; Yumer et al., 2015). However, there is evidence that insufficient

methodological support causes industry to employ intuitive rather than strategic or

systematic communication practices (Liem et al., 2009). Sometimes this approach can be

successful, due to the company’s accumulated expertise and heritage, but in many cases

it is detrimental to the product’s success on the market. Therefore, the automotive

industry has a continuous demand for objective and systematic methods and tools that

will allow the definition and validation of perceived quality-related requirements for

complete vehicles or their parts (Huertas-Leyva et al., 2011). A stronger understanding of

how core values are communicated with customers would significantly contribute to the

development of such methods.

K. Stylidis et al.

At the same time, understanding how customers perceive product quality and

comparing that with the viewpoints of industry professionals could highlight critical

discrepancies between designers and users. Such discrepancies can result in ineffective

communication of the corporate brand core values that can be traced to the company’s

physical products and product development process (Urde, 2009). This study looks at the

cases of Volvo Car Group (VCG) and Volvo Trucks (VT), two separate companies that

share the same brand heritage and core values but approach these in different ways due to

different customer demands. The study investigates how the companies communicate

their corporate core values to their customers, and which particular vehicle attributes the

companies use to represent those values. The article also reveals current trends regarding

communication of core values and perceived quality. The objectives of the present study

are to elicit how industry professionals and customers each perceive the core values and

the attributes that are associated with them, and to provide a new systematic approach

that companies can use to determine attributes and the existing discrepancies between

viewpoints. Two different companies under the Volvo brand are used to showcase

the versatility of the approach and demonstrate how the same core values can be

communicated in different ways.

In-depth qualitative interviews were performed with senior management personnel,

key people from both companies who define development and the future looks and

attributes of VCG and VT vehicles. To understand how these core values are perceived

by customers in practice, a quantitative survey was conducted with a number of Volvo

car owners, as well as with semi-trailer truck drivers. The respondents were given online

tasks to rank the importance of the attributes that were listed by the professionals,

providing an understanding of some of the similarities and differences between the ways

that designers/engineers and users perceive Volvo’s shared core values. One of the

methods used in the surveys was Maximum Difference Scaling (MaxDiff), which is a

quantitative choice-based technique used for understanding a respondent’s or a

respondent group’s relative valuation of different products or product attributes

(Louviere, 1993). MaxDiff is used along with semantic-differential scale questions. This

helps to detect lack of discrimination and confounding among respondents (Magidson

et al., 2009).

This article begins with a discussion of the background theory behind the approach

and the research methods. This is followed by a description of the methods used to

interview the design professionals and a summary of findings, as well as the same for the

customer surveys. It concludes with a discussion of the results and suggestions for further

research.

Background and methodology

Historically Volvo is a heritage brand with an established corporate track record.

However, despite the notion that heritage brands “are stable reference points in a

changing world” and assertions that “customers value heritage” (Balmer, 2013), the

process of communicating brand core values can be ambiguous for brand management.

In the recent past, industry professionals operated with simple brand structures, few

sub-brands, and straightforward business strategies. Today, the situation has changed

dramatically, as brands have become more complex, the business environment has grown

more difficult to navigate, and challenges are now reaching a global level (Aaker and

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

Joachimsthaler, 2000). In order to translate brand core values and successfully transfer

these to the customer, there is a need to create a strong identity and express this identity

by consistently managing relevant “touchpoints” with customers. These include

awareness, associations, attitude, attachment, and activity (Keller and Lehmann, 2003).

In the premium segment of the automotive industry, the company communicates many of

these touchpoints with the customer through perceived quality attributes, such as

craftsmanship, surface finish, and split lines. Perceived quality also involves many

aspects of customer cognition and product properties, including emotions, aesthetics,

semiotics and semantics, and gestalt perception of the design. Therefore, perceived

quality can be determined differently by different manufacturers. Vehicle manufacturers

are continuously looking for improvements in their communication strategies to

minimise the gap between designer intentions and customer expectations. This is not an

easy task because there is often no direct contact between designers and customers. In

fact, engineers often have incomplete information regarding the customer’s sensory

perception of the attributes related to perceived quality (Striegel and Zielinski, 2018).

One of the crucial procedures for defining customer requirements is the benchmarking of

a new product against competitors, usually from the same market segment. However,

previous studies (Stylidis et al., 2016) have identified possible bias in the premium

automotive segment regarding this procedure. Since there are a limited number of players

in the premium segment, with limited information regarding competitors, the chance of

incorrect importance estimation for product attributes is high. In this case the

benchmarking process can be detrimental to a product’s success on the market.

One of the theoretical frameworks explaining these communication discrepancies is

information asymmetry. In this context, information asymmetry is caused by

misinformation due to existing differences in background knowledge of, and available

information to, the designer and customer (Christozov et al., 2009). Information

asymmetry works both ways. For example, from a designer perspective, limited

knowledge about customer preferences and values can result from a time-critical

development processes. From a customer perspective, information asymmetry can be

caused by the limited communication capacities of products and various human factors,

including different epistemologies during observation and interpretation (Krippendorff,

2009). Information asymmetry can also appear if the actual quality of the product is not

apparent due to its complexity, which is a common phenomenon in modern vehicles.

Generally speaking, information asymmetries are naturally related to any process of

information exchange and create a risk of misinterpretation and miscommunication

(Christozov et al., 2009). Engineers must strike a balance in representation of perceived

quality attributes that convey core values, while ensuring that the car is perceived by

customers as having high quality. At the same time, customers often have difficulty

expressing their opinions about a product with a high level of complexity, such as a

premium vehicle. Information asymmetry can significantly influence the interpretation of

core values through perceived quality and it should therefore be minimised during the

communication process to avoid an information imbalance between designers and

customers.

2.1 Communication model

Many conceptualisations of communication rely on codes. These are conventions for

communication, to convey the intended meaning to the receiver. In design research it has

K. Stylidis et al.

become evident that the focus should be placed on the interpretation of the product by

users (Crilly et al., 2008). According to Vihma’s (1995) semiotics approach, customers

see a final product as a number of signs to be interpreted. Krippendorff and Butter (1984)

suggested that a designer plays the role of a communicator, creating a range of forms,

and it is useful to view his or her relationship with the customer as part of the

communication process. Shannon (1948a, 1948b) developed a basic communication

system containing such elements as the information source, transmitter, channel,

receiver, and destination. The information source communicates different types of

messages to the destination. A transmitter produces a signal suitable for the channel, and

the encoded signal is then transferred over the channel. The receiver then decodes the

signal and recreates the message designed for the destination. This model in general

greatly influenced communication theory (Beniger, 1990).

Forslund and Söderberg (2007), drawing on Shannon’s communication model with

additional input from Crilly et al. (2004), as well as Krippendorff (1986), summarised a

process of communication as customer awareness and perception of the message deriving

from the designer. Thus, product features are transferred across the channel of the final

product. These features are then decoded by the senses (vision, touch, smell, and hearing)

and subsequently perceived by the customer. Communication of the brand core values

can be viewed with the same approach.

In this study, the described communication model is implemented in regard to the

transmission and interpretation of core values through perceived quality. Qualitative

interviews with senior and top management of VCG and VT were used to record their

visions and interpretations of the company’s core values. These semi-structured

interviews also investigated product attributes that, in the opinions of those interviewed,

represent the core values.

Crilly et al. (2004), drawing on O’Shaughnessy (1992) and Bloch (1995), describe a

traditional view of customer perception of the product as a form of “cognition and affect

followed by behaviour”. The present approach represents a communication system for

core values transfer, developed as an adaptation of the design communication process

characterised by Crilly et al. (2004), which states that “designers have intentions for how

a product should appear, the product is manufactured, placed in an environment,

perceived by the consumer and finally responded to” (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

Basic framework for design as the process of communication, adapted from

Crilly et al. (2004)

SOURCE

TRANSMITTER

DESTINATION

RECEIVER

CHANNEL

Design team,

Engineering team,

Management

(Source)

Product

(Transmitter)

Producer

Senses

(Receiver)

Consumer

Environment (Channel)

Cognition

Behaviour

Affect

Consumer response (Destination)

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

This article examines how the core values of VCG and VT are reflected through product

quality attributes, seeing them as both the source and the transmitter. This is

accomplished using a combination of exploratory research methods to understand

producer and consumer perceptions in this communication model.

2.2 Challenges for the premium segment of the automotive industry

From a communication theory perspective, brands and their products are expressed by a

number of cues or attributes. In the case of the premium segment of the automotive

industry these attributes signal quality and provide functional, value, and hedonic

benefits to the customer. The immediate problem that appears is the evaluation of the

perceived quality attributes by designers and engineers regarding their conformance to

the customer requirements. This process is challenging, mainly because of the subjective

nature of some attributes, a lack of the robust methods for capturing and translating the

voice of the customer into technical requirements, and the intuitive approach often taken

by designers (Eckert et al., 2014). Moreover, customers often find it difficult to express

their opinions about a product with a high level of complexity, such as a premium

vehicle. Given these points, designers and engineers need to strike a balance in

representing brand design attributes while ensuring that the product is perceived by

customers as having high quality.

For example, appearance is an essential product characteristic that is assessed

subjectively by both designers and customers. Muller (2001) analysed different flows of

aesthetic appreciation theory, including numerical aesthetics, minimalist aesthetics,

psychological aesthetics and semantic aesthetics. These flows provide different

viewpoints regarding aesthetics, and the present study reveals, among other things, a

trend toward simplifying complex technical systems when presenting them to the

customer. Implementation of such a strategy can lead to underestimation and

misjudgement of the final product by the customer. Berlyne’s (1974) theory, first

developed in 1960, states that optimal complexity exists and is defined as a complexity

that is most attractive to the customer. Extreme complexity at the high end of the

spectrum is perceived as being less attractive (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

The relationship between perceived complexity and the degree of attractiveness

according to Berlyne (1974) and Muller (2001), adapted from Warell (2003)

K. Stylidis et al.

Balancing the complexity of design cues that represent product quality is not the only

challenge for the automotive industry. With its historically developed excellence in

manufacturing quality, the premium automobile market segment now exhibits product

differentiation largely dependent on customer emotional responses to the particular

design (Norman, 2013; Schmitt and Quattelbaum, 2009). Identification of the attributes

linked to perceived quality and emotional design is an ongoing challenge in engineering

research and practice (Burnap et al., 2015); with a number of established and developing

methodologies, such as Kansei Engineering. Kansei affective engineering is a set of

methods that translate the subjective emotional response of the customer to the product’s

attributes and characteristics (Nagamachi, 2002). Despite these useful tools for

understanding subjective product attributes, implementation of these processes is

implicit, time-consuming, and may not provide an adequate evaluation of subjective

product features and attributes (Eckert et al., 2014).

Another important aspect related to perceived quality is the phenomenon of gestalt in

design. Gestalt was initially studied by Austrian and German psychologists in the late

19th century when they established the research field of “gestalt psychology.” Koffka

(1935) defined this principle as “the whole is ‘other’ than the sum of its parts.” Monö

et al. (1997) defined product gestalt as “a discernible whole; an arrangement of parts so

that they appear and function as a whole which is more than the sum of parts”. This

supports the idea that perceived quality attributes are not present as entirely isolated

factors, but that they influence one another. Thus, setting requirements for perceived

quality is a multidimensional task, and research is needed to establish methodologies to

measure such attribute relationships objectively.

2.3 Exploratory research methods

Interview studies are typically classified as structured, unstructured or semi-structured.

Semi-structured interviews that include structured and unstructured elements were used

in this study to understand the viewpoints of automotive industry professionals.

According to Cachia and Millward (2011), semi-structured interviews follow a

predetermined set of questions, as in structured interviews, while allowing “additional

questions… to facilitate further exploration of issues brought up by the interviewee,”

as in unstructured interviews.

To evaluate the customer side of the communication model in Figure 1, preference

information needed to be collected and analysed from a diverse set of customers

regarding a large number of attributes. One method for acquiring ordinal preferences

without overloading respondents with overly challenging tasks is maximum-difference

scaling (MaxDiff). MaxDiff offers respondents a series of “best-worst” tasks, where they

choose the “best” and “worst” option from a list of 4–7 alternatives. This method was

originally developed by Louviere (1993) to understand a respondent’s or respondent

group’s relative valuations of different products or product attributes. The main purpose

of this method is to aggregate and estimate rank-order information when there are too

many attributes for a normal rank-order survey task. According to Marley and Louviere

(2005), best-worst tasks positively affect the consistency of the responses and can be

easily understood by respondents. One limitation of MaxDiff is that it can only provide

ordinal information, for example that one attribute is more important than another,

without providing any absolute information, for instance regarding whether either of

those attributes are even significant influencers in the decision-making process (Orme,

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

2005). Therefore, the MaxDiff tasks are combined with a small number of semantic-

differential tasks that ask for the perceived importance level of specific attributes,

ranging from not at all important to the highest priority of importance

A benefit of this

combined approach over pure semantic differential questioning is that the latter option

often suffers from a lack of discrimination (Magidson et al., 2009). In other words, some

respondents will rate a plurality of the attributes as important and be distracted by the

scale, and some respondents will choose extreme values more than others.

The study procedure was first a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with

professionals to discover the key design attributes intended to influence perceived

quality, followed by a survey performed by drivers to understand the importance of those

attributes to the customers (see Figure 3). These were done separately but concurrently

for the VCG and VT applications.

Figure 3

Scheme of the case study procedure

Professional study

The first task was to perform a qualitative study on automotive industry professionals

from VCG and VT to reveal a list of product attributes that represent the three core

values of quality, safety, and environmental care. This list of perceived quality attributes

was then used in the development of two different surveys that were performed by car

and truck drivers.

3.1 Interview design

The semi-structured interview study involved six high-ranking professionals within VCG

and VT at the levels of director and vice president. Their responsibilities include areas of

perceived quality, product marketing, complete vehicle requirements definition,

environment, branding, and strategy management. All of the respondents have long track

records in the automotive industry and working experience in different markets, both in

Sweden and abroad. The main reason for the selection of interviewees was to obtain a

holistic view regarding the core values communication processes in the companies, and

perceived quality. Each of the interviews was completed face-to-face in approximately

40–60 minutes. The set of questions was developed to clearly reveal the respondents’

visions of the core values, explain communication strategies, and show how they

understand and implement core values, particularly regarding perceived quality.

Professionals from VCG and VT were asked the same types of questions, since they

share the same core values. At the beginning of the interviews, questions were relatively

open and general, for example:



Could you describe your responsibilities at the company?



What are the core values of the company?

K. Stylidis et al.



Why were those core values chosen?



How do you communicate your core values to your customers?



Do you think your customers perceive your core values through the product?

The subsequent questions focused on the relation of perceived quality attributes

regarding each of the core values (quality, safety, and environmental care):



I know that you have several product attributes that define your brand and products.

Can you explain what an attribute is and how you work with attributes?



Which attributes are more important?



Which attributes are the most communicative to the customers?

During the interviews, additional questions were occasionally asked to further explore

topics and determine perceived quality attributes more clearly. For example, “

Can you

give any examples of how your core values are represented by product attributes?

” or

“

Do you believe that your customers can interpret your core values through the

products’ attributes

?”

The interviews were voice-recorded and later transcribed to text. The text was coded

and analysed using NVivo qualitative data analysis software, a program designed to

assist with qualitative data analysis. The material was organised into topic areas

(or ‘nodes’):

(1)

core values

, i.e., general information regarding brand core values;

(2)

quality

, i.e., data related to the quality as a core value;

(3)

safety

, i.e., data related to the safety as a core value;

(4)

environment

, i.e., data related to the environmental care as a core value;

(5)

PQ attributes

, i.e., perceived quality attributes associated with the representation

of the core values; and

(6)

communication strategies

, i.e., a phenomenon derived from the interviews.

To ensure reliability data for coding and to minimise discrepancy, analysis of the content

of all interviews was performed by two independent coders. The process of data

Unitising

(Krippendorff, 2013) was conducted with the identification of content sections

relevant to the purpose of this study – identification of perceived quality attributes that

represent core values.

To measure observed agreement between coders (see Figure 4) we calculated

Kappa

– agreement coefficients (Cohen, 1960). The coding procedure included two phases

(workshops): 1) an initial phase involving coding strategy discussion, followed by 2) a

focused phase where the data was synthesised and integrated to the nodes.

According to Krippendorff’s criteria of an acceptable level of reliability, variables

with reliabilities above 0.800 are reliable. Henceforth, we believe that with the

Kappa

value of 0.9 good agreement was achieved among the involved coders during data

analysis.

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

Figure 4

Coder agreement values across the defined nodes, represented in NVivo software

3.2.1 Results from the interviews

The interviews provided valuable information regarding branding, communicative

strategies, and ways of setting requirements to fulfil core value-related needs. The data

show commonalities and discrepancies between VCG and VT, and the results were used

to formulate lists of product attributes that correspond to each of the common core

values. These lists, shown in Table 1, were used in the subsequent survey of car and truck

drivers.

Table 1

Summary of key attributes from the interviews

Quality

Safety

Environmental care

VCG

“Luxury experience”

Innovative active safety

systems

Minimising carbon

dioxide emissions

Fit and finish

Split lines

Accident prevention

Hybrid vehicles

NVH (noise, vibration

and harshness)

Drive-E powertrain

Craftsmanship

Touch and feel

HMI (human machine

interface)

Durability

Reliability

Fuel efficiency

Reliability

Maintainability

Exterior design

Robustness

Navigation systems

Low emissions

Gaps and flush

Active and passive safety

Hybrid vehicles

Fit and finish

Functionality

Comfort

HMI (human machine

interface)

Uptime

3.2.1 Volvo Car Group (VCG) interviews

VCG currently has three major pillars that form requirements for current and future

products:

created around people, contemporary luxury experience,

and

strength in every

sense

. The interviews revealed the professional opinion that all players in the premium

car segment had achieved a certain level of quality, so quality is no longer a product

K. Stylidis et al.

differentiator. VCG’s strategy regarding quality is to set a “luxury experience” through

exterior design as well as through the interior, split lines, fit and finish, NVH (noise,

vibration, and harshness), and craftsmanship. Some professionals stated that there is a

need for changing means of communication to avoid technocratic information delivery

regarding vehicle characteristics and capabilities. However, as already mentioned in the

background section, communicating quality is a challenging task, and one interviewee

cited that attempts to communicate quality in the premium vehicle segment could

sometimes be interpreted by customers as a lack of quality. This can be explained by the

customer’s expectation of high quality in the premium segment as a prerequisite.

Another important factor is the customisation of the car for different markets, as

perceived quality is understood differently in different markets. Although VCG is a

global company, Sweden is an important segment, where it achieves a market share of

more than 22%. Volvo is perceived as a mass brand in Sweden, while in the rest of the

world Volvo is positioned as a premium brand. This creates a conflict for designers,

according to one of the interviewees. Today, Volvo produces simplified versions of its

cars for the Swedish market, while the global products are more advanced to fit the high-

quality segment. Therefore, there is a need to understand how to communicate

Scandinavian design and values to the rest of the world more effectively. Many of these

critical decisions are solely based on the designer’s experience.

Finding

– Endorsed brands and feature clustering communicates product quality

In order to improve perceived quality, VCG has created

endorsed brands

(Aaker and

Joachimsthaler, 2000) and

clustering

. Individual features are difficult to communicate, so

VCG combines them into clusters. One example that displays such an approach is the

sound system. VCG has several sound packages that range from basic to premium,

together with well-known sound system brands such as Bowers and Wilkins and

Harman/Kardon. These brands already have their own strong reputations on the market,

which can raise the perceived quality of Volvo accordingly. Another example is a

collaboration with Philips regarding interior lighting design in the vehicles. There is an

additional idea to frame different features together that appeal to particular target

audiences as a vehicle made to fulfil their purposes and support their everyday activities,

such as sport or winter packages. With clustering in mind, VCG has created a number of

its own endorsed brands, such as City Safety (auto brake technology), BLIS (Blind Spot

Information System), Sensus (HMI functionality), and Drive-E (engine architecture)

powertrain. There is a strong belief that such an approach can simplify customer

understanding of technology and increase perceived quality.

One important and emerging factor in perceived quality is the Human Machine

Interface (HMI). A well-designed HMI can help avoid driver distractions and reduce

accidents. VCG sees further development of HMI systems as another opportunity to

differentiate their products in the market.

Finding

– Shift towards communication of active safety systems and assistive

approach

Volvo cars traditionally have a strong reputation for safety, and safety is not

surprisingly one of the company’s core values. One VCG professional claimed: “We

could stop talking about safety and customers will still have that perception.” However,

the reputation is based on passive safety factors, such as the chassis and structure, and

today’s market emphasises active safety features, such as stability control and danger

detection systems. This new approach to active safety is to prevent accidents from

occurring rather than only developing systems that help minimise injuries to occupants

when an accident happens. VCG is changing the dialogue from “it protects you” to “it

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

makes you an even better driver.” The goal is to communicate safety in a more

supportive way. Implementation of VCG’s safety strategy involves a shift towards

innovative active safety systems, such as City Safety, pedestrian detection, and lane

departure warning.

Finding

– A key component of environmental care communication is conformance

to specifications with low running costs

Environmental care is most prominently

represented by the Drive-E powertrain family, which is known for low emissions. VCG’s

strategy for communicating environmental care focuses mainly on reducing carbon

dioxide emissions. Based on EU legislation that sets mandatory emission reductions, the

company seeks to meet customer demand by offering vehicles that emit less than 100

grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre (CO

/km) driven. Through such specifications, the

company aims to communicate “premium vehicle with low emissions,” and as a

consequence also communicate low running costs. Moreover, VCG is developing

advanced plug-in hybrid vehicles that communicate environmental care while still

delivering comprehensive performance.

3.2.2 Volvo Trucks (VT) interviews

VT communicates five primary attributes to its customers. These attributes represent the

company’s core values:

uptime

innovation

care

fuel efficiency

and

driver environment

VT takes a different approach than VCG, since customer demands are more concrete and

the relationship is most often business-to-business.

Finding

– Quality in trucks is represented mainly by reliability and robustness

The

VT interviewees mentioned that customers today are highly aware of many of the

mechanical and technological properties of trucks. Quality in trucks on a physical level is

represented by durability and reliability. The interviews reveal that “quality impression”

is what is perceived by the customer regarding quality. Quality impression contains

robustness, where the most important part is absence of free play in the parts of the truck.

This also includes gaps and flush, with emphasis on consistent gaps between parts,

surface fit and finish represented by homogeneity among the parts and colours, as well as

functionality and comfort impression, which includes proper sound feedback that suits

the operation. In a similar way to VCG, VT has created endorsed brands to increase

perceived quality of its products and technologies. Professionals say that one of the

biggest challenges for truck companies today is to offer a premium service, and uptime

and aftersales service are of high importance to their customers. The HMI also plays a

significant role in perceived quality for trucks; the dashboard must have a reliable

interface and should work even if the customer is wearing work gloves. Indicators of the

major truck functions should be visible, and VT accumulates information that is

important for a driver in what they call the “driver information display”.

Finding

– Safety in trucks is communicated with security and emotions

As VT’s

communication strategy translates quality into benefits; the company seeks to

communicate safety in connection with emotions. Professionals believe that customers

want to feel secure inside a truck. From their perspective, the most important features

after safety in a truck are reliability and maintainability. Navigation systems as part of the

HMI also play a role in fulfilling safety demands, by minimising driver distraction. These

features, along with active and passive safety systems, contribute to a communication

image of VT with safety as one of its core values.

K. Stylidis et al.

Finding

– A communication platform that helps owners highlight environmental

friendliness of their vehicles

Environmental care is a core value that is challenging to

transmit through truck design. VT created an environmental communication platform that

aims to market the environmental friendliness of its trucks, focusing on emissions,

energy, and climate. VT’s product range includes a methane-diesel truck that features

lower emissions and fuel consumption in comparison to regular diesel-powered trucks. It

is believed that this truck is perceived by the customers as environmentally friendly, and

by owning such a truck customers contribute effort to society and environmental care. An

interview with a Swedish Volvo truck fleet owner confirmed that he felt this way about

the methane-diesel trucks in his fleet. Fleet owners want to show their customers that

they use environmentally friendly vehicles.

Professionals from VT have found that the best ways to communicate that visually

are a slightly different design of the cabin and colours that represent environmental care.

Environmental care is still not highly perceived in trucks, but there appears to be high

demand from the customer side in Sweden (and perhaps elsewhere). There is also a

demand for hybrid trucks operating in the city. The study revealed that professionals are

aware of these issues and are continuously looking for improvements in these areas. Data

analysis of the interviews shows that VT has a trend toward clustering its technical

packages in the same way as VCG. Regarding quality, the trend toward simplification

has focused on developing customer services and customer relations.

3.3 Summary of the VCG and VT interviews

The interview study highlighted communication strategies and perceived quality

attributes associated with the core values of these two companies from the professionals’

point of view. As described above, VCG and VT professionals avoid “technocratic”

forms of product presentation with too many technical details. Instead, there is a change

to “clusters” or packages that are understandable to customers without a technical

background. This leads to the creation of endorsed brands around vehicle manufacturers

and, in some cases, collaboration with third-party brands with strong reputations.

A summary of the main features discussed in both sets of interviews is shown in

Table 1. A list of the more specific product attributes that communicate each of the

companies’ core values is provided in Table 2.

Table 2

List of attributes and affiliated companies and core values

Cars

Trucks

Abbr

Attribute

Abr

Active braking

Acc

Acceleration time

ACr

Adaptive cruise control system

Aer

Aerodynamic exterior shape

Air

Air freshness

BrN

Volvo brand name / Brand of truck

BSD

Blind spot detection system

CO2

Carbon dioxide emissions

Com

Comfort

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

Table 2

List of attributes and affiliated companies and core values (continued)

Cars

Trucks

Abbr

Attribute

CSF

Colours and surface finish

CSS

City safety system (low speed crash

avoidance)

Dig

Digital speedometer

DnM

Durability and maintainability

DrE

Drive-E (efficient engine technology)

DST

Dynamic stability and traction control

EIP

Energy absorbing instrument panel

EnN

Engine noise

ESP

Electronic stability program (ESP)

ESW

Energy-absorbing steering wheel

Exh

Exhaust

ExN

External noise

Fcn

Functionality

FCW

Forward collision warning

FDB

Feedback on driving behaviour

FPD

Free from production defects

FuC

Fuel consumption

GpE

Uniformity and size of gaps between

exterior parts (such as doors and hood)

GpI

Uniformity and size of gaps between interior

parts (such as on instrument panel)

HAS

Home safe and approach lighting

ICA

Inflatable curtain airbags

IIS

Intuitiveness of infotainment system

(e.g., navigation and stereo controls)

InL

Interior lighting

LCS

Lane change support

LDB

Locally designed and built

LDW

Lane departure warning system

LFW

Low-friction wheels

Log

Feature-specific logos (e.g., hybrid, methane

diesel, stereo brand name)

Lwt

Light weight

MEx

Minimalistic exterior “look” (not too many

lines or details)

Mir

Mirrors

NLI

Noises inside the car (e.g., squeaks, rattles)

K. Stylidis et al.

Table 2

List of attributes and affiliated companies and core values (continued)

Cars

Trucks

Abbr

Attribute

NLO

Noise level inside the car (e.g., from wind,

engine)

ORC

Off-road capability

PBS

Presence of blind spots/visibility

PNM

Presence of natural materials (like real wood

and leather)

PPS

Pedestrian protection system

PRM

Presence of real materials (e.g., chrome, Al.)

Rec

Recyclability

Rel

Reliability

Res

Resale or recyclability

Rmy

Roominess

Seat comfort

SDL

Sound of door latch

SEA

Stylish external appearance

Ser

Customer care and service quality

SIP

Side impact protection system

SRM

Scratch resistance of materials

Size

Size of car

ToC

Tightness of controls (e.g., steering wheel,

gear shifter, pedals)

TPM

Tire pressure monitoring

TSB

Three-point safety belt with electronic lock

Wgt

Weight of car

WRW

Water repellent windshield

Note:

Core values:

= quality,

= safety,

= environmental care

Driver study

The specific product attributes described during the interviews with the professionals

were compiled into comprehensive lists of car and truck attributes that correspond to

each core value, shown in Table 2. In essence, these attributes are the outcome of the

content analysis of the interviews (see Sub-section 3.1), compiled in a form suitable for

the survey design. Using these lists, two surveys were developed to understand how

drivers of cars and trucks perceive and value these core values and attributes. The

surveys were conducted online, with a Swedish sample group recruited from a panel

through a market research firm. Responses were collected from 67 Volvo car drivers and

18 current or former truck drivers, 14 of whom had most recently driven a Volvo truck.

After asking several qualification questions to ensure that respondents were comfortable

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

with an English survey, lived in Sweden, and drove a Volvo car or a semi-trailer truck (of

any brand), both surveys began by asking free-response questions about what descriptive

words came to mind when the drivers thought about their car/truck and each of the core

values (quality, safety, and environmental care). There was also a question asking them

to select as many of the following words that they associated with their car/truck: fun,

environmentally friendly, safe, elegant, dynamic, sophisticated, rigid, high-quality, and

versatile.

This was followed by a set of semantic-differential questions to understand whether

certain attributes were deemed important for each of the core values. These questions

were needed to anchor the ordinal rankings that would subsequently be found in the

maximum-difference scaling (MaxDiff) section. This can reveal whether one attribute is

more important than another, but not whether the attribute is minimally or highly

important. Three attributes were presented for each core value. These were chosen

because of their perceived importance by the professional interviewees, and the attributes

differed between cars and trucks. These attributes are listed in Table 3, and an example of

a set of semantic-differential questions is shown in Figure 5.

Table 3

Attributes used in semantic-differential questions

Cars

Quality

Safety

Environmental care



“Feeling” when

sitting inside



Acceleration time



Stylish exterior



Pedestrian protection

system



Weight of car



Side curtain airbags



Fuel consumption



Carbon dioxide

emissions



Locally designed and

built

Trucks



Reliability/uptime



Sound of door

latch



Comfort



Visibility



Lane keeping support



Tire pressure

monitoring



Fuel consumption



Lightweight materials



Exhaust

Figure 5

Semantic-differential questions corresponding to cars and quality

Following each set of semantic-differential questions, a set of MaxDiff choice tasks was

given for the attributes related to each of the core values. This was done to ascertain a

rank ordering of the attributes for each respondent. An example MaxDiff choice task is

shown in Figure 6.

K. Stylidis et al.

Figure 6

Example MaxDiff choice task for Volvo car drivers regarding quality

In each MaxDiff choice task the respondent was required to select one “most important”

feature and one “least important” feature. The ensuing choice tasks presented the

respondent with different permutations of the attributes listed in Table 2, and the number

of choice tasks in each series was adjusted to the number of attributes. The permutations

and numbers of questions were automated using the Sawtooth Software package (Orme,

2005).

4.1 Volvo car drivers

The survey first asked the drivers to select words that they associated with their Volvos

from a list of 9 words. This was intended to identify if the core values in general were

getting through in the designs. Of the 67 drivers, the responses showed that 50 thought of

their Volvos as “high-quality”, 61 as “safe”, and 20 as “environmentally friendly”. This

indicates that the first two core values are being communicated to the customers

significantly more effectively than the last one. This was not a surprising result given that

the professionals themselves focused less on environmental care than they did on quality

and safety in the semi-structured interviews.

Next, the survey focused on each of the core values sequentially, first asking for an

importance rating for three attributes in each category, and then performing a MaxDiff

ranking exercise comprised of 6–12 questions each (depending on the total number of

attributes to be rank-ordered). The importance ratings were evaluated on a semantic-

differential scale, where an evaluation of 1 means “not important at all” and a score of 5

means the “highest priority”. The average results from these questions are shown as

insets in Figures 7, 8 and 9. Since all of these averages were above the middle option (3),

we can believe that the rankings for these attributes in the MaxDiff exercise should

reflect attributes that are important for evaluating products with respect to the three core

values.

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

Figure 7

Importance of the quality attributes for Volvo car and trucks drivers (see Table 2 for

abbreviation key)

Figure 8

Importance of the safety attributes for Volvo car and trucks drivers (see Table 2 for

abbreviation key)

K. Stylidis et al.

Figure 9

Importance of the environmental care attributes for Volvo car and trucks drivers

(see Table 2 for abbreviation key)

The results from the MaxDiff questions presented to car owners are summarised in

Figures 7, 8 and 9, and show the top ten average attributes that are most important to

customers regarding each core value.

4.2 Truck drivers

A similar survey was conducted with a group of 18 truck drivers using the truck-specific

attributes from Table 2. These attributes were deemed important to truck design based on

the interviews with professionals at VT. They were first asked the same association

questions as the car owners, and of the 14 Volvo truck drivers 10 thought of their truck as

“high quality”, 9 as “safe”, and 5 as “environmentally-friendly”. This is similar to the

proportions stated by the Volvo car drivers.

The semantic differential scale importance ratings and MaxDiff rank-order results for

the truck drivers are also shown in Figures 7, 8, and 9. In contrast to the car drivers’

importance ratings, where the three core values seemed to be valued as approximately

equally important, Figure 9 shows how the truck drivers valued environmental care-

related attributes much lower than quality and safety attributes. In fact, fuel consumption

is rated close to “not at all important” for truck drivers, whereas car drivers placed the

same attribute closer to a “highest priority”. This is possibly because car drivers are

typically responsible for paying for the fuel that is consumed, whereas truck drivers may

not have that concern.

One counterintuitive result from this study is that while fuel consumption receives a

lower rating from the truck drivers than lightweight materials and exhaust on the

semantic-differential scale, fuel consumption is ranked higher than the other two in the

MaxDiff ranking. This is most likely a result of how the respondents interpreted the two

forms of questions, as well as perhaps the low reliability of the MaxDiff method with

small sample sizes. Similarly, the higher spreads in the GTT results are likely also due to

the smaller sample size.

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

Discussion

The semi-structured interviews with VCG and VT professionals revealed several

interesting trends. Both companies position themselves as premium brands. In this

segment of the market they believe that quality has increased to the point that it is no

longer a differentiator among products or brands in the premium segment. Professionals

also believe that Volvo’s reputation for safety is highly perceived by the customers, and

the quantitative survey confirms this. Both companies have the common goal to be

leaders in this area. Today, VCG and VT are seeking to achieve this through the

implementation of active safety packages in cars and trucks. However, there are

significant differences in their definitions of quality and environmental care. The main

quality issues for VCG are “zero-defects”, customisation, and the use of endorsed brands.

VT communicates quality primarily through reliability and durability. Another key point

is environmental care, which VCG communicates through the endorsed brand Drive-E

and the concept of a “premium vehicle with low emissions”. VT communicates

environmental care by focusing on emissions, energy, and climate within the framework

of an

Environmental care platform

It appears that the nature of designing and assessing for high-perceived quality is

complex, and professionals must know which aspects to focus their efforts on to meet the

quality demands of their customers. The interview studies revealed that exterior design

plays a significant role in communicating quality to both car and truck customers. In the

case of VCG this is expressed as Scandinavian design, and for VT it is part of the

innovation platform they communicate. However, the level of importance of exterior

design for perceived quality remains unclear.

Difficulties in objectively prioritising product attributes can influence a company’s

communication strategies and potentially reduce perceived quality. This can negatively

affect the perception of brand core values by customers. Interviewees from both

companies clearly stated the need for robust methods of perceived quality assessment to

aid in their attribute design prioritisation.

The rapidly increasing development of HMI systems in both cars and trucks will be

expanded and developed even further in the future, and its role is expected to change

from a supportive feature to an actively perceived quality component. The professionals

interviewed believe that touchscreens in vehicle HMI systems will become more

prominent in cars and trucks and help to unify the infotainment and communication

systems of the vehicle. Again, the means for assessing the importance of HMI systems

remain subjective at present.

This study has shown how industry professionals attempt to communicate core values

and technical details to their potential customers. Interviews revealed how engineers are

seeking to shift from a technocratic way of presentation into an emotional appeal that

meets customer needs. VCG expresses such emotions through perceived quality

attributes led by three pillars: contemporary luxury experience, strength in every

sense, and created around people. VT communicates five major attributes to its

customers: uptime, innovation, after sale care, fuel efficiency and driver environment

(see Figure 10).

K. Stylidis et al.

Figure 10

Key perceived quality attributes that are communicated to customers by professionals

VT professionals revealed that they expend significant effort on improving the quality

impression of their trucks. Like VCG, they seek an emotional response from customers

by creating sub-brands and using feature clusters. Yet the challenge lies in which vehicle

attributes design engineers should focus on to better match customer perceptions of

quality. While there is no established method or tool for objective justification of

perceived quality requirements, the present study shows how this can be done using a

combination of exploratory research methods. A better understanding of perceived

quality attributes will benefit the abilities of professionals to truly understand customer

needs and demands.

The quantitative survey of drivers confirmed some of the trends highlighted by

professionals, while also providing important insights into how customers value different

attributes and assess vehicle quality, safety, and environmental care. For both driver

segments, reliability and durability/maintainability were in the top six in every category

they appeared in, showing the importance of these characteristics for all of the core

values. This contrasts with the discussions with professionals, who did not stress the

importance of such attributes but instead focused on functions and user experience.

Some of the key differences between the perceptions of VCG professionals and

drivers include uniformity among the parts, gap and flush, and surface finish. This likely

relates to the high quality among all players in the premium segment of the market, as

customers have grown to expect visibly flawless vehicles from this segment. As a result,

the customer perceives quality as a given feature. In a similar way, VT perceives very

Transforming brand core values into perceived quality

low customer attention to the exterior lines, gaps, sounds and lightweight materials used

in trucks. Overall, such results can also be explained by a “quality perception gap”

phenomenon that exists between manufacturers and customers (Steenkamp, 1990); with

significant differences in beliefs regarding product quality between these two groups.

It should be noted that the results of this study are limited to two Swedish automotive

manufacturers under the Volvo brand, and further work would be necessary to extend

these findings to other companies or industries. Similar studies with other automotive

companies in the premium and non-premium segments could reveal more generalisable

results for the automotive industry. To advance the designer perspective, compiling

knowledge not only from senior-level professionals but also from mid-range engineers

and designers could help to improve the general understanding of product attributes and

how they are designed. On the consumer side there are opportunities to further

investigate the importance of the perceived quality attributes to customers, perhaps using

different types of stated-choice or revealed-choice methods through surveys or

experiments with human subjects. Extensions of this work in other industries can support

the development of improved general design practices for reconciling the perceptions of

values between designers and consumers.

Conclusions

This study has revealed current trends regarding the visions of Volvo professionals of

their core values, and has demonstrated how customers also perceive and prioritise those

values and the attributes through which they are expressed. Key discrepancies have been

found and discussed regarding their implications for communication and perception

differences among professionals and customers. This understanding helps to reduce the

gap between the perceptions of professionals and customers, which can lead to improved

product development for customer value and sales in these markets. Although Volvo has

the same three core values in both companies – quality, safety, and environmental care –

the results show that these values are communicated in different ways for the two

different markets of cars and trucks. The systematic approach presented in this paper to

elicit these preferences can serve as a model for future studies that seek to understand

how to better communicate core values in different markets.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the six professionals from Volvo Car Group and Volvo Trucks

for their time and thoughtful responses during the interviews. This work carried out at the

Wingquist Laboratory VINN Excellence Centre within the Area of Advance – Production

at the Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, Sweden, was supported by the

Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA). That support is

gratefully acknowledged.

K. Stylidis et al.

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