Marcas e divisão de trabalho na rede de produção automobilística: o caso MAN Latin America.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze how brand image management participates in the multiple dimensions of corporate strategy, from conception to product manufacturing, through advertising. To this end, the case of MAN Latin America, a Volkswagen Group company that markets trucks and buses of both MAN and Volkswagen brands, is presented. Its plant, located in the municipality of Resende, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, was built from the modular consortium model. This article seeks to demonstrate how there is a division of labor for which the parts supplier companies are directly responsible for the manufacturing of the vehicles, while MAN Latin America focuses on information control, marketing, design, research and development (R&D) and, at the intersection of these activities, brand management. Such a division  seems to be part of the reconfiguration trend of global production  networks (GPN) whereby the concentration of brands, intellectual property and other intangible assets are increasingly important for capitalist accumulation.