Building a brand with a strong identity. WIn 2009 we continued to expand our brand awareness and intensify our marketing and distribution activities. The identity of our brand is fed from the values with which the company has grown over ten years: a pioneering spirit combined with strategic continuity and social responsibility coupled with economic success. Translating these distinguishing characteristics into customer benefits, we communicated the performance promise of our “Made by SolarWorld” products as follows in 2009: innovation combined with durability and safety, sustainability all the way from production to recycling coupled with high profitability. The value-added promise of our brand is also based on a well-coordinated range of systems and services offering the right customer solutions from roof-mounted systems through to large-scale plants. Products “Made by SolarWorld”

According to a determination of the brand value by Semion Brand Broker, the value of the SolarWorld brand was € 25 million (previous year: € 24m), ranking 47th among the most valuable German brands. According to the survey carried out by Semion Brand Broker, we are therefore Germany’s most valuable solar brand.

Our brand image in the USA thrives on an original American success story spanning approximately 30 years that started with the ARCO Solar company. As early as at the end of the 1970s, our predecessor had a production site at the SolarWorld location in Camarillo, California. In the USA, the SolarWorld brand stands for a pioneering spirit, experience and continuity. “Made in USA” is a key argument in this market. SolarWorld is deeply rooted in the USA, a phenomenon which provides us with a competitive edge today since it creates a stable basis for trust and acceptance among market participants and our customers in the light of stronger sensitivity concerning the origin of products that is observed in the USA. 

Brand investments stepped up – demand effects for our group and our customers. Investments in the brand in the form of ads, TV commercials, leaflets and other advertising material increased by almost a factor of five to € 10 million. Our aim is to create awareness and transparency of the benefit promise of the products sold under the SolarWorld brand among end consumers. While the focus of our marketing activities in recent years was on sales promotion for the wholesale and retail trade, amidst increasing competition we are now consolidating brand awareness all the way to end consumers. The demand effect generated by the purchasing behavior of private or commercial roof owners not only increased our group-wide sales of modules, it also increased the revenues of our SolarWorld specialist partners. They confirmed to us in an internal customer survey that more and more end customers were asking for the brand by name when they bought modules or kits. While in 2008 it was about 81 per cent who “frequently” or “always” asked for the manufacturer this share already went up to 89 per cent in the year 2009. In most cases the customers specifically asked for the SolarWorld brand.

In the year under review, our marketing expenses focused on Germany and Europe, followed by the USA. Our main activities in the USA comprised trade fairs, advertisements and direct mailing to end customers, in particular in California. With these measures which are tailored to specific target groups and markets, we have adjusted to the market situation in the USA characterized by many different promotion schemes. 

In Europe we launched a full-year advertising campaign under the heading “Savings Account on German Roofs”, emphasizing a sustainable investment in the form of a solar power plant on a home owner’s roof, and thus providing an answer to the growing skepticism among private investors concerning traditional financial products. By means of mailing to end customers, supplements and ads in target group media, we selectively addressed home owners, farmers and decision-makers – and hence prospective end customers – in Germany and subsequently in the young solar markets France, Belgium, and Italy. The advertisements generated a total of around 48 million contacts – as determined through the print run and the number of advertisements booked.

In addition, SolarWorld has been sponsoring the popular German soccer national league team 1. FC Köln since the summer of 2009. In this framework we launched a broadly based end customer campaign and benefited from the high degree of awareness of Lukas Podolski, an FC player and member of the national German soccer team.

Efficiency control – increase in brand awareness. We use the results of market research activities to control the success of our brand investments.

According to the “Brand monitor 2009/10” of EuPD Research, an internationally operating B2B market research institute, SolarWorld is by far the best-known German solar company (7.1 per cent) in unaided recalls. The second most frequently mentioned competitor only accounted for 2.8 per cent. In aided recalls on brand awareness, SolarWorld ranked second at 24.9 per cent, very close behind a competitor that was indicated as “known” by 25 per cent of respondents, but which builds its traditionally strong awareness through other products.

In the past few years we have continually increased the awareness of our SolarWorld brand in Germany, more than doubling it since the first survey in 2007.

We achieved a further significant increase in our brand awareness, above all in the year under review. While in Brand Monitor 2009 (survey period: 47th calendar week 2008 up to 3rd calendar week 2009) we recorded unaided awareness of 5.8 per cent. Our unaided awareness was 7.1 per cent in the survey for Brand Monitor 2009/2010 (survey period: 42nd up to 44th calendar week 2009). Aided brand awareness also increased substantially in the course of the year: it rose from 17 per cent (Brand Monitor 2009) to 24.9 per cent (Brand Monitor 2009/2010).

A representative study accompanying our TV campaign, carried out across Germany by the Frankfurt-based institute MMA Media Markt Analysen, also showed that we achieved a strong increase in awareness in the year under review. In the pre-wave survey (carried out in the 26th calendar week 2009), SolarWorld still ranked second with unaided brand awareness of 9.1 per cent, behind a competitor spontaneously named by 18.1 per cent of respondents. Until the main wave survey (36th to 39th calendar week 2009), we more than doubled our unaided brand awareness and ranked first at 18.9 per cent. In the aided brand awareness survey, we reached 14.3 per cent in the pre-wave, and increased this level to 31.7 per cent in the main wave.

A survey carried out by online panel www.photovoltaikumfrage.de also reconfirmed the level of high brand awareness of SolarWorld in Germany. Both in the aided survey (1,342 entries) and the unaided survey (741 entries), SolarWorld achieved the highest level of awareness. The online survey was carried out from August to September. A study by the Bielefeld-based SOKO Institute for Social Research and Communication (survey period March to May), also showed that we have the highest level of awareness of all German solar companies.

Media equivalence– steady continuation of PR-activities. In the period under review, we continued our intensive Public Relations and press activities, providing the public with comprehensive information through our corporate news, at conferences, trade fairs and events as well as through one-on-ones and telephone interviews. In 2009, a total of 8,029 (2008: 12,852, 2007: 7,796) entries were recorded in TV, print and online media. This was a key factor in order to increase awareness of the SolarWorld brand among prospective customers, investors and the public at large.

In the year under review, the media equivalence value in Germany was € 58.03 million (2008: € 91.38m, 2007: € 14.56m). This value represents the value of all editorial contributions published about SolarWorld, converted into the advertising value of a commercial advertisement.

In the year under review we increased our TV presence: there were 295 (previous year: 193) entries. Our TV audience thus totaled 42.80 million viewers. At 5,579 entries, most entries were in the online segment, followed by the print media (2,155 entries). We were mentioned in national newspapers such as the Handelsblatt, Financial Times Deutschland, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung or Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Solar2World – not-for-profit commitment stepped up. In line with our vision “Build a SolarWorld”, one of the core claims of our brand is to establish unlimited, fair energy supplies across the world. This is what we support in the framework of our not-for-profit commitment “Solar2World”. The group supports aid projects in emerging economies and developing countries with off-grid solar power solutions. www.solarworld.de In the period under review, Solar2World projects with a total capacity of around 114 (previous year: 53) kWp were implemented in developing countries – primarily in Africa – in cooperation with various project partners and with the voluntary support of our employees. Since our activities were launched, we have completed projects with a total output of around 191 kWp under our Solar2World program. We are currently planning further projects with a total capacity of around 50 kWp.

Apart from Solar2World, SolarWorld supported the first “Football for Hope Center” in 2009 in the run-up to the Soccer World Cup 2010. The “Football for Hope” movement is part of the FIFA campaign “20 Centers for 2010”, in the framework of which 20 health, education and football centers are to be built in Africa www.streetfootballworld.org/football-for-hope-de SolarWorld is planning to install additional Sun TV stations in southern Africa by the start of the World Cup next summer. With this voluntary commitment we will provide population groups, who otherwise would not be able to take part for lack of a grid connection, with access to the World Cup. At the same time, we demonstrate the multiple applications of modern and sustainable solar power technology.