Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Now you’ll must be thinking why is marketing important for electronics/engines etc etc???
Well in simple terms marketing can do wonders by selling Ice to the Eskimos and canned fish to the fisherman. The right marketing tool at the right place can give life and meaning to steel, yeah that’s right STEEL , engines as well as a gear box. And what’s the point of manufacturing a multimillion dollar Lamborghini Aventador or an Audi R8 if it doesn’t sell?
Yeah so basically marketing is creating that urge in a person in order to purchase that ride weather to be used as a collector’s item to be parked in a multimillion dollar Mansion , or to actually ride it and feel the rush…………………of adrenaline and the thrill of all the forces felt while driving.
Now why is marketing important for a car manufacturer??? In simple terms if not for marketers a spare part of a Mercedes Benz C63 AMG would be the same price as a Toyota or KIA spare part. Some might say it’s prestige and performance as to why the Merc Spare part is high in price…..Bullshit, The Nissan Skyline GTR (R35) is way better than the Mercedes Benz C63 AMG and is still around the same price range. Oh yeah!! marketing indeed has the ability to create prestige as well as to banish it in an instance in so many ways.
Hence it is important for any manufacturer to get established as a Brand by creating a thing called Brand Equity (for the people who don’t know……. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable and superior in quality and reliability. Mass marketing campaigns can also help to create brand equity. Yeah simple as that!!!)
Looking at the Honda Civic 1999 , why does every tom , dick and harry own it?? :S , Simply because of the performance and the ability to Modify . Now for example ; if by any chance this ( the Civic ) was owned by Mercedes Benz they would have a limited edition which is also a promotional strategy to keep the price high. Because if the price is high the Demand would be less ( Less demand = Less people + More unique = High Prestige) and if by any chance the price goes low then the Mercedes marketing team would create a demand in such away by even customizing the vehicles geographically and according to the Target group.
Lets look @ Fords Marketing strategy!!! , it’s more of a product placement (Product placement in simple in placing a product in a season , reality show , movie , songs , E.g – Black eyed peas songs and Sony TV’s) in series such as “ The Amazing Race “where 2 customized Ford Mustangs were given away to the winners of the ”Master your mustangs” Contest.
Hence by just giving two cars away , Fords sales and awareness about the personal coustomization via the website (http://www.ford.com/cars/mustang/ ) would have defineatly been increased.Well call me living under a rock…… personally I didn’t know that a Mustangs can be coustomized via the web just like a laptop if not for Amazing Race.
When we Glance at BMW in the early days and now adays the Astron Martin what particular film comes to your mind???........................................................well it obviosly has to be 007 , Bond , James BOND. When a marketer places the product in a film they do indeed expect the cars to be the 1st choice purchase interlinked with the advertisements posted up on the prestigious magazines such as HI , Vogue , Vanity Fair , LMD etc . hence just like Merc and BMW cater to the 20% of the worlds population who brings in 80% of the revenue. Toyota , KIA and Honda cater to the other end of 80% of the population who only brings in 20% of the worlds income.
If toyota and KIA producers automobiles that meet the performance of the Audi R8 , Lamborgini reventon etc without letting it Drown, using an effective marketing strategy like Astron Martin can aid toyota and KIA to reach the 20% of the population who brings in the 80% of the income which will make them indirectly compeate with the same Target group as the soo called “prestigious cars”.
And to be clear……effecttive marketing is not to Rename Toyota as Lexus and Nisan as Infinity in order to compete, but it is to have the same brand equity (The name nisan from America to China throughout the whole word ) that’s just like Naming your Dell , Hoochin to be sold in China…... I mean whats the point???? . Cars are not food to be renamed and labled according to countries like the KFC masala chicken in India , and Kotthu in Srilanka. At the end of the day cars are recognized /Driven by performance and not by the name.If the performance is marketed properly there is no need to change the name and after all changing a name is another cost to the company.
As Said before this not only applies to Cars but also to others such as spare parts , electronic items and engines which can be marketed or pushed through to the agents via b2b ( Business to Business ) marketing strategies which will be touched upon articles yet to come.
And in Conclusion, If Performance is better why let Prestige Drown it!!!
By Jeremy Sahabandu
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