Honda Case free essay sample

1. Does adapting the promotion of its motors vehicles to suit each country’s culture make sense for Honda? No, adapting the promotion of Honda’s motor vehicle to suit every culture does not make sense. The adaption of different promotions for each country will be useful for improving the sales of the motor vehicles of Honda. The company spend just a little time and money in the promotion which is not good and effective. Every country is different and has a specific culture, different values and believes. All consumers have various tastes and preferences of promotion method. If promotion are specially designed for one county’s consumers, not only the consumers will be more willing to buy the products but also the image of Honda will be improved. Thus, Honda should responding to that culture difference and promote the vehicle in a convenient matching and adequate way for every country and its culture. 2. It is wise for Hondas to market its products the same way in every country? It is not a good idea for Honda to adopt uniform marketing practices in all countries in Europe. There are some worlds brands that are marketed the same way through the worlds like some examples as Coca Cola and Mc Donald’s. Some people argue that we have a total globalization of markets and the world is becoming a small place. So people all over the world have very similar needs. Personally, I do not agree on that because a company should include the cultural differences into the promotion. It is not only changing the name, package or the color of a product – a company should get a real deep understanding of the different preferences of their customers. So it is not wise for Honda to promote the product in a same way. Some countries have a law-context culture, others has a high-context ones. It differs from every country and culture to another one. To do successful advertising and promotion you need to know who your customer is and what the specific culture of these persons is. You need to get a deeper insight of the target group to promote the products effectively and to respond successful to them. The existing promotion campaigns of Honda in UK, Italy, Germany and France are common including the use of Internet and customer’s word of mouth marketing. Honda spends less for promotion as they believes that the participation in Formula One racing is already enough for the promotion point. The website made by Honda like the Jazz model provided a lot of details information about the car. For the countries with a low context culture like Germany, it will be more successful to promote the product simply providing more information. In some instances, promotional strategies designed for France/Italy, Germany, or the United Kingdom likely will be appropriate for other countries (i. e. a promotional strategy designed for Germany likely would be effective in Scandinavian countries). However, this does not imply that environmental concerns should be ignored in other marketing regions in Europe. For other countries with a high context culture this advertising bases with lots of information is not useful! All people are culturally conditioned, and culture affects how people in different countries respond to promotional messages and advertising. Therefore, cultural similarities and dissimilarities across countries provide bases for the development of promotion strategies. 3. Is pricing its vehicle similar to the competition a good strategy for Honda? It is clearly to see, that Honda is a qualitative lower manufacture e. g. than Peugeot, VW or Audi. Therefore, pricing in the same way like the other more qualitative higher manufacturers (of course only in the mind-set of the customers), is not really a clever strategy. The customers, especially those who think that Honda has a lower quality than others, can get the feeling of a not trustful pricing strategy from Honda. People think that spending the money for a Peugeot or BMW vehicle is justified because of the vehicles brand image, but the same price for a less significant car from Honda is not warrantable. Honda’s Jazz (13,800 â‚ ¬) costs nearly the same like the Peugeot’s 307 (13,250 â‚ ¬), but the Peugeot’s ones it the most sold car in the European in 2007 with 437,505 no. of cars! This it related to the brand image. Honda has a low brand image and a low breadth of product for the customers in Europe like Daewoo and Hyundai. Peugeot for example has a brand image like Audi or Volvo, so the target group think that the â€Å"high price† is reasonable for the Peugeot’s 307 (but not for the Jazz). Honda should work on their brand image and if the image provides a qualitative bases for a similar pricing strategy than the prices could be nearly the same like the competition. 4. Should Honda change its product mix from country to country? Yes, Honda should definitely change the product mix a bit from every country to country due to the cultural differences. The different cultures includes different needs and wants from customers and an unequal image of a product. Therefore, some changes of the vehicles or extras included into the product in those different markets could help to increase the sales. Also the promotion has to be considered. The customers have different approaches and the advertising strategy should fit to the different product mix. In relation to the issue of changing product mix from country-to-country in the European market, one must realize that Honda already does that with 2 specially models for the United Kingdom, 16 models in Germany, 11 models in Italy, and 9 models in France. But not only having different models in each country is enough, the advertising for those special low or high context cultures must fit the products specifications to be successful. 5. Is distributing its motor vehicle together with its motorcycles a good strategy for Honda? The image of Honda’s vehicle and motorcycles is nearly the same. But I guess to gain more market share and beat the other vehicle competitors with a better brand image for the customers, Honda should separating its distribution from the motorcycles. The brand Honda cannot stand for a qualitative vehicle brand when the motorcycles will be also promote at the same dealer and â€Å"steal the show† from the cars. 6. Is the European market too competitive for Honda? The European market is definitive full of competitors for Honda, with a really good brand image and product range that fit’s to the advertising campaigns. But Honda could increase their sales still! They should do more promotion which fits to the culture and customers and then use the possible entry wedges in the European market e. g. use their top ranked car with the less CO2 emissions in Germany. According to the case materials, the European perception of Honda automobiles is that the vehicles are low cost, less quality and environmentally unfriendly (in fact they are not). The Honda Insight is an excellent opportunity for the company to promote its cars in Europe and change their image to get more market share and gain more profit. People in Europe and especially in Germany like environmental friendly and full-efficient cars with a low CO2 emissions. The sales in Europe are constantly decreasing from 1996 till 2002, in total from 203,276 to 169,922. But especially in Germany Honda’s sales unit by country are constantly increasing form 1994 (53,687) to 2003 (81,858). The company needed a strategy focus on the specifications of the successful Honda Insight model for the German and European market. As the case materials point out, environmental protection is a primary concern in Germany. Thus, marketing in Germany should emphasize the environmental qualities of Honda automobiles. The Honda Insight with the lowest CO2 emissions (80 CO2 g/km), gasoline type has the best environmental specifications rather than Peugeot, Toyota, Renault or Audi ones. This car seems to be perfectly for the German market due to the demand of this target audience. Also another model seems to be perfect for the whole European market: the Civic Hybrid car, which is launched in 2003 by Honda. This vehicle is a gasoline-electric power and fuel-efficient car with a low CO2 emission. As the price for gasoline is constantly increasing, customers are searching for other opportunities to spend their money and save the environment. Honda should promote this one also in Europe and focus the advertising on the battery pack of this car, because it do not recharged by the driver, it recharges itself by running! This is a big competitive advantage and should by an â€Å"eye-catcher†! Adapting promotional strategies to the cultural preferences in different parts of Europe is appropriate for Honda in Europe. The company must promote the two products by emphasizing those environmental friendly characteristics of the products.