Harvard Case : BMW of North America: Dream it. Build it. Drive it.

Many companies and business entities achieve higher levels of market success through extensive supply chain management. Market success within these industries and companies is possible through implementation of mass customization strategy. Mass Customization represents an approach within the business entity that seeks to be innovative, enhance quality, minimize cycle time, improve agility, and generate consumers who want to only associate with the firm or organization. The main objective of the mass customization strategy rests on the provision of products and services to satisfy unique tastes and preferences at affordable prices that relate effectively with target groups. A visit to Lutron Organization generates clear indication of how mass customization applies in relation to its application in business entities. Lutron organization adopts the strategy of mass customization to meet the needs and expectation of the consumers. Mass Customization is also effective and efficient in developing competitive advantage over other entities within the same industry. The approach of maximizing revenue while expanding the market coverage by Lutron draws from new technologies and knowledge in relation to forces of consumers and company demands. The main aim of the strategy within Lutron is to enable consumers acquire any product or service they want, anytime, in any way, and anywhere while enhancing the profit levels.

Supply chain management has created much enthusiasm for late years for various reasons. Numerous supervisors now understand that moves made by one individual from the chain can impact the gainfulness of all others in the chain. Firms are progressively thinking as far as contending as a feature of a supply chain against other supply chains, as opposed to as a solitary firm against other individual firms.

However, there is some group of customers who held BMW cars as leisure transports to be driven on weekends. And target location in Asia, America, Africa and Europe. BMW focus on the target market segment the business seeks to lodge and different advantage with which it will compete with rivals in that segment. BMW is situated in the prestige segment of the car market with a different advantage based on high performance and uniqueness. BMW as a brand is a status symbol containing an extreme performance, power and design.

The technology resource I would utilize, and see it being an advantage would be YouTube. YouTube is a global video-sharing website based out of San Bruno, California. This billion dollar corporation was founded in 2005 by three former Pay Pal employees, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Shortly after, Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion and has grown even more. This online website allows you to stream videos, movies and create a pod cast for millions of viewers to watch.

Brand Identity BMW needs to continue focusing on its differentiation focus strategy in the premium segment to maintain its prestige brand identity and momentum through engaging and communicating with consumers. BMW can invest in market research and understanding consumer preference and behaviors, which will factor into new types of models, products and service offered. Educating consumers on the benefits

Introduced in 1982 by Booz Allen Hamilton’s consultant Keith Oliver (Jacoby, 2009), the term ‘supply chain management’ has become one of the most broadly used in modern management theory and practice. The rapid evolution of this management branch combined with a continuously

While mass customization is a viable option in manufacturing with digital factories and employing lean manufacturing designs, service firms have to employ a more productive environment to make mass customization profitable. Mass customization refers to using mass production technologies to quickly and cost-effectively assemble goods that are uniquely designed to fit the demands of individual customers (Daft, 2016, p. 271). The key challenge for service mass customization is to translate information about consumer preferences gained through market research into a format that can be easily used for service modularization decisions and customer-contact personnel training (Haas & Kunz, n.d., p. 603). In the service arena, mass customization becomes an ongoing configuration process with direct involvement of the customer coupled with professional advice by service personnel who understand the configuration rules and know them by heart. A clear understanding of the customer’s needs is required, as well as a requirement by service personnel to provide the customer clear and concise configuration options that strike the perfect balance between flexibility and complexity. Also, a continuous interaction between frontline contact personnel and the customer is a consequence that must be

TrueCar is the only third party website vendor that has captured more than seventy-five percent of households through its Affinity Auto Buying Program (2014a). Furthermore, industry-leading technology promotes seamless online interactions and was rated by U.S News as the best automotive shopping site in 2012 (McParland, 2014). With this type of market penetration, it is very difficult for a customer to buy a vehicle without being exposed to TrueCar’s multichannel marketing strategy (see Marketing Strategy). In addition to the accolades above, TrueCar is the only company using real-time data to educate their consumers. This patented technology ensures all individual users receive a fair price and can feel confident with their purchase. Finally, the unique presentation of the website allows for a

One of the benefits of mass customization is that Timbuk2 will provide its customers with “perceived” value-added to their products. The customer can design his/her own bag according to his/her preference, which adds the value of uniqueness to the product. Considering the mass customization option, one needs to consider the inventory in stock. With customization, Timbuk2’s manufacturing department can actually work with less finished good inventory, since the inventory is sent off as soon as it’s finished. They will have less finished goods inventory in stock, which will in turn allow them to offer certain, stocked products at a reduced price. Due to its mass customization practices already in place, it shows that if Timbuk2 were to offer

The new car product is the core of Autobytel’s automotive business. In a nutshell, Autobytel helps customers with making choices about the type of car they want to buy without the pressure of a sales force. Once a customer has determined the exact type of car they want to buy, the service then directs these motivated buyers to participating retailers. In essence, Autobytel has two customers, car buyers and car sellers and needs to work at pleasing both. In order to continue to attract more car buyers, Autobytel needs to focus its marketing and understand the marketing plan’s effect. Not only will this bring more interested

For this project, Kenny and Associates researched all the aspects of the car-buying experience. They found out that, in general, people were terribly frustrated with their past car shopping experiences. In fact, they were so frustrated, that they avoided shopping for new cars as long as they could. It was then clear what Saturn had to do to draw in more customers. Rather than trying to advertise their cars as being of a better quality than Japanese cars, Saturn became a company that treated consumers with respect, no hassles and no intimidation. As a result, Saturn has been extremely successful. The website gave some impressive statistics to show that.

Conventional supply chain management is limited in focus. It is internally concentrated on the flow of raw materials through an

This essay examines Harley-Davidson's use of the Internet as a strategic marketing tool. Unlike their competitors' websites, Harley takes advantage of every online opportunity to build relationships with customers, promote their brand, and market Harley offerings. The Internet in particular is an effective promotion medium for Harley because it extends their efforts to market the company's products and services.

This report has been designed to understand where the video market is today, what consumer trends are, and how to stay ahead of competitors. This report will research these three points:

The development of marketing concept from a Product orientation to a Sales orientation and finally a Marketing orientation has signified an important change in how we understand and conceptualizes marketing in the 21st century. It signified an increased focus in the behavior of consumers and how by applying different marketing strategies organizations have been able to influence the way in which consumers react to their potential needs and how marketers can change their strategy to target different consumers wants. An assessment has been made in this essay looking at the development of the Volkswagen (herein referred to as VW) polo hatchback model.