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Marketing Swot and Pest Analysis on Aston Martin 2008

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The current economic crisis has spread havoc across local and global markets. There can be no place for doubt that certain automobile manufacturers and retailers would also suffer to some extent from the catastrophe. The car industry is a huge entity that has several different subdivisions, and it is quite intriguing to see how consumer behaviour shifts across these sublevels of the automobile market and how different brands engage in dealing with the arising instability. Aston Martin is one of the most famous UK brands and one of the top marquees for top-end sports cars in the entire world. Established in 1914 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, Aston Martin, has gone through a lot and many changes have occurred in its history including …show more content…

However, it seems that some car companies have gained advantage of the current economic situation. Present market conditions are beneficial for companies that offer lightweight cars with small, fuel-efficient engines such as Smart, which has more than doubled its sales with a rise of 105% in 2008 compared to last year’s (Pollard 2008). Aston Martin on the other hand has suffered a 26% fall in its sales, year-to year figures dropping from a total of 1978 sales up until last year’s November to 1479 units up until the same month this year (Moody 2008 p. 44). As gloomy as the situation might seems for Aston Martin it is the same for their direct competitor Bentley, which is experiencing the same decline in sales. The UK Car market is in its worst condition since 1966 (Pollard 2008). The existing situation presents an unprecedented slowdown compared to the major rise of car sales in the past several years. The credit crunch has effectively crippled the entire European car market excluding only a few countries. “Warwickshire car maker Aston Martin is suffering from the economic downturn but is hoping to offset weakness in the UK and United States with bigger sales in emerging markets – with the Middle East a key target.” (Bowker 2008, para.1). The stagnation that has seized Europe presently regarding

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