Segmentation Targeting Positioning of Sport Car

Brand strategy is of upmost importance when it comes to customer visualizing a company. Branding is critical to the company as well as the product. The company brand embodies what the company is about,including the product (Hatline, M.D. & Ferrel, O.C., 2014). Branding provides the company with leverage when it tries to enter new markets Whether that be new locations or new product offerings (Douglas, S. P., Craig, C. S., & Nijssen, E. J., 2001).

Last thing is that, surveys have showed that, consumers think that, If products’ price is lower product has a lower quality. If there would be any decrease in prices, consumers feel that, this brand is not the best in market in terms of quality. But this issue is not problem for Industrial segment, but it is a problem for

A strong position of the firm’s brand and relationship, and help to specific the target market of every products with the customer by using the marketing communication mix.

It is vital that marketing communication mix responds to competitive environment, therefore, Porter’s five competitive forces could be used to evaluate firms competitive positioning. In addition, Porter’s generic strategy grid can be applied to a product. He called the generic strategies ‘cost leadership’, ‘differentiation’, ‘cost focus’ and ‘differentiation focus’ (Vrontis and Sharp, 2003). These strategies have attributes that defend against competitive forces.

They must also gain strategic advantage by positioning their offerings strongly against the competitors’ offerings in the minds of consumers. To plan effective competitive marketing strategies, the company needs to find out all it can about its competitors. It must constantly compare its products, prices, channels and promotion with those of close competitors. In this way the company can find areas of potential competitive advantage and disadvantage. Also, it can launch more effective marketing campaigns against its competitors and prepare stronger defenses against competitors’ actions.

Keller, K., Apéria, T. and Georgson, M. (2008). Strategic brand management. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall Financial Times.

“Marketing Mix” is made up of 4P’s of marketing. This tool blends these variables together to produce the results it wants to achieve in its specific target market. “Brand Position” mentions to consumer’s reason to buy the products in preference to others.

In the following I have considered that they’re holistic approach to their marketing is their strongest point, and that the way they deal with their competition in the marketplace is their worst point.

Some companies choose to adopt a brand strategy and Riezebos (2003) explains that this consists of differentiating the brand and adding value to the brand. By aiming for differentiation in a strategy, it gives a brand competitive advantage.

A brand is an organisation, product or service which has created an emotional connection with their consumers in order for them to favour their brand over their competitors. It is incredibly important for brands to keep up their image and one little thing could change the global perception of a business. It takes a lot to maintain a brand image that has been built up over a long period of time and even more to regain it if that reputation is lost. Brands are created through various different aspects such as their visuals, tone of voice, advertising, actions and reputation. The combination of these will leave their consumers with long lasting emotions and perceptions of a particular brand and will effect whether they support a business or not and whether they would favour or avoid it. When a brand looses their image it can cost a lot of money and time to rebrand to prevent complete failure of the product or service.

In 2014, Corvette was awarded the car of the year, which added yet another award to the trophy case for Chevrolet (“Precision Praised”, 2014).Comparing this sport vehicle to a more compact and economically friendly model like the Sonic, that was “Best Back-To-School Cars of 2012”, shows the wide range of variety Chevrolet has (“KBB.com, 2012). The Chevy Sonic is one of the company’s smallest vehicles and typically attracts different consumers than the Corvette that was marketed as a sport vehicle that also provided luxury Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Despite these huge differences in model attributes, I see the variety as a plus for the Chevy brand.

According to Little (2015), contributors to this industry primarily compete based on price, branding and quality innovation. Although brand loyalty is strong in this industry, consumers are still price sensitive and are willing opt for lower priced, substitute products. (Euromonitor International, 2015). Branding and the ability to differentiate brands and products from others plays an important role in generating sales, resulting in competition within the industry (Little, 2015).

We need to validate if the company rank better relative to its competitor to determine market success and does the company have a net market advantage or disadvantage over its competitors. Industry and competitive analysis reveals the key success factors and competitive capabilities to separate them from its competitors. This is a basis for judging the competitive strength on factors such as cost, key product attributes, customer service, image and reputation, financial strength, technological skills, distribution capability and other

First of all, a strong brand can be seen as the condition for organisations to expand products, offer more service, and introduce new products (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Secondly, a strong brand can lead to growth marketing communication effectiveness (Keller, 2009). ‘To build a strong brand, the right knowledge structures must exist in the minds of actual or prospective customers so that they respond positively to marketing activities and programs in these different ways.’(Keller, 2003, p. 140) Furthermore, Kay (2005) asserted that the strong brand can be seen as a resource of management, which make brand extension easier and useful to build distribution network. Companies are not treated by the intermediaries (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Moreover, companies are comparatively easier to change price if they have strong brands. As Henderson, et al (2003) said, a strong brand can allow for premium pricing even still remain loyalty customers, which help companies to survive in the intensive competitive market.

➢ Product differentiation - Products that are relatively the same will compete based on price. Brand identification can reduce rivalry.