Productand Brand

ManagementAssignement

Marketing Plan

Submitted by

Akhil Raj

MBA-B

Introduction

Marketing Mix

A marketing mix has four components which are the tactical components of a marketing plan.

Also known as the Four P's, the marketing mix elements are price, place, product, and

promotion.

Product

A product is a tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured

on a large scale with a specific volume of units. For example, a car is a tangible product and an

airline service is an intangible service.

Another tool for evaluating the product is the Product Life Cycle (PLC).

Price

The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of

factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's

perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if

other stores have the same product.

Place

Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the

distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.

Promotion

Another one of the 4P's is 'promotion'. This includes all of the tools available to the marketer

for 'marketing communication'. Marketing communications has its own 'promotions mix.' The

elements of the promotions mix are:

Personal Selling. Sales Promotion. Public Relations. Direct Mail. Trade Fairs and

Exhibitions.Advertising. Sponsorship

Honda City

Sector Automobiles

Parent Company Honda

Category Sedan

Tagline/ Slogan Enjoy your challenges

USP Design, Reliability

STP

Segment Sedan Segment

Target Group Executive Class

Positioning The Perfect Honda Car

SWOT Analysis

Strength

1.Huge brand recall2.Customer satisfaction

3.One of the most popular sedan brands4.Excellent quality, performance and service

Weakness1.Diesel version missing

2.Present only in the mid and upper segment

Opportunity

1.Lower version of City can be launched to tap more market

2.Expanding sedan segment3.Premium Taxi/Cab Market

Threats1.Perceived to be overpriced

2.Brand reaching maturity stage in many markets

Competition

Competitors

1.Linea2.Vento3.Verna4.Cruze

The All-New Honda City

Honda City is a subcompact car manufactured by the Japanese manufacturer HondaThe first-

generation[India] Honda City, codenamed SX8, was based on the EF Civic platform. It was

designed for and sold in the South East Asianmarket only.

This City is still a subcompact slotting beneath the Honda Civic, but a four-door sedan model

instead for developing markets in Asia, and was built in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia,

Philippines and Pakistan. A revised, face-lifted City was released in 2000, and included sports

sedan models powered by Honda's 1.5 L VTEC engines.

In November 2002, the second generation City was released and included a four-wheel drive

version. Like the contemporary Honda Jazz, the City is actually a rebadged Honda Fit, in the

City's case a rebadged Fit Aria.

In September 2005, a face-lifted version of the City was launched in Thailand and in Malaysia in

October 2005; it is known as the City ZX in Thailand, India, the New City in Malaysia and City in

Singapore and Pakistan.

The newest Honda City was unveiled in Thailand on the 10th of September 2008 followed by

India on 25th September 2008. Honda also announced that the City will be offered in selected

European countries with a 1.4 liter i-VTEC engine mated to either a 5-speed manual or a 6-

speed i-SHIFT automated manual transmission.

Product

Here we are dealing with Honda’s 3rd generation All-New City with respect to the looks &

design, interiors, Engine, gearbox, performance, features etc.

Looks and Design

Honda calls its design is Arrow shot. The looks of the new city is stunning or in other words we

can say that it is an outstanding design among its competitors. The taut styling with lots of

sharp cuts and the striking front and rear lights gives the new city a certain dynamism the other

cars simply do not match. The tale lamp gives a look of BMW.

Interiors

Like the exterior, the city’s interiors are brilliantly designed. The arrow shot theme continues

inside with the dashboard arching towards the central console. The multidimensional dash is

well sculpted and there are plenty of stylistic elements which meld with the functional aspect of

the interiors as well. The civic type steering wheel is good to hold too and comes with audio

controls. Honda has left out the CD player. But they have introduced I pod connective music

system. And the seats are the most comfortable in its class. Honda has left out the twin glove

box feature that the earlier city had. And they placed one of the air bag there.

Engine, Gearbox and Performance

The new city‘s engine is 1497 cc i-VTEC. This engine is the smallest in this group but it’s highest

on technology. It has a full fledged VTEC system that controls intake valve lift and lots of exotic

materials to lower friction. It is the most powerful of this segment with a power of 116 bhp at a

very high 6600rpm.The engine is the smoothest of the lot and has a sweetness that can find

only in Honda. It’s pretty responsive but the widely spaced gear ratios work against it and the

midrange feels quite ordinary. Another exciting feature of city is that it is the only car in the

segment having the paddle shift. That feature is only with the automatic variant, if we want to

drive the car in manual gear shifting we can use the paddle shift. Up and down buttons are

placed at the two sides of the steering wheel. Paddle shift technology is only common with

sports cars which cost more than 1 crore. Now all the models of Honda have it.

Ride and handling

The suspension has a suppleness that was never present in the earlier city. It is having

independent suspension on the front. Over most surfaces and at most speeds it handles well.

The long wheel base of the city effortlessly soaks up the road with ease. The steering is a huge

revelation and unlike the play station like feel of the earlier city, the new model comes with a

lot more feedback. Improving City’s steering was one of Honda’s main tasks and the key reason

why its electric steering’s motor was upgraded from 40 to 60 amps to dial in more feedback.

And it is the most fuel efficient car among its rivals. It is the car for those who enjoy driving.

ABS, dual air bags and EBD are standard feature of this car.

Price

Honda city is costlier than the other cars in the same segment. It is 1 lakh costlier than the

other cars in the same segment. It targets the people who needs an outstanding car in the

segment in the case of design, comfort, quality and innovation. City has 3 variants the standard

variant City 1.5 E MT costs about 8.7 lakhs, the full option non automatic model City 1.5 S MT

costs 9.25 lakhs and the automatic model with paddle shift City 1.5 S ATcost around 9.80 lakhs.

The prices mentioned above are on-road prices.

Place

Honda Siel Cars India Ltd., (HSCI) was incorporated in December 1995 as a joint venture

between Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Japan and Siel Limited, a Siddharth Shriram Group company,

with a commitment to providing Honda's latest passenger car models and technologies to the

Indian customers.

The Honda City, its first offering introduced in 1997, revolutionized the Indian passenger car

market and has ever since been recognized as an engineering marvel in the Indian automobile

industry. The success of City as well as all its other models has led HSCI to become the leading

premium car manufacturer in India.

The total investment made by the company in India till date is Rs. 1620 crores, further

investment of RS. 1000 crore is planned and being currently invested for the coming second

plant in Rajasthan. The company has a capacity of manufacturing 100,000 cars.

Manufacturing Facility

HSCI's state-of-the-art manufacturing unit was set up in 1997 at Greater Noida, U.P with an

investment of Rs. 450 crore. The green-field project is spread across 150 acres of land (over

6,00,000 sq. m.)

The initial installed capacity of the plant was 30,000 cars per annum, which was thereafter

increased to 50,000 cars on a two-shift basis. The capacity has further been enhanced to

1,00,000 units annually in February 2008 . The capacity expansion was necessitated by the

excellent performance of all the Honda models, particularly the growing demand for City ZX in

India. Several modifications were done by the company with the objective of offering higher

quality products to its customers, faster and quicker. The expansion process also included

expansion of the covered area in the plant, from 1,07,000 sq. m. to 1,31,794 sq. m.

HSCI currently produces the All-New City, Civic and Accord models in India and the premium

SUV, CR-V is sold as a fully imported unit from Japan.

The company operates under the stringent standards of ISO 9001 for quality management and

ISO 14001 for environment management.

Sales and Distribution Network

Honda Siel Cars India has a strong sales and distribution network spread across the country. The

network includes 94 facilities in 57 cities. HSCI dealerships are based on the "3S Facility" (Sales,

Service, Spares) format, offering complete range of services to its customers.

The City is manufactured with 79% indigenisation level and currently enjoys 25% market share

in its segment.

Promotion

Honda is a brand known for its quality and innovation. Honda City cars were produced since

1981 and from then company has always maintained the quality and upgraded occasionally

based on the requirement and changing customer needs. Honda always tried to incorporate

latest technology in their cars and is always into fair competition with their competitors.

Considering the Honda City in India, launched in 1997 the company has positioned the car by

clearly understanding the target segment. By the time there were few players and few models

in the segment and the concept of the high speed luxury cars were not familiar at that point of

time. Honda City was placed in C-segment priced and designed for the upper class people in the

segment.

Compared to their competitors like Ford, Honda made a silent entry with less promotional

activities. The Honda had their showrooms only on the major tier – 1 cities and they are still in

their expansion programmes to make their presence to the other parts also. Honda was never

into an aggressive promotional activities but the company always tried to maintain the quality

and created a brand image by providing better customer service. Honda city is the largest seller

in the segment and ranked fourth position in passenger car segment.

Considering the advertisement, Honda has been very careful and precise in their

advertisements. Honda always projected their image as most reliable brand, advanced

technology, eco friendly cars. Even considering the television commercials, Honda promoted

their hybrid car that runs without gasoline and emits water as the bye product rather than

advertising the specific brands existing in the market. The ad was more concentrated to the

company’s technological advancements and eco friendly image which differentiated Honda

from the competitors.

Honda promoted their products in majority through print media compared to others. Majority

advertisements come in magazines and national news papers through that they could educate

the target customers in a better way. The customers were always aware of the company

policies of providing latest technology and upgrading when ever necessary and also remodelling

the entire model after certain period of time. Considering the pilot model in India, Honda City

the company had remodelled it thrice till the inception. Honda always tried to create a surprise

element during the launch of every model.

If we consider the television commercial of the new Honda City shows the car driving through a

picture-perfect landscape. The driver drives through a waterfall only to realise he was seeing his

own reflection. The car zooms past the reflection and stops. When the driver steps out he

realises that he was only imagining the landscape projecting the smoothness of the car.

Competitive Analysis

The 2014 Honda City will be offered with both petrol and diesel engines. Doing duties will be

the 1.5-litre i-VTEC petrol engine while the 1.5-litre i-DTEC diesel engine from the Amaze will be

offered albeit in a higher state of tune. The current i-VTEC engine makes 118 BHP of power

while the i-DTEC engine will carry variable geometry charger to support the additional weight of

the City. The power figures are expected to be in excess of 100 BHP on the diesel motor. The

diesel mill will be the volume puller on the City.

Competitive Analysis of honda city shows that some of the major competitors of Honda city are

Verna 1.6 diesel, Vento 1.5 diesel and fiat linea. Honda has been doing well thanks to its

compact sedan, the Amaze with over 69 percent of sales growth with 59,617 units sold

between April and September this year, out of which the Amaze has clocked in 35,000 units

alone. The Indian launch date of the next generation City has not been revealed but expect the

sedan to be launched in mid 2014. Honda will first launch the MPV Mobilo and the 2014 Jazz in

India. The new City’s mainstay in the market will also be dependent on how Honda prices it.

The new Honda City will be competing with the Hyundai Verna, Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Vento

and the next generation of Maruti Suzuki’s SX4.