After advice on auto marketing assignment

[FASTXR]

My fiancee has just been given a marketing assignment for uni; the topic is:


You are to provide to the marketing director of Holden Australia (: ) with a 3 page analysis of recent trends in the automotive industry that may have an impact marketing and new product development at Holden Australia . You need to look at the size of the industry, competitors, market shares and trends that are happening in the industry. The economic, social, legal and political climate should also be explored as well as changes in consumer behaviour and target markets.


Given that I work in marketing, I've been roped in to help! I'm thinking that some of the key things to consider would be:

* Rising fuel costs and their influence on the popularity of small cars. Alternative fuel/hybrid vehicles could also be looked at.

* Re-badged cars. The rising popularity of importing foreign vehicles and re-badging them as your own (as Holden does now with Daewoos) to cut costs of developing their own vehicles.

* The practice of sourcing technologies from foreign family companies (ie Holden importing LS1s and LS2s for use in the Commodores), once again to reduce/negate R&D costs

* Environmental concerns - the push to make cars "greener" (not only more fuel efficient, but also less-polluting and manufactured in a more environmentally-conscious way)

* Importance of looking at exports, whether it is just engines or whole vehicles, in order to recoup development costs.


These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. I'd be interested (and very grateful!) to receive any other advice on aspects that could be considered in this report.

Cheers,

Richard

[sgt_doofey]

The Australian Dollar in regards to other foreign currencies.

[DBourne]

OP sounds like you've nailed it.

make sure she remembers some basic trends:
-environment, ie the hybrid car.
-size, smaller cars becoming more of a norm.
-smaller ownership time, a lot of people no longer buy a car with the idea of owning it for many years to come
-gadgetry, people want bells and whistles, SAT NAV, bluetooth, park assist etc.

edit: as far as competitors go, mention along side the environment the Toyota prius.

gadgetry you can mention european cars etc

[4.9 EF Futura]

Marketing? You've identified a lot of internal, bottom line type factors which obviously have a HUGE impact... but there's a lot of external factors to conisder as well.

The fact that australians just LOVE australian built cars!! Well, we used to.... thats all we ever used to drive. Perhaps a look at the trend in this regard? Only need to look at toyota/other manuf sales at the expense of Henry and the General.

Whats warranty worth to an aussie car buyer? Seems a 5/10 engine/drivetrain didnt do much to get 380s walking out of mitsubishi's door. Look through the stories on here, some ford dealerships treat their customers with nothing short of contempt... and we still go crawling back!

Some how i dont think you and the missus will have too hard a time coming up with a range of topics. Might even be one of those lovelly academic situations where you have too much to say and need to cull the list down!!

As a side/silly note... they have an executive director in charge of marketing? Thought it would have been a management only position

[FASTXR]

LOL yeah she has to do another assignment on a retail fashion chain - might leave that one to her!!

You raise a good point re "Australian-ness". The fact is that due to Holden's marketing spin, the majority of people believe (despite cars like the Barina and Viva) that Holden are the quintessential Aussie company!

A couple of other angles I thought of:

* In these days of terrorism, could there be an increase in people choosing to holiday at home in Australia, and could this explain the popularity of "soft roaders" such as the Territory etc (might be drawing a long bow there, but I guess its a possibility?)

* Are families becoming smaller? If people are only having 1 or 2 kids now rather than 3 or 4 (on average), could this be impacting the sales of large (Falcon/Commodore) wagons, with people preferring more mid-sized wagons/soft roaders (with their attached presumption of being more fuel efficient)

Think you might be right though, it could be a case of having to cull down at the end!

[bingoTE50]

Well they doing well with export . Engine to various products ,new Pontiacs etc .
Maybe push that envelope , explaining these exports and the engineering , general expertise to secure these contracts . This transcends into a world class car for the Aussie consumers . Football , meatpies .kangaroos and Holden cars - days are gone..
Up the kickbacks to make sure they win every motoring prize on offer ... ( that does not happen - does it ? )

[DBourne]

Originally Posted by FASTXR

A couple of other angles I thought of:

* In these days of terrorism, could there be an increase in people choosing to holiday at home in Australia, and could this explain the popularity of "soft roaders" such as the Territory etc (might be drawing a long bow there, but I guess its a possibility?)

i dont think terrorism will have a HUGE impact on car sales, maybe just LIGHTLY mention it if you are struggling for other material

* Are families becoming smaller? If people are only having 1 or 2 kids now rather than 3 or 4 (on average), could this be impacting the sales of large (Falcon/Commodore) wagons, with people preferring more mid-sized wagons/soft roaders (with their attached presumption of being more fuel efficient)

they certainly are becoming smaller. increasingly people are moving out (and this is ESPECIALLY true for women) and starting careers and not thinking about a family as much as previously done.

I did a big assignment this semester on this aspect actually and how its impacting marketing.

Also as people move into city units cars need to be smaller and more fuel efficent. when it comes to the women market, power is generally not a valid consideration any more.

Hope i'm helping