Marketing Plan For Holden Commodore

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Australia is considered to be one of the top countries in the context of imports. It is also widely known for the automobile industry. Holden is an Australian company that is associated with importation of automobiles and also with manufacturing of automobiles (which it has started recently since 2017). This report deals with the study of the marketing plan of Holden as a firm and aims to figure out the strategies that the business needs to use to expand its target market in terms of manufacturing of cars. The report tries to first identifies the target market at large with the help of proven strategies.

Holden was established as a manufacturer of saddles long back in the year 1860 and later on the business was expanded to include the importing of automobiles in Australia. It is headquartered in Port Melbourne IN Victoria, Australia but originally it was founded in
Adelaide, South Australia and was originally known as General Motors-Holden. Currently it has also started manufacturing cars and the most common type of car manufactured by this firm is Holden Commodore. The firm is also increasingly using the concept of badge engineering for other car-manufacturing firms like Suzuki, Toyota, Nissan and a few others.

Since the year 2007, there have been many types of automobiles that the company has manufacture and sold. The various types of automobiles include sports vehicles, light utility vehicles and even passenger vehicles. Although the company has always been trying to remain at the top of sales list, recently it has been found to lag behind. The company position in the market has also deteriorated slightly as compared to before. It has been recently reported that the market ranking of the firm has reduced to the tenth position and it has been reported to have sold only twenty new cars produced (NewsComAu. 2018). However, the company was once capable of maximum sales in such a way that almost half of the cars manufactured and sold in Australia was accounted for by Holden as a firm.

The reason behind this drop in position of the firm is being estimated to be because of the introduction of two new types of cars namely the sedan- Commodore and the SUV- Equinox (NewsComAu. 2018). The spokesman of Holden, Mark Flintoft has claimed this has been due to the introduction of new products because the company has not been able to market and reach out to the target market with proper measures especially in case of Commodore. Thus, in this report the product under study is Commodore. The marketing plan is formulated and projected in such a way that the company is able to increase the sales of this product and the business is propelled by reaching out and capturing a substantial section of the target market like it was before the costs incurred are also catered to in the first place.

Product Description

The product under consideration is Commodore which is a sedan and is produced in different sizes ranging from medium to large cars (Holden.com.au. 2018). It has been locally produced within Australia since the past few years and was initially produced in New Zealand. From the current year, this product will be imported from Germany and so the firm has ceased the local production of these cars from last year (NewsComAu. 2018). The most widespread and tough competitor for Commodore produced by Holden is the Ford Falcon. The car is well equipped with facilities like emergency brakes which are automated, LED matrix lights are present which are adaptive to the conditions that the car is exposed to, head up display and cruise control which is both automated and adaptive (Holden.com.au. 2018). The car is also designed in the most innovative way to allow the driver and the other users of the car to get a complete 360 degree of the scenario outside the car. This greatly helps the driver to get a clear idea of the way in which the car has to be driven in a particular terrain (Holden.com.au. 2018). The engines installed in the different versions of the car vary only a little with an average capacity of 2.8L (Holden.com.au. 2018).The car is also equipped with alloyed wheels which provides extra protection to the car especially in case of emergencies. The front seats of the car are composed of ventilated leather that is of the best quality. Further, the technology used in the car is also of the best quality including both apple and android automated players, phone charging facilities which are wireless, satellite navigation and a hands free power tailgate that enables the user to open the tailgate using a movement of the foot even if the key is in the pocket of the user. The car is also reported to have more than average speed transmission.

As the Commodore is well equipped with the best safety measures and technology with highly comfortable features at the same time, the cohort of customers that Holden should essentially focus on are the families. This would be the best section of the automobile market to consider as the target market as it will greatly help Holden to advertise the car and accrue revenues in the face of rivalry too. This is so because the fuel efficiency of the car along with the speed transition levels enable customers use to use it for a variety of purposes. The price of the car will be kept at a range where the individuals in Australia with the average annual level of income which is around $80,704, will be able to afford this car. Although, Holden is one of the oldest firms in Australia, Commodore is aimed to accrue the highest portions of revenue and profits from the modern Australian population. Hence in the context of demographics, the product is being aimed to be sold to the younger population and the middle aged families as well.

Target Market

For every new business or new levels of business expansion it is important to carry out cost effective and efficient marketing. The marketing mix for any upcoming business can be best explained as the set of marketing measures and tools needed to reach out to the target market and attract the greatest possible cohort of customers (Datta, Ailawadi and van Heerde 2017). It is basically a model that helps to equate the various components of marketing with the desired level of exposure that the business needs to start off and earn enough profits if not earn huge amounts of revenue right in the beginning (Pavlou and Stewart 2015). The major components of marketing as a whole that helps businesses in achieving the desired marketing objectives are discussed in detail in the subsequent sections in light of the company under consideration which is Holden in this case.

The major components of marketing being considered in this case include product, price, place and promotion.

• Product – The products as mentioned earlier in the report is the car Commodorewhich is a sedan and is designed with the best safety features and the best technology compared to other cars designed for families in Australia.  This car will be able to provide the best speed transition qualities and options. This car which will now be imported from Germany will be equipped with six to eight airbags as peer the cost of the car.
• Place – As mentioned before, the car has been produced for years together in Australia and have been sold primarily within Australia. However, henceforth the car will be produced in Germany and will be sold primarily in Australia. Hence the marketing of the car has to be done all over the country. The company should essentially use already existing data and study the trends over the past few years to identify the states where the population is most prone to buying this car. Further, to estimate the places where the population will currently be more prone to buying the car. It is in these cities and states that extensive promotional events will be hosted.
• Price – As mentioned before, the product in this case is being designed and manufactured for mostly the families of Australia. The price is being decided to be kept at a level that is in sync with the average annual income of the citizens of Australia. Further, the price of the car is to be kept at a level of $34,990 which is almost lower than the initial price of the car by around 5000 dollars. This is being expected to increase the market share by around 30%. This will help in bringing the position of the company to the original level in the context of sales generation. This price will also help the firm to cater to the costs incurred during the production of the car and even importing it from Germany.
• Promotion- The promotional techniques at large will be with digital and online platforms.This will help in reaching out to the maximum number of people. Further, since the target market essentially consists of people who belong to the young and middle ages in terms of demography, socially promoting will be the best option. It will also help in reducing the cost of marketing and promotion up to a large extent. The other method of promotion to be used is the hosting of events using social influencers so that socially important messages are delivered and the events are to be hosted to provide support to some social causes as well. Further, as the company has operated for years together attracting new customers by using the feedbacks of the already existing customer base will also help the firm to grow and increase the target market share.

It is very important for the management to ensure that the following recommendations are followed to the maximum extent so the outcomes of profit generation and initial growth amounts are in sync with the levels expected:

• The promotion techniques mentioned above should be cost effective but in a way that involves maximum number of already existing customer base (Hair et al. 2015).
• Discounts should be imposed in such a way that after imposing the same, the cost incurred is well taken care of.
• The variety and authenticity of the different types of cars should be maintained and for this, professionals should be hired who have the expertise and the experience required.
• Further, the business will also have to make sure that all the laws imposed by the government and the regulations in place are followed.
• Finally, before starting off with the plan, the ownership and higher authorities of Holden should appropriately try to figure out the demands and needs of the customers as well as the taste and preferences through cross sectional data sampling. This will help the firm to understand the variance in the demand factors and also help them to estimate how the demand patterns might change in the years to come (Khan, Jaber & Ahmad, 2014)
• It is equally important for the ownership and management to assume that for some part of the upcoming financial the restaurant will have to go through increasing demands (more than that estimated or anticipated) during which the use of inventories will be the only option. Hence, it is crucial for the firm to make arrangement for the same from the very beginning.
• Further, substantial amounts of capital also need to be saved up for periods of loss due to adverse situations and circumstances where there is increased competition from other rival firms existing in the same area.
• It is again substantially important for the ownership to clearly make a framework of hierarchy which points out the exact level of employees and the job responsibilities, so that there is clear distribution of work and the functioning and operating of the business operations is smooth and consistent.
• Finally and most importantly the business records should be maintained and recorded using the best data integration software and state of the art technology (Fan, Lau and Zhao 2015). This will help the restaurant business to flourish with continuous formation of business models as per the changing needs of the firm.

Conclusion:

The most important advantage of this firm is that they will already have a very in depth idea of how to go about with the different steps as they are already running a restaurant which is popular and is also fetching high amounts of revenue and profit. Even then it is best to be prepared for unforeseen circumstances through the use of this marketing plan and also gaining the already existing customer base and gaining the attraction of new customers as well.

References:

Datta, H., Ailawadi, K.L. and van Heerde, H.J., 2017. How well does consumer-based brand equity align with sales-based brand equity and marketing-mix response?. Journal of Marketing, 81(3), pp.1-20.

Fan, S., Lau, R.Y. and Zhao, J.L., 2015. Demystifying big data analytics for business intelligence through the lens of marketing mix. Big Data Research, 2(1), pp.28-32.

Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samouel, P. and Page, M.J., 2015. Essentials of business research methods. Routledge.

Holden.com.au. 2018. Holden Commodore 2018 Range | Holden Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.holden.com.au/cars/commodore#Performance [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

Holden.com.au. 2018. Holden Commodore 2018 Range | Holden Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.holden.com.au/cars/commodore#Technology [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

Holden.com.au. 2018. Holden Commodore 2018 Range | Holden Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.holden.com.au/cars/commodore#Safety [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

Holden.com.au. 2018. Holden Commodore 2018 Range | Holden Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.holden.com.au/cars/commodore [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

Khan, M., Jaber, M. Y., and Ahmad, A. R., 2014. An integrated supply chain model with errors in quality inspection and learning in production. Omega, 42(1), 16-24.

NewsComAu. 2018. Commodore price cuts target families. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/holden-targets-commodore-sales-at-families-with-big-cuts-to-recommended-retail-prices/news-story/16d47a86590b34b9d2fd8dc72b0921a3 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

NewsComAu. 2018. Holden has recorded its lowest sales since 1948. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/motoring-news/holden-slips-to-10th-place-in-car-sales-race-its-lowest-ranking-since-1948/news-story/ad1ac141700b429db4ce651fd439cff0 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

NewsComAu. 2018. Holden sales hit record low in February as the rest of the market hits the accelerator. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/motoring-news/holden-sales-hit-record-low-in-february-as-the-rest-of-the-market-hits-the-accelerator/news-story/cac49f4665dd91c8709f74d289bdfc76 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2018].

Pavlou, P.A. and Stewart, D.W., 2015. Interactive advertising: A new conceptual framework towards integrating elements of the marketing mix. In New Meanings for Marketing in a New Millennium (pp. 218-222). Springer, Cham.