Jaguar Land Rover Company: History, Mission, Products, And Competitors

Question:

Discuss about the Jaguar Land Rover Company?

The Jaguar Land Rover Company is one of the United Kingdom’s luxurious Car manufacturing company established in 1922 by two motorcycle experts namely William Lyons and William Walmsley as Jaguar. This car brand specializes in four-wheeler luxury and off-road vehicles. (Passenger and commercial vehicles) In 2008, Tata motors acquired the Land Rover and the Jaguar from their previous owner Ford Motors. In the year 2013, the Jaguar and Land Rover officially became a single company (Team, 2014). The profits and sales for the organization have only risen over the years.  The number of employees in Land Rover is 37,005 (2016). Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the organization is headed by Dr. Ralf Speth who is the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover (Tata Motors, 2008). The company generates a net income of ‎£1.312 billion (2016) and revenue of 22.208 billion (2016). There is another segment of cars with the name Range Rover by Jaguar Land Rover which is the segment of high end SUVs. The current position of the company is listed at fourth place in the United Kingdom market after GM, Honda, and the BMW with an annual turnover of £3, 397000. They have been ranked as the biggest manufacturers of automobiles for two years in a row now (Richards, 2015).

There are three particulars of the company strategy that are taken into consideration to evaluate the final impacts and design the marketing plan of the company. These comprise of:

• Mission statement of the company

Jaguar Land rover’s mission is to create an outstanding place to do the job and the business. They have an aim of One employee, one customer, one vehicle at a time (Waide, 2013).

 Land Rover automobile company has a goal to deliver a new car with a new experience to their drivers. The company wants that when a customer buys a land rover and gets into it for the first time he should get an awesome experience. The company wants to exceed customers’ expectations. The company wants to deliver luxury cars and remain transparent to their customers to get a positive review from the customers who are really satisfied with their Jaguar Land rovers (Laddha, 2016).

 The Jaguar Land Rover Organization is working towards the attainment of a better economy and trying to maintain a high level by having a balanced world market. With the evolution of the new technology, the company is investing in applying master plans that will enable it to achieve its goals and objectives over a set time period. The company has well-experienced engineers to develop unique Land Rover every time by keeping an eye on design and special attention to details and customer requirements.

• Segmentation

The Jaguar Land Rover comes under expensive luxury car segment. They specially deal with 4 wheeled vehicles and give a tough competition to their rival automobile companies that are primarily Rolls Royce and Bentley. The segment of the cars in the automobile industry is broadly categorized into the sedan cars, compact cars, mini cars, micro cars and sports cars.   They only target the premium class customers who are looking for luxury sports vehicles (Virk, 2013).

• Targeting

Mission and Goals

Jaguar Land Rover has a target group that includes stately people and rich businessmen. Jaguar Land Rover is a luxurious 4-wheeler car which is very much comfortable. Its high-end design and driving experience makes the user invest in such a luxurious car or majorly attracts the people who want to buy an expensive car in the SUV segment. Jaguar Land Rover comprises of all the features or pros of cars falling under the segment of SUVs.

• Positioning

Jaguar Land Rover is a luxurious car with all the functionalities and high-end performance. Land Rover is the most prominent, famous and leading luxury car. Jaguar Land Rover has already maintained a position in the automobile industry and if the company wants to remain in the same position, they have to design eco-friendly products which consume less fuel.

Although their target market is strong and they are already in the leading position, the Jaguar land rover company has to improve their research and development department to analyze the market needs and modify their marketing plans keeping in mind those of their competitors (Denis, 2017).

The customer's segment that is the primary target of Jaguar Land Rover are the affluent youngsters and adults with the exceptions to no children. They have a different perception for the Jaguar luxury car with different design and high-end performance. The customers with Jaguar Land Rover feel different from others with a variety of segments of cars.  As per the analysis report of 1990, the customer believes in buying the SUV vehicle which is safe, luxury and gives high end performance.

 Successful leading brand of luxury cars in the global market is the main strength of the Jaguar Land Rovers. Winning the award twice from the Gear magazine awards for best interior of the year and the best executive car of the year in 2009, and the others from various magazines and channels has made the company a leading brand of the automobile industry in luxurious cars. The Tata in 2008 had shown a great interest in improving the existing branding of the company and have since then implemented the new strategies to improve the sales of the Jaguar Land rovers. Being the old leading and largest car manufacturing company in the automobile industry, Tata made Jaguar Land Rovers to launch Jaguar drive selector Tata Motors, Jaguar Sequential Shift Tata Motors, and Jaguar drives Control Tata Motors.

The British brand picture is also one of the main strengths of the company.  The Land Rover brand has a maximum sale in Chinese and Indian markets. The company is also getting maximum profits from Middle Eastern markets.

 The efficiency of the other automobile companies’ rivals such as BMW 3 and 7 series, Mercedes, Porsche and Audi, the Jaguar Land rovers have tough competitors to maintain the same position of leading automobile company in the luxurious cars. The Jaguar Land Rover has a name in the UK, but it does not have the same name in the global market such as countries from Asia, Europe, North America etc. As per the report, In the end of 2008, Jaguar Land Rover re-launched sedan cars due to their complaints of seatbelt issues. They also relaunched some of the models with a new design to resolve corrosion protection issue. The other issues like emission of Co2 may impact the sale of their cars and may make the competition even more difficult with the competing automobile industries. Jaguar Land rovers have to bring the most efficient and eco-friendly cars to the market to stand in competition with the other companies.  In the analysis of 2011, most of the luxurious car models of the company stand below average in terms of cost and load capacities (Parkins, 2013)

Products and Target Audience

 Jaguar Land Rover has launched some of their new models in the Canadian markets to increase the target sales. Some of their new models such as XF series and the 2010 Jaguar XF Supercharged has been into operation for the first time in the Indian and Chinese markets. Jaguar Land Rover has been ranked as one of the fastest growing cars in the automobile industry. The Company has also committed to reduce the emission of CO2 energy consumption per which will help the company to increase the sales and growth in the automobile industry.

The first and the biggest threat to Jaguar Land Rover is the change in the legislation rules on CO2 which may lead to a critical point in terms of finance. Also, the change in the rate of raw materials and oil may increase the rate of production of Jaguar Land Rover and consequently the decrease in the sales. The other main threat to Jaguar Land Rover is their drop in their sales in the countries like China and Asia, which may lead to decrease in the overall profits, due to the exchange of currencies and exportation expenses (Jibuike, et al., 2015).

Currently, Jaguar Land Rovers are experiencing below average results from the global markets such as China and Asia, but the company is collecting bigger revenues from the countries like Europe.

In 2008, Tata motors take over the ownership of Jaguar Land Rover. The manufacturing and design of the products are still handled in England, British Company. Customers of Asian Countries like India can buy the different models of the Jaguar like Jaguar XF, XK XJ through dealers. The marketing mix of Land rover is as follows:

The Jaguar Land Rover is well known for their luxurious cars. Jaguar is a brand name with high costing and can be afforded by only high-class people. This luxury car is for the people who have a substantial amount of money to spend on buying a car. The disadvantage of the Jaguar land rovers and their models is their high costing and very low mileage. This product is not reliable to travel long distance (Speth, 2012). One has to refill the vehicle's tank after going just a few miles. The Jaguar have made their name in the leading motorsports however. The products of Jaguar Land Rover are high tech and are restricted to the classes. The brand positioning is most important to gain more customers in the global market and the positioning in this case is very clear.

The Jaguar Land rovers have very fewer showrooms in the global market. Not every high-class person can afford the Jaguar Land rover due to the overhead changes of imports and exports. Also, they have very few dealers in the global market. Talking about the Indian markets, the headquarters of Tata motors which now owns the Jaguar Land Rover since 2008, it has only about a little over 20 dealers in India. Jaguar Land Rover is available in the metro cities of India (Bhasin, 2017). Although the distribution outlets of Jaguar Land rovers in less in global markets, still it holds the position of leading luxurious car company worldwide. Further, as per analysis report, the distribution of Jaguar Land rover is selective to the countries worldwide and they have managed to maintained exclusivity throughout the continents.

Strengths of the Company

The promotions of the Jaguar Land Rover are above the line and have premium targeting. Jaguar land rover is the first choice for the high-class people like those of political leaders and top of the line businessmen. The company uses the billboards and magazines to promote the products and uses very less advertising media such as television or radio. To reach out to the target customers and to ensure the popularity of the Jaguar Land Rovers, the promotional team uses the sponsorships and road show strategies at times.

The price of the automobiles is very high and not everyone can afford one. Also, the running costs and maintenance of the car is high as compared to their competitor's cars like those of BMW. As all cars are still manufactured and designed in the UK market, the cost of transportation and the technology used to build the product further increases the price of the product. The other reason for the hike in the price is the exclusivity of the Jaguar Land Rover. The price of the base model of the Jaguar Land Rover, that is, Jaguar XF is about 30,000 GBP, while the other models like Jaguar XKs cost nearly 60,000 GBP. The price of the models also increases with respect to the additional accessories to be implemented in the luxury car. Jaguar provides financial services such as loans to the customers for the payment (Mistry & Munjee, 2015). The company plans to increase its vehicle financing activities to increase the vehicle sales. Also, to improve the company standards and to retain the brand position the company believes that the growth of its financing market would also contribute in the increase in the annual sales and their turnover. To stimulate the growth in segment of small commercial vehicles, the Company has linked up with various banks to commence new finance schemes.

Nowadays, the most expensive Jaguar Land Rover SUV is priced at GBP 164,600, and the rate of Jaguar Range Rover which is slightly affordable and most preferred by the customers is priced at GBP 75,000. While talking about Bentley, the luxurious car company which gives a strong competition to Jaguar Land Rover, they have launched the new product in the year 2015, named as the Bentagya SUV. The very first venture of the British automobile industry into the SUV market, Bentley launched the new product with the aim to become the leading company in the luxurious SUV four-wheeler cars (Forbes, 2017). The most expensive model of the Bentley Bentagya is priced at GPB 160,200 with the most powerful engine and costliest accessories. Further giving a boost to the company’s promotional activities, it has been booked for the Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her private usage. The features of W12 Turbo engine that makes the Bentagya Bentley the most powerful and fastest SUV which runs at a speed of 300 km/h. The other luxury brand in competition with the Jaguar Land Rover is the Rolls Royce SUV which is going to be launched soon in the year 2018. The Rolls Royce SUV is different to models of Bentagya Bentley in terms of only shorter wheelbase. The Rolls Royce SUV will be launched with the price tag of $350,000. The Jaguar Land Rover and their range of premium SUVs of the line Range Rover are having Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley Bentagya as tough competitors for the market share. The ongoing craze for the SUVs among the masses will only benefit all these organizations. The only thing to watch here is which organization makes the most out of it and emerges as the maximum profit making organization. Rolls Royce has for a very long time been associated with prestige and luxury. Bentley has just entered the SUM market with Bentagya which is touted to be an extremely fancy and comfortable car with the suspension and mechanism that is just the same if not better than the Rolls Royce. Range Rover is more towards the sporty side and is also the most affordable among the three. The latest Rover is also garnering a lot of attention due to its top class features and outstanding looks being offered at a price that is much lower than the Rolls Royce. Bentley Bentagya has been given all the features of the Rover and it boasts additionally of the silent operations (CIMA, 2009). Taking specifically the brands into consideration we would still rank Rolls Royce as the most desired and premium among the lot. It has for long been the preferred choice of the prominent personalities and owing one is even today a status symbol. To stand in the race Jaguar Land Rover has to create a marketing strategy to retain its position in the global market.

Conclusion

This report is written with a purpose to study the marketing plan adopted by Jaguar Land Rover and understanding their strategic intent and policies. We have studied their core competencies, vision, mission and the strategic focus. We have also analyzed the brand and its reach along with the analysis of customer perception and environment analysis. The last part of this report covers the competitor analysis and a detailed evaluation of the marketing mix adopted by Jaguar Land Rover for marketing their automobiles. The Jaguar Land Rover competes with a wide range of SUVs available in the market from different manufacturers, such as Bentley Bentagya, the Escalade, and Cadillac etc. They have to build a brand image of the company to remain in the top position and boost the growth in the economy. Jaguar Land Rover designs and manufactures cars taking into consideration, high attention to details and keeping in mind to exceed the expectations of the customers. This goal and objective of the company help it to stand out of the crowd of the competitors in the automobile industry throughout the global market.

References

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