Journal Of Scientific Research Publications: Analysis Of Honda's Marketing Strategies In Singapore

Discuss About The Journal Of Scientific Research Publications?

In every business organizations all over the world, the concept of marketing strategy is highly regarded. Marketing strategy refers to the method or technique to design the plan of action for the promotion and selling of the business products and services (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012). At the time of the development of business strategies, organizational manager need to consider all the major principles of marketing (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014). At the same time, it is needed to measure the effects of various internal and external environmental factors on the business organizations (Peppard & Ward, 2016). This particular report takes an honest attempt to analyze and evaluate various marketing strategic aspects of Honda Motors in Singapore. Honda is one of the largest multinational conglomerate corporations that involves in the manufacturing of automobiles, motorcycles, aircrafts and various power equipments. Since the year 1959, Honda has been the world’s largest motorcycle corporations along with the world’s largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines. Honda was established in the year of 1946 and commenced their business in 1948. The company is based on Tokyo, Japan. There are some major products of Honda; they are automobiles, commercial vehicles, luxury vehicles, motorcycles, scooters, electric generators, water pumps, tillers, outboard motors, robotics, jet aircraft, jet engines, lawn equipments, garden equipments and others. The whole analysis of this report is based on operations of Honda in Singapore as Honda has a large and effective market in Singapore (honda.com.sg, 2017).    

For the analysis of the business organizations, one cannot ignore the importance of Internal or Microanalysis. Internal analysis helps in the process to identify or evaluate the specific characteristic of the business organizations. One of the major parts of the internal analysis is the analysis of competitors. This fact does not have any exception in case of Honda Cars in Singapore. In the Singapore market, it can be seen that there are some major competitors of Honda cars. The major reason of the presence of so many car companies in Singapore is the growth opportunity of this market. The business friendly Singapore market provides all these companies with excellent growth opportunities. The major competitors of Honda cars in Singapore are Chevrolet, Toyota Motor Corporation, Nissan Motors, Hyundai Motors, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Skoda Auto, Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company. Thus, it can be seen that in the market of Singapore, Honda cars have to face tremendous competition from all these above-mentioned companies. In the Singapore car market, it can be seen there are massive competitions among the companies regarding the same rival model. This aspect is also applicable for Honda cars.

PESTEL Analysis

In this case, the example of Toyota Wish vs. Honda Jade RS can be mentioned in this report (cnet.com, 2017). Both the car models are under the model of Compact MPV that is between the model of MPV and a sedan. Under this car model, Toyota is giving Honda a tough competition. Both the models of Honda and Toyota are almost same as they are the rival models of each other. In addition, the price and features of both the modes are almost same. Thus, from this discussion, it can be seen that in this particular model, Honda is getting tough competitions from Toyota. Another instance of market rivalry can be established with the example of Honda Civic vs. Hyundai Elantra vs. Toyota Corolla. All these cars come under the model of midsize sedan. From the above example, it needs to be mentioned that all these three car models almost have the same features and they come in almost same price range. Thus, from this whole discussion, it can be seen that the car companies in Singapore are giving tough competitions to Honda cars in every model of cars. Looking at the nature of competition in the Singapore car market, it can be said that the degree of competition is high (carsomesg.com, 2017).                

PESTEL analysis plays an important for the determination of the effects of external environmental factors on the business organizations. In this report, it is needed to analyze various external factors of Singapore on the operations of Honda. The PESTEL analysis is done below:

Political Factors: As per the Political and Economic Risk consultancy (PERC), the political risk is lowest in Singapore among all the countries of the continent. This is major boost for the business of Honda as stable political condition of the countries helps to set up the base of any business. Some of the crucial political laws of Singapore are recruitment law, trade laws and others (Shende, 2014).

Economic Factors: The exchange rates between Singapore and Japan do not remain same as it fluctuates. This aspect affects the price of Honda cars in Singapore. In the recent years, the disposal income of the people of Singapore has increased because of good economic condition of the country. This aspect helps to increase the sales of Honda cars in the country (Markan, 2015).  

Social Factors: Major social factors in Singapore for Honda cars are the cultural and demographical aspects of the external environment. The introduction of new eco-friend cars by Honda has been hugely successful in touching the sentiments of the people of Singapore. In addition, the Honda cars in Singapore are less expensive when compared to other companies.   

SWOT Analysis

Technological Factors: As per the development of technology in Singapore, people of Singapore stated relaying on the GPS technology for the navigation purpose. For this reason, Honda introduced the system of satellite navigation in their cars. In addition, with the help of advanced technology, Honda is working on in the introduction of fuel economy cars (Markan, 2015).   

Environmental Factors: It can be seen that Honda has been using advanced technologies in order to bring improvements in their cars. Thus, the efficient engines of Honda cars have been able to provide solution for heated engine so that the amount of carbon emission can be reduced in Singapore. In addition, the eco-friendly cars of Honda have been a major initiative from the company’s end to reduce the effects of global warming.

Legal Factors: Different kinds of environmental oriented legislations are affecting the production of Honda cars. For this reason, it is necessary for Honda to concentrate on the pricing policy of the company. Other laws affecting the business operations of Honda are fair wages regulation, workplace health, safety, and others (Markan, 2015).

For the analysis of the marketing strategy of Honda in Singapore, S.T.D.P approach is most useful. The S.T.D.P approach helps to analysis four major strategic aspects; they are Segmentation, Targeting, Differentiation and Positioning. The S.T.D.P analysis for Honda is done below:

Figure 1: S.T.D.P Elements

(Source: Hollensen, 2015)

Segmentation Strategy: In Singapore, Honda has implemented the strategy of segmentation to divide the market into small segments. Honda cars like Honda Civic, Honda Jade RS, Honda City and others have been developed to cater to the needs of business executives and families. On the other hand, Honda cars like Supra, Vario and Tiger are for the teenagers, household people and females (Hollensen, 2015).      

Targeting Strategy: In Singapore, the major target segment of Honda for its cars is family. It needs to be mentioned that most of the cars of Honda have been developed for the accommodation of a family. For this reason, Honda has targeted family people to sell their most number of cars. In this way, Honda has targeted the Singapore market (Wirtz, 2012).

Differentiation Strategy: As per earlier discussion, it can be seen that Honda has an excellent research and development section. With the help of this research and development section, Honda has been able to bring cars in the Singapore market that are different from its competitors. The introductions of eco friendly cars, advanced navigation system are the major differentiators of Honda cars (Hollensen, 2015). 

Positioning Strategy: In the positioning strategy, Honda put emphasis on the quality of their products as it will help to serve the needs of their customers. In addition, Honda has an insight op expanding in the new market. This is one of the major positioning strategy of Honda. One of the major positioning strategy of Honda is that the business operations and products of Honda are very much friendly to the environment. With the help of all these strategies, Honda uses to position themselves in front of their close competitors like Toyota, Ford and others (Wirtz, 2012).

Recommendations: Thus, based on the above analysis, it can be seen that on the overall basis, Honda has an effective and efficient marketing strategy where the company has segmented the total market in small segments so that they can better serve the people of Singapore. In addition, the targeting strategy of Honda is an effective one. Moreover, Honda has been coming up with innovative products that have been helping the company in better positioning their cars.

• It is recommended that Honda needs to develop their positioning strategy in a more accurate ways so that they can reach too many people in Singapore.
• It is recommended that Honda needs to include more unique features in their cars so that they can attract more number of customers towards their products.

The four P’s of Marketing Mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The marketing mix of Honda is done below:

Product: In case of product analysis, it needs to be mentioned that the looks of all the Honda cars are stunning. In other words, the outstanding design of the Honda cars have been able to provides the company with necessary competitive advantage. In addition, the interiors of all the model of cars are excellent as well. In case of engine, the high quality of engines is the unique selling points of Honda (Tapp & Spotswood, 2013).    

Price: It needs to be mentioned that the price of the Honda cars is much higher than that of other cars in the same segment. With the help of this pricing strategy, Honda has been able to target the major customer segments. However, Honda needs to reconsider their pricing strategy in order to make their cars available for all class of customers.   

Place: In this discussion, it needs to be mentioned that Honda has been able to deliver their products to the right places of their customers. In case of Singapore market, it can be seen that Honda has been able to reach every place of Singapore to cater to the needs of Singapore people. It implies that Honda has an effective strategy regarding place in the marketing mix (Khan, 2014).     

Promotion: Honda is well known all over the world for their promotional strategy. In this regard, it needs to be mentioned that Honda is also well known all over the world for their quality and innovation. For the Singapore market, Honda never adopted the strategy of aggressive promotion. In this market, the aim of Honda is to create a brand by satisfying the needs of the customers. For the Singapore market, Honda has adopted the strategy of print media promotion. In this promotional process, Honda has been giving advertisements in various magazines and the national newspapers.   

Recommendations: Thus, based on the above discussion, some recommendations are provided below:

• It is recommended that Honda need to reconsider their pricing policies and they need to develop the price of their cars in such a way so that the people from all financial class can buy Honda cars.
• It is recommended that Honda needs to develop aggressive promotional strategy so that they can reach to all the people of Singapore.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be seen that there are many internal as well as external environmental factors that have their effects on the business of Honda in Singapore. From the competitor’s analysis, it can be seen that the car industry of Singapore is full of competitors and thus, Honda has to face many competitions from car companies like Ford, Toyota and others. PESTEL analysis states that the stable political condition of Singapore helps the business of Honda in Singapore. In addition, the good economic condition of Singapore is also a booster for the business of Honda in Singapore. As per the SWOT analysis, it can be seen that the quality of engine is the major strength of Honda. However, the high price of Honda cars is major weakness of the company.

The above figure is considered as the Product Life Cycle graph where each level represents the each lifecycle of the products. Based on the above graph, it can be seen that Honda is in the growth stage of its life cycle as the company is growing and the cars of Honda have huge demand in the Singapore market.

References

?Rivals: Honda Civic vs. Hyundai Elantra vs. Toyota Corolla - Roadshow. (2017). Roadshow. Retrieved 18 September 2017, from https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/rivals-honda-civic-vs-hyundai-elantra-vs-toyota-corolla/

Chen, F., & Kodono, Y. (2012, November). SWOT analysis and five competitive forces of Chery automobile company. In Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems (SCIS) and 13th International Symposium on Advanced Intelligent Systems (ISIS), 2012 Joint 6th International Conference on (pp. 1959-1962). IEEE.

Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2012). Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.

Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.

Honda. (2017). Honda.com.sg. Retrieved 18 September 2017, from https://www.honda.com.sg/

Khan, M. T. (2014). The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review paper).&Internal Analysis5.

Markan, R. (2015). Perception of Indians egarding Comfort Level in Different Car-Sizes. International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, 2(5).

Peppard, J., & Ward, J. (2016). The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.

Raslavi?ius, L., Azzopardi, B., Keršys, A., Starevi?ius, M., Bazaras, Ž., & Makaras, R. (2015). Electric vehicles challenges and opportunities: Lithuanian review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 42, 786-800.

Shende, V. (2014). Analysis of research in consumer behavior of automobile passenger car customer. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 4(2), 1.

Tapp, A., & Spotswood, F. (2013). From the 4Ps to COM-SM: reconfiguring the social marketing mix. Journal of Social Marketing, 3(3), 206-222.

Toyota Wish vs Honda Jade RS: The Best Urban Hauler. (2017). Carsome. Retrieved 18 September 2017, from https://www.carsomesg.com/news/item/Toyota-Wish-vs-Honda-Jade-RS-The-Best-Urban-Hauler

Wirtz, J. (2012). Essentials of services marketing. FT Pres