Communication Strategy in the Car Industry: Promotion Mix and Ethical Implications

Elements of Promotion Mix Used in the Car Industry

Think About How The Car Industry Communicates About Its Products What Elements Of The Promotion Mix Do They Use To Get Their Message Out And How Is That Message Delivered To Their Stakeholders.

Evaluate How The Car Industry Communicates About Their Products: How Is It Encoded, How Is It Decoded And Any Ethical And Legal Implications. What Role Does The Ceo Have In Setting The Message? 

Companies in the car industry have a way of communicating about their products to individuals, groups, organizations or customers to directly or indirectly ease exchanges by informing and persuading them to accept their products (Song et al., 2018). The organization has to communicate with its customers to promote their products. Their main aim of the promotion is to attempt to persuade, inform or remind consumers and influence their opinion towards their products.

To get their message out, the players in the car industry uses different sets of the promotion mix. These elements include Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.  Based on the product, many companies in the car industry use their product in the marketing mix in order to attract customers. When developing their product, they always try to come up with a brand that solved a certain issue of their target market (Datta, Ailawadi & Van Heerde, 2017). They try to develop brands that many customers will want to buy to meet their needs. For example, according to the USA today news that was published in 2017, the Fiat Chrysler tried to recall its pick-up trucks to improve on the issue of switching out of the park.

Based on price, the players in the car industry determine their product price based on the operational and distribution costs incurred while availing the brand in the market. They set the price of their brand within the means of their target market. Based on the place, they take their brands to places where their target market is. Also, players in the car industry use promotion as a means of selling their idea to customers. They tend to show and convince customers on how their brand is of benefits. For example, according to (Southwest Florida Online Sunday Morning news, 2015) Fuccillo Automobile promotes its brands by advertising to TV and magazines about the merits of buying its brands.

The encoding of the message in the marketing of products in the car industry is done using symbols, pictures, words and sounds via different forms of promotion. The encoded message is delivered to customers through message channels such as newspapers, salespersons, television, etc. When the audience views the message, he or she interprets the message and understands what the source is trying to communicate.  

The role of the CEO in setting a message to customers about their brands is crucial in ensuring successful marketing.  CEO setts the message by generating the required marketing budget choosing the most effective channels that can reach the message to the target customers or audience (Cherubini, Iasevoli &Michelini, 2015).

One of the ethical and legal complications of marketing in the car industry is misleading claims in advisement. Some of the misleading claims may include the quality of the product and the availability of service (Parsons,  Maclaran & Chatzidakis, 2017). For example, as written by Sunday Morning News, Fuccillo's advertisement about their cars is misleading to customers as they claim they have the best cars besides being large in the dealership. Another ethical and legal issue is the sale of theft- protection packages. For example, as per Central NY News, Billy Fuccillo's auto dealers were sued and made to pay $1.6 as they sold cars at an overpriced and illegal theft-protection package.

References

Cherubini, S., Iasevoli, G., & Michelini, L. (2015). Product-service systems in the electric car industry: critical success factors in marketing. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97, 40-49.

Datta, H., Ailawadi, K. L., & 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), 1-20.

Parsons, E., Maclaran, P., & Chatzidakis, A. (2017). Contemporary issues in marketing and consumer behaviour. Routledge.

Song, R., Moon, S., Chen, H. A., & Houston, M. B. (2018). When marketing strategy meets culture: the role of culture in product evaluations. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46(3), 384-402.