Introduction
Marketing Mix
A marketing mix has four components which are the tactical components of a marketing plan. Also known as the Four P's, the marketing mix elements are price, place, product, and promotion.
Product
A product is a tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. For example, a car is a tangible product and an airline service is an intangible service.
A tangible product has three levels- the core product, the actual product and the augmented product. The core product is the benefit that one receives by using a particular product. In case of a car, the core product is the convenience that one gets while travelling. The actual product is the tangible, physical product. In case of a car, it is the vehicle that one test drives, buys and then collects. The augmented product is the non physical part of the product. It consists of the value addition that comes with the actual product. In case of a car, the augmented product is the warranty and after-sales service.
Another tool for evaluating the product is the Product Life Cycle (PLC).
Price
The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
Place
Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
Promotion
Another one of the 4P's is 'promotion'. This includes all of the tools available to the marketer for 'marketing communication'. Marketing communications has its own 'promotions mix.' The elements of the promotions mix are:
Personal Selling.
Sales Promotion.
Public Relations.
Direct Mail.
Trade Fairs and Exhibitions.
Advertising.
Sponsorship
The All-New Honda City
Honda City is a subcompact car manufactured by the Japanese manufacturer HondaThe first-generation[India] Honda City, codenamed SX8, was based on the EF Civic platform. It was designed for and sold in the South East Asianmarket only.
This City is still a subcompact slotting beneath the Honda Civic, but a four-door sedan model instead for developing markets in Asia, and was built in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Pakistan. A revised, face-lifted City was released in 2000, and included sports sedan models powered by Honda's 1.5 L VTEC engines.
In November 2002, the second generation City was released and included a four-wheel drive version. Like the contemporary Honda Jazz, the City is actually a rebadged Honda Fit, in the City's case a rebadged Fit Aria.
In September 2005, a face-lifted version of the City was launched in Thailand and in Malaysia in October 2005; it is known as the City ZX in Thailand, India, the New City in Malaysia and City in Singapore and Pakistan.
The newest Honda City was unveiled in Thailand on the 10th of September 2008 followed by India on 25th September 2008. Honda also announced that the City will be offered in selected European countries with a 1.4 liter i-VTEC engine mated to either a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed i-SHIFT automated manual transmission.
Product
Here we are dealing with Honda’s 3rd generation All-New City with respect to the looks & design, interiors, Engine, gearbox, performance, features etc.
Looks and Design
Honda calls its design is Arrow shot. The looks of the new city is stunning or in other words we can say that it is an outstanding design among its competitors. The taut styling with lots of sharp cuts and the striking front and rear lights gives the new city a certain dynamism the other cars simply do not match. The tale lamp gives a look of BMW.
Interiors
Like the exterior, the city’s interiors are brilliantly designed. The arrow shot theme continues inside with the dashboard arching towards the central console. The multidimensional dash is well sculpted and there are plenty of stylistic elements which meld with the functional aspect of the interiors as well. The civic type steering wheel is good to hold too and comes with audio controls. Honda has left out the CD player. But they have introduced I pod connective music system. And the seats are the most comfortable in its class. Honda has left out the twin glove box feature that the earlier city had. And they placed one of the air bag there.
Engine, Gearbox and Performance
The new city‘s engine is 1497 cc i-VTEC. This engine is the smallest in this group but it’s highest on technology. It has a full fledged VTEC system that controls intake valve lift and lots of exotic materials to lower friction. It is the most powerful of this segment with a power of 116 bhp at a very high 6600rpm.The engine is the smoothest of the lot and has a sweetness that can find only in Honda. It’s pretty responsive but the widely spaced gear ratios work against it and the midrange feels quite ordinary. Another exciting feature of city is that it is the only car in the segment having the paddle shift. That feature is only with the automatic variant, if we want to drive the car in manual gear shifting we can use the paddle shift. Up and down buttons are placed at the two sides of the steering wheel. Paddle shift technology is only common with sports cars which cost more than 1 crore. Now all the models of Honda have it.
Ride and handling
The suspension has a suppleness that was never present in the earlier city. It is having independent suspension on the front. Over most surfaces and at most speeds it handles well. The long wheel base of the city effortlessly soaks up the road with ease. The steering is a huge revelation and unlike the play station like feel of the earlier city, the new model comes with a lot more feedback. Improving City’s steering was one of Honda’s main tasks and the key reason why its electric steering’s motor was upgraded from 40 to 60 amps to dial in more feedback. And it is the most fuel efficient car among its rivals. It is the car for those who enjoy driving. ABS, dual air bags and EBD are standard feature of this car.
Price
Honda city is costlier than the other cars in the same segment. It is 1 lakh costlier than the other cars in the same segment. It targets the people who needs an outstanding car in the segment in the case of design, comfort, quality and innovation. City has 3 variants the standard variant City 1.5 E MT costs about 8.7 lakhs, the full option non automatic model City 1.5 S MT costs 9.25 lakhs and the automatic model with paddle shift City 1.5 S ATcost around 9.80 lakhs. The prices mentioned above are on-road prices.
Place
Honda Siel Cars India Ltd., (HSCI) was incorporated in December 1995 as a joint venture between Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Japan and Siel Limited, a Siddharth Shriram Group company, with a commitment to providing Honda's latest passenger car models and technologies to the Indian customers.
The Honda City, its first offering introduced in 1997, revolutionized the Indian passenger car market and has ever since been recognized as an engineering marvel in the Indian automobile industry. The success of City as well as all its other models has led HSCI to become the leading premium car manufacturer in India.
The total investment made by the company in India till date is Rs. 1620 crores, further investment of RS. 1000 crore is planned and being currently invested for the coming second plant in Rajasthan. The company has a capacity of manufacturing 100,000 cars.
Manufacturing Facility
HSCI's state-of-the-art manufacturing unit was set up in 1997 at Greater Noida, U.P with an investment of Rs. 450 crore. The green-field project is spread across 150 acres of land (over 6,00,000 sq. m.)
The initial installed capacity of the plant was 30,000 cars per annum, which was thereafter increased to 50,000 cars on a two-shift basis. The capacity has further been enhanced to 1,00,000 units annually in February 2008 . The capacity expansion was necessitated by the excellent performance of all the Honda models, particularly the growing demand for City ZX in India. Several modifications were done by the company with the objective of offering higher quality products to its customers, faster and quicker. The expansion process also included expansion of the covered area in the plant, from 1,07,000 sq. m. to 1,31,794 sq. m.
HSCI currently produces the All-New City, Civic and Accord models in India and the premium SUV, CR-V is sold as a fully imported unit from Japan.
The company operates under the stringent standards of ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environment management.
Sales and Distribution Network
Honda Siel Cars India has a strong sales and distribution network spread across the country. The network includes 94 facilities in 57 cities. HSCI dealerships are based on the "3S Facility" (Sales, Service, Spares) format, offering complete range of services to its customers.
The City is manufactured with 79% indigenisation level and currently enjoys 25% market share in its segment.
Promotion
Honda is a brand known for its quality and innovation. Honda City cars were produced since 1981 and from then company has always maintained the quality and upgraded occasionally based on the requirement and changing customer needs. Honda always tried to incorporate latest technology in their cars and is always into fair competition with their competitors.
Considering the Honda City in India, launched in 1997 the company has positioned the car by clearly understanding the target segment. By the time there were few players and few models in the segment and the concept of the high speed luxury cars were not familiar at that point of time. Honda City was placed in C-segment priced and designed for the upper class people in the segment.
Compared to their competitors like Ford, Honda made a silent entry with less promotional activities. The Honda had their showrooms only on the major tier – 1 cities and they are still in their expansion programmes to make their presence to the other parts also. Honda was never into an aggressive promotional activities but the company always tried to maintain the quality and created a brand image by providing better customer service. Honda city is the largest seller in the segment and ranked fourth position in passenger car segment.
Considering the advertisement, Honda has been very careful and precise in their advertisements. Honda always projected their image as most reliable brand, advanced technology, eco friendly cars. Even considering the television commercials, Honda promoted their hybrid car that runs without gasoline and emits water as the bye product rather than advertising the specific brands existing in the market. The ad was more concentrated to the company’s technological advancements and eco friendly image which differentiated Honda from the competitors.
Honda promoted their products in majority through print media compared to others. Majority advertisements come in magazines and national news papers through that they could educate the target customers in a better way. The customers were always aware of the company policies of providing latest technology and upgrading when ever necessary and also remodelling the entire model after certain period of time. Considering the pilot model in India, Honda City the company had remodelled it thrice till the inception. Honda always tried to create a surprise element during the launch of every model.
If we consider the television commercial of the new Honda City shows the car driving through a picture-perfect landscape. The driver drives through a waterfall only to realise he was seeing his own reflection. The car zooms past the reflection and stops. When the driver steps out he realises that he was only imagining the landscape projecting the smoothness of the car.
12 January 2009 Honda Motors emerged a winner at the second edition of the India Best Brand Survey Awards, bagging eight prizes – three in the four wheeler segment including Very Reliable Brand, Good Advertising and Environment Friendly.
I've been awarded as
Featured Blogger at CarDekho.com for my blog post
My featured blog at Car Dekho
Cars in India. I've been awarded as
Featured Blogger at CarDekho.com for my blog post on
Honda City
For more details:
Christy Sebastian
christychayan@gmail.com
+91 9447373449
