Honda Marketing Strategies in USA - Essay Example

?Honda Marketing Strategies in USA The topic of the essay is how Honda emerged as one of the leading players in the automobile market in the USA. Thefocus of the paper is to analyse the strategy of Honda with respect to selling cars in the USA as well as the adaptation of a different approach from what it had been following in Japan. Introduction: Honda started as a motorcycling company in the 1950’s when it ventured into the US market. At that time it was a humble beginning for a company like Honda which had tough competition from other companies in the USA who were already selling motorbikes and cars in the USA. However, they took rapid strides and within a few decades, from a humble motorcycling company they went on to become the largest automobile manufacturers in the USA. This paper shall analyse the marketing strategies they deployed in order to become successful in an alien market like the USA. “In the late 1950’s Honda contemplated a bold move: entering the motorbike market in the United States. We all know how this story turns out — today Honda is a dominant player in the US, selling a wide range of models in large numbers. But its start could not have been more improbable or less likely to succeed. It was only by staying flexible to an emerging understanding of what the problem — and the opportunities — were, that Honda succeeded in its long shot.” Let us gain an understanding of the marketing techniques Honda developed in order to stay competitive in the USA: “Explicated by Pascale [1984], offers a revisionist account of Honda's motorcycle success.' According to Pascale's interview with six Honda executives, the company's early scale in Japan came from its having a better product, flowing from design skills. Furthermore, Honda did not "target" specific market segments in the U.S., but rather showed an ability to experiment, to learn quickly from mistakes, to rapidly revise design problems, and thereby to discover opportunities.” Honda was already a big consumer giant in Japan before it came into foray in the United States. The name was very famous in Japan and Honda took that brand value and applied it to its products in the USA. It all started with a small entry into the US market where they had no scope for growth, but a carefully plan market research got them to understand that people in US travelled long distance, and therefore started to build bikes of 250 CC and 350 CC engines. However, at the same time the 50 CC bike which was very popular in Japan, known as the Super Club, started making its foray into the market. At the beginning of everything, it did not look like that a small bike would be able to hold on its own in a market dominated by heavy engine bikes as well as choppers, which catered to a specific crowd which emphasises on staking a claim on the roads with utter dominance. However, once the Small Club was rolled out, it created its own niche in the market. It inspired a part of the crown which needed a simple bike capable enough to take them to their shops or offices without any fuss or fanfare. This was important as later on the Super Club came to be known as the normal man’s mode of transport. “At face value, the Super Cub had little appeal for the American buyer. The motorbike market in the US at the time was quite small and dominated by entrenched players such as Harley Davidson, Indian, and imports like Triumph and Moto Guzzi. There were only 1,000 full-time motorbike dealers in the entire country (compared to some 10,000 today), and most bikes were either in the mold of Harley-Davidson — large, heavy, and built for noisy cruising, or were sportbikes made for performance, exemplified by Triumph. Motorbike riders were generally seen as nefarious outsiders, clad in leather jackets and riding in packs to terrorize small towns and cause trouble at funfairs, an image played up by Hollywood — think James Dean, Marlon Brando in The Wild One, and later Easy Rider. Furthermore, Japanese products with funny names were looked upon suspiciously by American consumers.” There was a very cool tagline as well for the Super Bike, which defined the way Honda marketed this bike to claim dominance in the US market. From having zero market share in 1959, it multiplied to the extent of 63 percent, virtually driving out the British bike market in the United States. “he rest, as they say, is history. The Super Cub became a smash hit by opening up the motorbike experience to young buyers who had no interest in the black leather jacket and gang persona, but who just wanted inexpensive, convenient, individual transportation for short trips around town. The famous marketing slogan “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” reinforced the notion of wholesomeness, in contrast to the scary outsider image of Harley Davidson.” The above paragraph defines the way Honda marketed its products at the entry level in the USA. The one liner they had shot them to prominence and they have remained at the top since that very time. It is due to sheer adaptation of the market were they able to demonstrate their products, which were able to meet the needs of the daily commuter in the USA. Work Cited http://www.solsustainability.org/documents/cultivatingmarkets/A%20comparison%20of%20hybrid%20vehicle%20marketing%20strategies.pdf http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/dick.rumelt/Docs/Papers/HONDA.pdf http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/lessons_from_hondas_early_adap.html Read More