MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Marketing Communication Strategy

Marketing Communication Strategy

Question 1

As the marketing communication department of Skoda, we have been asked to prepare a two years communication plan for our new luxury car model - Prius, which is to be launched through out UK. Our marketing analysis identified the target market, which consists of three groups: private consumers, fleet consumers and the government. The demographic profile and the psychographics profiles amongst the three target markets and their media usage have also been identified (Grunig 2002 487-521). Consequently, a communication strategy that makes use of various communication channels has been created.

Introduction

As we have been asked to develop an integrated two-year communication plan for Prius, this plan will then focus on the launch of Prius in the UK automobile market. The budget has been set at $4m (approximately $2000 per car for 2 years). Traditionally, single car dealers are responsible for local advertising and the promotion of their special offers. However, most manufacturers today create and support national brand image and advertising campaigns. Accordingly, this campaign is designed for the UK national market.

Review of Marketing Plan

This section will briefly review some key points in our marketing plan that is highly related to our marketing communication brief. Our brief is designed to integrate with the strategic marketing objectives, namely, to create and become the market leader of hybrid-automotive car producers in the UK automobile market (niche market strategy and first mover strategy).

The Automobile Market

Skoda Prius is formally falls into the automotive passenger motor sector (PMV) which is defined as follows: 'The car sector of the motor industry covers private cars of all descriptions and engine capacities, regardless the type of fuel, providing that they conform to all the regulations for road use and are defined specifically to carry people (Liu 1999 32-64).'

The UK PMV industry consists of four car manufacturers and more than 200 component, tooling, design and engineering firms. These manufacturers are largely based in Victoria and South UK, with small share of activities in New South Wales. The four motor vehicle manufacturers are Skoda, Ford, Holden, and Mitsubishi. Skoda and the others are all wholly owned by foreign companies. In 2002, the above motor vehicle producers manufactured almost 360,000 motor vehicles in UK. In 2003, a total of 909,811 motor vehicles were sold on the UK market. This was a new record, surpassing the previous record of 824,309 set in 2002 by 10.4 per cent. Domestic sales of UK made passenger motor vehicles and derivatives totalled 276,462 vehicles, or 30.4 per cent of the total UK motor vehicle market.

In the formidable 20th century, the combination of the brand name and mass marketing is prepared to take a reverse gear to a more scientific loom that stems its worth from structuring individual client dealings. It is high time to demote brand name, previously anguishing from declining faithfulness, and merely make them one constituent of an on the whole customer association. Information technology, they note, can now turn 50 million-member market segments into 50 million ...