SMART FORTWO

Principles of Marketing: Smart Fortwo



Principles of Marketing: Smart Fortwo

Executive Summary

Smart fortwo is one of the successful electric vehicles. The car is famous in the consumers due to its features of small size, comfort, environment friendliness and agility. The car has also been getting popularity due to the rising fuel prices. This problem added value to the car's marketing strategy because earlier it was though that car could not succeed due to its increased operating cost in comparison to the cars that drove on gas.

The major reason for the success of Smart fortwo lies in the company's strategies of international business management, marketing, targeting, segmentation, distribution, management, logistic operations and pricing. The marketing, differentiation, targeting and positioning strategies of the company are discussed briefly.

The company utilizes all the effective marketing media for advertising the products. The advertisement strategies also vary depending on the cultural settings. Mainly, the marketing strategies of the company are supported by the techniques of green marketing, and the rising fuel prices. Today, the people of developed nations, particularly Americans have become more concerned about the environment safety. Hence they prefer to purchase Smart Fortwo over other cars due to the presence of electric motor (which adds the characteristic of environment safety to the car), along with the style and comfort. The company also relies on the concepts of interactive and internet marketing; for this the company has a contract with the Smart World, which is responsible for internet marketing of the company's products.

Smart Fortwo retains the differentiation strategy due to its style, agility, electric motor and top of all, the small size. The company targets the consumers and positions the products in the global market, depending on the extensive research conducted at the research and development department of the company.

Introduction

In today's world of competition, it has become essential for every business to design successfully its business strategies such as innovation, differentiation, segmentation, targeting and market positioning. Smart is a Germany based automobile design company, that designs electric vehicles based on micro technology. In 1993, the company resulted due to a joint venture between Daimler-Benz and Swatch. Swatch was a Swiss watch maker, and his idea was to create a fun car, whic should gain consumer attraction due to its style, fun, luxury, and changable designs. In fact, Swacth wanted to embed the characteristics of a good watch into the car.

The company launched an Electric vehicle for two passengers, with the brand name Smart. This model was introduced in 1998; various models have been launched since then, and have been successful in the public due to the effective marketing, segmentation and targeting strategies of the company. In 2008, a two seated car Smart fortwo released with some modifications to the parent car. By the year 2012, US have become the third largest market of electric vehicles, after Germany and Italy. This essay describes the major business strategies of the company that play a vital role in success of Smart ...