Toyota’s most popular car in North America is the inexpensive Camry, the car targeted at the lower end of the market. Based on informal information from sales records and competitor sales, Toyota executives, especially CEO Toyoda, perceived a need to move into the luxury car market. The people who for years bought Camrys were moving up in life and wanting more expensive cars, such as the BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and Cadillac. To fully define the decision requirements, Toyota dispatched 20 designers to the United States to study what customers wanted. They visited dealers, buttonholed car buyers, and organized focus groups. They learned that the need was for a luxury car that would suit younger buyers who wanted to buy European cars but could not yet afford them. Because the United States was the major market, a small team stayed in California designing clay models. In the meantime, the U.S. subsidiary, Continue reading
Marketing Case Studies
Case Study of Apple Inc: “Think Different” Branding Campaign
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple on April 1, 1976. The two Steves, Jobs and Woz (as he is commonly referred to — see woz.org), have personalities that persist throughout Apple’s products, even today. Jobs was the consummate salesperson and visionary while Woz was the inquisitive technical genius. Woz developed his own homemade computer and Jobs saw its commercial potential. After selling 50 Apple I computer kits to Paul Terrell’s Byte Shop in Mountain View, CA, Jobs and Woz sought financing to sell their improved version, the Apple II. They found their financier in Mike Markkula, who in turn hired Michael Scott to be CEO. The company introduced the Apple II on April 17, 1977, at the same time Commodore released their PET computer. Once the Apple II came with Visicalc, the progenitor of the modern spreadsheet program, sales increased dramatically. In 1979, Apple initiated Continue reading
Case Study of Godrej: Brand that Went for a Makeover to Succeed
In 2008, the Rs 9,000-crore Godrej Group did something it has never done before: changed its brand identity. Flanked by daughter and executive director and president, marketing, Tanya Dubash, chairman of the Godrej Group Adi B Godrej, unveiled the group’s colourful new logo before the media and said, “With our new initiatives, we are targeting a growth of 25-30% annually. The purpose of the whole exercise is to make the Godrej brand relevant and contemporary. Tanya is the chief architect of the project.” Shedding its “frumpy old lady” image (chairman Adi Godrej admitted in a 2002 press meet that a Godrej as a brand has the image of “a frumpy old lady” and is looked upon as “an industrial brand”), the 111-year-old Godrej Group now sports a logo in bright colours-green, blue and ruby-a far cry from the staid look it has donned since the Group was founded at Lalbaug, Continue reading
Case Study: MasterCard’s Business Model
What is MasterCard? But what does MasterCard exactly do? It provides credit, debit, and prepaid cards from over 25,000 financial institutions. However, MasterCard is primarily a credit card company and specializes in the innovation of these cards throughout the world. It is a also a payment solutions company and through its three tiered business model as franchisor, processor and adviser, the company has developed a new world for its card holders and merchants. The company provides marketing, approval, and transaction services for a variety of payment products in more than 210 countries and territories. Regardless of the type of card, all of them act under the “four-party” payment system. Under this system there are obviously four types of people, the card holder, the issuing bank, the merchant, and the acquiring bank. First, the issuing bank provides their customer with a card that they market and issue throughout their locations. Then Continue reading
Case Study of Dupont: Marketing of “Disappearing” Products
Imagine how tough it would be to be responsible for marketing a “disappearing” product. That’s the challenge faced by a group of marketers at DuPont, a company with a portfolio of brands that, for the most part, reach final consumers only as ingredients in finished products. Teflon non-stick coating, Lycra fibers, Freon refrigerant, Kevlar bullet-resistant fabric, Stainmaster carpet–these well-known DuPont products share the distinction of being used in the manufacture of products that ultimately bear some other company’s brand. Jamie Murray, the person in charge of managing what people think of the overall DuPont brand, doesn’t mind marketing products that can’t be found on store shelves or ordered from catalogs. “We are the youngest 200 year-old company you will ever meet. We are always out there searching for those needs that we can invent something to satisfy.” The company’s slogan, “better things for better living,” hints broadly at the variety Continue reading
Case Study: General Electrics “Imagination At Work” Ad Campaign
Throughout its history General Electric Co. enjoyed the benefits of a consistent marketing message. From the 1930s to the 1950s the company relied on the slogan ‘‘Live better electrically,’’ which was followed by two decades of variations on the word ‘‘progress,’’ such as ‘‘Progress is our most important product.’’ In 1979 GE unveiled ‘‘We bring good things to life,’’ a cornerstone to one of the most successful corporate branding campaigns in history, backed by about $1 billion in advertising. The company also had consistent leadership in the form of John F. ‘‘Jack’’ Welch, who became chairman and CEO in 1981. The charismatic leader sought to build up GE’s status in all of the technology, service, and manufacturing areas that the company participated in. By the time Welch announced that he would retiring in 2001, GE, fast growing and profitable, had a market capitalization of $505 billion, making it second only Continue reading