CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

Today’s society is warm with urbanization and demonstration effect. With a view towards it,there are
drastic changes coming up in all sectors even in the automobile Industries. Thefollowing information
gives an insight about it.In the present context the companies operate on the principle of natural
selection – “Survival of The Fittest”. Only those companies will succeed which at best match to
thecurrent environmental imperatives – those who can deliver what people are ready to buy,according
to
their convenience.But real marketing does not involve the art of selling what the manufacturers make.Or
ganizations gain market leadership by understanding consumer needs and finding solutionsthat delight
consumers. If customer value and satisfaction are absent, no amount of promotionor selling can be
compensating. Hence the aim of marketing is to build and manage

Profitable Business Relationship

This is a part of the strategic marketing done by every company to achieve it objectives andgoals. To
maximize the profits and long-term plans every organization has to follow astrategic planning. Marketing
is much more than just an isolated business function – it is
a philosophy that guides the entire organization towards sensing, serving and satisfyingconsumer needs.
The marketing department cannot accomplish the company’s customer relationship-building goals by
itself. It must partner closely with other departments in thecompany and with other organization
throughout its entire value – delivery network to provide superior customer value and satisfaction. Thus
marketing calls upon everyone in theorganization to “think customer” and to do all they can to help
build and manage profitablecustomer relationship. Marketing is all around us, and we need to know that
it is not only
used by manufacturing companies, wholesaler and retailers, but also by all kinds of individuals and
organizations

.What marketing is what it does and what it offers?

“Marketing is a social and managerial process whereby individual and groups obtain whatthey need and
want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.”“Marketing management is the
process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods
and services to create exchanges that satisfyindividual and organizational goals.”“Marketing offers some
combination of products, services, information, or experiencesoffered to a market to satisfy a need or
want” Marketing is an orderly and insightful processfor thinking about and planning for markets. The
process starts with researching the market place to understand its dynamics. The marketer uses research
methodologies to identifyopportunities, that is, to find individuals all groups of people with unmet needs
or latentinterest in some products or service.The marketing process consists of the following:1. Analyzing
marketing opportunities.
2. Developing marketing strategies.

3. Planning marketing programs

4. Managing the marketing efforts

Before taking any decision and achieving the goals, it has to make analysis of what to do,how to do,
when to do, where to do and who is to do it. This is nothing but strategic planning.Goals indicate what a
business unit wants to achieve whereas strategy is how to get
there.Marketing strategies in simple terms are the complete and unbeatable plans designedspecifically
for attaining the marketing objectives of the firm. Marketing can be called as agame plan for achieving its
goals. Strategy choice will depend on whether the firm or themarketer plays the following roles:

Market leader

A challenger

A follower

A niche

he identification of objectives, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, is an essential backdrop to

strategy formulation. Goals have a quality and time frame attached to them.These are typically spelt out
in terms of financial return, market share, market presence, etc.Thus, the concept of market oriented
strategic planning arises with the link between the products the manufacturer is dealing in and
the market conditions. In this direction, our studydeals only with the marketing strategies i.e.
promotional strategies of the Ford automotives
 COMPANY OVERVIEW

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's third largest automaker
based on worldwide vehicle sales. In 2006, Ford was the second ranked automaker in the US with a
17.5% market share, behind General Motors (24.6%) but ahead of Toyota (15.4%) and DaimlerChrysler
(14.4%). Ford was also the seventh-ranked American-based company in the 2007 Fortune 500 list, based
on global revenues of $160.1 billion. In 2006, Ford produced about 6.6 million automobiles, and
employed about 280,000employees at about 100 plants and facilities worldwide. In 2007, Ford had more
quality awards from J.D Power than any other automaker. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of
Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in June 16, 1903. Ford now
encompasses many global brands, including Lincoln and Mercury of the US, Jaguar and Land Rover of the
UK, and Volvo of Sweden. Ford also owns a one-third controlling interest in Mazda. Ford has been one of
the world's ten largest corporations by revenue and in 1999ranked as one of the world's most profitable
corporations, and the number two automaker worldwide. Ford introduced methods for large-scale
manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce, especially elaborately
engineered manufacturingsequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's combination of
highly efficientfactories, highly paid workers, and low prices revolutionized manufacturing and came to
beknown around the world as Fordism by 1914

History

Ford

was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelveinvestors, most notably
John Francis Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge who would later foundthe Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle
Company. During its early years, the company produced just a few Model T's a day at its factory on Mack
Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Groups of two or three men worked on each car from components made to
order by other companies.

Henry Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would goon to become
one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world, as well as being one of the few to survive
the Great Depression. The largest family-controlled company in the world, the Ford MotorCompany has
been in continuous family control for over 100 years
FORD IN INDIA

Ford started its innings with the Mahindra-Ford joint venture formed in 1994, which produced the Escort
out of M&M Nasik plant. After meeting initial success, sales of theEscort was finally replaced by the Ikon
in 1999. The Ikon marked a new beginning for Fordin India. It rolled out of the Marajmalaingar plant near
Chennai and by now, the company had parted ways with M&M and was renamed Ford India Ltd in 1998.
The Ikon was the firstmodel by a multinational to be developed specifically for India. Though it was
based on the Fiesta, it was a unique body style and was offered and was offered with an option of
threeengines, including a diesel. The car was a big hit. The Ikon underwent several face-lifts and price
cuts to keep demand high. However, fresher competition and a reputation for high-maintenance saw
sales gradually decline. After the arrival of the modern and highly-capableFiesta, another made for- India
car, with state-of-the-art engines, the Ikon has beenmarginalized. The Fiesta has picked up where the
Ikon left and is selling well. Though theIkon and Fiesta have been the mainstays of Ford’s production in
India, the company has hadlimited success with other models.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STU

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limitedresources on
the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitiveadvantage. Any
organization that wants to exchange its products or services in the market place successfully should have
a Strategic Marketing plan to guide the allocation of itsresources. A strategic marketing plan usually
evolves from an organization’s overallcorporate strategy and serves as a guide for specific marketing
programs and policies.Marketing strategy is based on a situation analysis- a detailed assessment of the
currentmarketing conditions facing the company, its product lines, or its individual brands. From
thissituation analysis, affirm develops an understanding of the market and the variousopportunities it
offers, the competition and the market segments or target markets thecompany wishes to pursue.
Marketing strategy is the complete and unbeatable plan, designedspecifically for attaining the marketing
objectives of the firm/business unit. The marketingobjectives indicate what the firm wants to achieve;
the marketing strategy provides the designfor achieving them. For example, if the marketing objectives
of a business unit stipulate thatnext year, it should achieve a sales revenue of Rs. 1,000 crore and a net
profit of 15 percentof sales revenue, it is the job of marketing strategy to indicate how and wherefrom
this saleand profit will come, which product lines/products/brands will accomplish this task and
how.Marketing strategy forms an integral part of marketing planning. Marketing strategy is mosteffective
when it is an integral component of corporate strategy, defining how theorganization will successfully
engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the marketarena. It is partially derived from broader
corporate strategies, corporate missions, andcorporate goals. As the customer constitutes the source of
a company's revenue, marketingstrategy is closely linked with sales. A key component of marketing
strategy is often to keepmarketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement.

MARKETING AND PROMOTIONS PROCESS MODEL:

Development of marketing program requires an in-depth analysis of the market. This analysismay make
extensive use of market research as an input into the planning process. This input,in turn, provides the
basis for the development of marketing strategies in regard to product, pricing, distribution and
promotion decisions. Each of these steps requires a detailed analysis,since this plan serves as the road
map, to follow in achieving marketing goals. Once thedetailed market analysis has been completed and
marketing objectives have been established,each element in the market mix must contribute to a
comprehensive integrated marketing program. Of course, the promotional program element must be
combined with all other program elements in such a way as to achieve maximum impact

Development of marketing program requires an in-depth analysis of the market. This analysismay make
extensive use of market research as an input into the planning process. This input,in turn, provides the
basis for the development of marketing strategies in regard to product, pricing, distribution and
promotion decisions. Each of these steps requires a detailed analysis,since this plan serves as the road
map, to follow in achieving marketing goals. Once thedetailed market analysis has been completed and
marketing objectives have been established,each element in the market mix must contribute to a
comprehensive integrated marketing program. Of course, the promotional program element must be
combined with all other program elements in such a way as to achieve maximum impact.

FORMULATING THE MARKETING STRATEGY

Basically, formulation of marketing strategy consists of three main tasks:1. Selecting the target market,2.
Positioning the offer,3. Assembling the marketing mix.This implies that the essence of the marketing
strategy of a firm for a given product or brandcan be grasped from the target market chosen, the way it
is positioned and how the marketingmix is organized. The target market shows to whom the unit intends
to sell the products; positioning and marketing mix together show how and using what uniqueness or
distinction,the unit intends to sell. The three together constitute the marketing strategy platform of
thegiven product

SELECTING THE TARGET MARKET

To say that target market selection is a part of marketing strategy development is just statingthe obvious.
It does not fully bring out the import of the inseparable linkage between the two.
56

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When the selection of the target market is over, an important part of the marketing strategy of the
product is determined, defined and expressed. Marketing targeting simply meanschoosing one’s target
market. It needs to be clarified at the outset that market targeting is notsynonymous with market
segmentation. Segmentation is actually tee prelude to target marketselection. One has to carry out
several tasks besides segmentation before choosing the targetmarket. Through segmentation, a firm
divides the market into many segments. But all thesesegments need not form its target market. Target
market signifies only those segments that itwants to adopt as its market. A selection is thus involved in
it. Marketing segmentation is a process that throws up not one but several market segments. There may
be segments that aresizeable and the ones that are not so sizeable. There may be segments assuring
immediate profits and the ones that call for heavy investments in market development. There may also
be segments that show great potential, but display tough barriers to entry. As such, thequestion, which
segment/segments, the firm should select as its target market, assumescrucial importance.

STRATEGIC MARKET SEGMENTATION:

Market Segmentation is “dividing up a market into distinct groups that first have Commonneeds and
second will respond similarly to a marketing action”, which was said by

EricN.Berkowitz, Roger A.Kerin

, and

William Redulius.

The Segmentation process involves five distinct steps:

Finding the ways to group consumers according to their needs.

Finding the ways to group the marketing actions – usually the products offered – availableto the
organization.
➢

Developing a market-product grid to relate the market segments to the firm’s products or actions.

57

selecting the target segments toward which the firm directs its marketing actions.

Taking marketing actions to reach target segments. Markets can be segmented usingseveral relevant
bases. For example, demographic Characteristics of consumers, such as age,sex, income/purchasing
capacity, education level etc, form one base for segmentation.Geographic characteristics constitute
another; and buying behavior of the consumer’s formsyet another base.The various types of
segmentations are

Geographic segmentation

Demographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation

Buyer behavior

Benefits segmentation

Volume of purchase segmentation

POSITIONING:

Positioning is a platform for the brand. It facilitates the brand to get through to the targetconsumers. It is
defined as “the art and science of fitting the product or service to one or moresegments of the broad
market in such a way as to set it meaningfully apart from competition.”Positioning is the act of fixing the
locus of the product offer in the minds of the targetconsumers. In positioning, the firm decides how and
around what parameters, the productoffer has to be placed before the target consumers. The
significance of product positioningcan be easily understood from

David Ogilvy’s
words: “The results of your campaign dependsless on how we write your advertising than on how your
product is positioned”.

DEFITIONS OF PRODUCT POSITIONING:

58

Sengupta

, in his book

Brand Positioning

says, “ The aim of product positioning is to createa perception for our brand in the prospect’s mind so
that it stands apart from competing brands… we must cover that space in the consumer’s mind as if we
had won a long-termlease. We must find a strong position in that mind and sit on it….”

Micheal Rothschild

, in his book

Marketing Communications – from Fundamentals toStrategies

says, “Positioning refers to the place a brand occupies in the mind in relation to agiven product class.
This place was originally a product-related concept “concerning

marketstructure”. The concept now refers to the place that the brand holds in the consumer’s

mindrelated to perceptions and preferences”.

Developing a Positioning Strategy

To create a position for a product or service,

Trout and Ries

suggest that managers ask themselves six basic questions.1. What position, if any, do we already have in
the prospect’s mind?2. What position do we want to own?3. What companies must be outgunned if we
are to establish that position?4. Do we have enough marketing money to occupy and hold the position?
5. Do we have the guts to stick with one consistent positioning strategy?6. Does our creative approach
match our positioning strategy?

PRODUCT POSITIONING AND BRAND POSITIONING:

It is essential to understand the relationship between products positioning and brand positioning.
Though in discussions, the two terms are synonymously and interchangeableused, technically they are
different. Product positioning denotes the specific product

59

category/product classing which the given product is opting to compete. And brand positioning denotes
the positioning of the brand viz-a viz the competing brands in the chosen product category. It is evident
that for any product, before entering the market it has tosequentially carry out the two exercises,
product positioning and brand positioning. In thefirst step, the product category where the new entrant
should enter and compete, i.e. againstwhat all products it has to compete, has to be decided. In this
step, it is the broad function thatthe product is trying to serve that matters. This choice of product
category will decide thenature of the competition the product is going to face. Once product category
positioning isdecided, the position for the new entrant against competing brands in the chosen
productcategory has to be analyzed and fixed.

ISSUES IN PRODUCT POSITIONING

Where is the new offer going to compete? As what?

Which product function/customer need is it trying to meet?

What other product categories serve this need? In other words, what are the substitute products that
serve the same need?

Where is the real gap, where is such a new offer most welcome and wanted by themarket?

What are company’s competencies to fight here?

ISSUES IN BRAND POSITIONING:

In deciding the Brand positioning, the issues are:

Which are the competing brands in the chosen product category?

What are the unique claims/strengths of the various brands?

60

What position do they enjoy in consumer’s evaluation and perception?

What is the most favored position…? And yet vacant?

Can the new brand claim the needed distinction and take the position and satisfy theneed?

The major dimension of marketing strategy relates to positioning of the offer. Thefirm has already
selected the target market and decided its basic offer. Now, what isthe conjunction between these two
entities? How do they get connected? What is theinterface? In other words.

What is the locus the firm seeks among the customers in the chosen target marketwith its offering?

How would the firm want the consumer to view and receive the offer?

These are the issues the firm has to grapple with in positioning. And, whileformulating the marketing mix
too, the firm will agitate over these issues. TheProduct

Differentiation and Positioning discusses the multifarious issues involved in thesubject.

PRODUCT REPOSITIONING:

Products do undergo ‘repositioning’ as they go along their life cycle. In some cases, even products that
are faring well are repositioned. This is done mainly to enlarge the reach of the product offer and to
increase the sale of the product by appealing to a wider target market.The product is provided with
some new features or it is associated with some new targetsegments.

PROMOTIONAL DECISIONS:

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Promotion has been defined as the coordination of all seller initiated efforts to set up channelsof
information and persuasion in order to sell goods and services or promote an idea and products. While
implicit communication occurs through the various elements of themarketing mix, most of an
organization’s communications with the market the basic toolsused to accomplish an organization’s
communication objectives are often referred to as the promotional mix.

THE PROMOTIONAL MIX

Advertising

Direct marketing

Interactive marketing

Sales promotion

Publicity/ public Relations

Personal selling

Advertising

Advertising is defined as any paid form of non personal communication about anorganization, product,
service, or idea by an identified sponsor. The paid aspect of thisdefinition reflects the fact that the space
or time for an advertising message generally must be

62

bought. An occasional exception to this is the public service announcement, whoseadvertising space or
time is donated by the media. Advertising is the best-known and mostwidely discussed form of
promotion, probably because of its pervasiveness. It is also veryimportant promotional tool, particularly
for companies, whose products and services aretargeted at mass consumer markets. It is a very cost-
effective method for communicating withlarge audiences. It can be used to create brand images and
symbolic appeals for a company or brand
Direct Marketing

One of the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy is direct marketing, in whichorganizations
communicate directly with target customers to generate a response and atransaction. It has become
such an integral part of the IMC program of many organizationsand often involves separate objectives,
budgets, and strategies; we view direct marketing as acomponent of the promotional mix. Direct
Marketing is much more than direct mail and mailorder catalogs. It involves a variety of activities,
including database management, directselling, telemarketing and direct response ads through direct
mail, the Internet, and various broadcast and print media. One of the major tools of direct marketing is

direct responseadvertising

, whereby a product is promoted through an ad that encourages the consumer to purchase directly from
the manufacturer.

Interactive/Internet Marketing:

Interactive media allow for the back-and-forth flow of information whereby users can participate in and
modify the form and content of the information they receive in real time.Unlike traditional forms of
marketing communications such as advertising, which are one-

63

way in nature, the new media allow users to perform a variety of functions such as receiveand alter
information and images, make inquiries, respond to questions and of course make purchases. In addition
to the Internet, other forms of interactive media include CDROMs,Kiosks, and interactive television.

Sales Promotion:

The next variable in the promotional mix is sales promotion, which is generally defined asthose
marketing activities that provide extra value or incentives to the sales force, thedistributors, or the
ultimate consumer and can stimulate immediate sales, sales promotion isgenerally broken into two
major categories: Consumer-oriented and Trade-oriented activitiesConsumer-oriented sales promotion is
targeted to the ultimate user of a product or service andincludes couponing, sampling, premiums,
rebates, contests, sweepstakes, and various point-of-purchase materials. Trade-oriented sales
promotions are targeted towards marketingintermediaries such as wholesalers, distributors and
retailers.

Publicity/Public Relations

Publicity refers to non personal communications regarding an organization, product, service,or idea not
directly paid for or run under identified sponsorship. It usually comes in the formof a news story,
editorial or announcement about an organization and its products andservices. Like advertising, publicity
is not directly paid for by the company.An advantage of publicity over other forms of promotion is its
credibility. Another advantageof publicity is its low cost, since the company is not paying its time or
space in a massmedium such as TV, radio or newspapers. Public relations are defined as “the
managementfunction which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of
anindividual or organization with the public interests and executes a program of action to earn public
understanding and acceptance”. Public relations generally have a broader objective

64

than publicity, as its purpose is to establish and maintain a positive image of the companyamong its
various publics.

Personal Selling:

It is a form of person-to-person communication in which a seller attempts to assist and persuade

prospective buyers to purchase the company’s product or service or to act on anidea. Unlike advertising,
personal selling involves direct contact between buyer and seller,either face-to-face or through some
form of telecommunications such as telephone sales.Personal selling involves more immediate and
precise feedback because the impact of thesales presentation can generally be assessed from the
customer’s reactions

ASSEMBLING THE MARKETING MIX

Assembling the marketing mix means assembling the four Ps of marketing in the best possible
combination. Involved in this process are the choice of the appropriate marketingactivities and the
allocation of the appropriate marketing effort/resources to each one of them.The firm has to find out
how it can generate the targeted sales and profit. It considersdifferent marketing mixes with varying
levels of expenditure on each marketing activity andtries to figure out the effectiveness of different
combinations in terms of the possible salesand profits. It then chooses the combination/mix of products,
price, place and promotion thatis best according to its judgment. Since marketing is essentially an
interaction between themarketing mix and environmental variable, and since the latter and non-
controllable,marketing becomes synonymous with assembling and managing the marketing mix. Of
course, while assembling the marketing mix, the marketing manager will take due note of
theenvironmental variables Not only will he take due not of them; he will ensure that hismarketing mix
suits the environmental variables. And, its factor that renders the task muchmore complex.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Introduction:
In this research, questionnaire is used as the most common instrument to collect primary data. Thus, the
data is collected from the managers of City Ford, Dimapur and from vehicle owners through
questionnaire. The views of the respondents were recorded in the research as per the questionnaire
been set.

Sampling Design:
1. Population: users of vehicle ( four wheelers) in dimapur and kohima.
2. Sampling segment: dimapur and kohima
3. Sampling unit: respondents from the dealers of Ford and the owners of personal vehicle .
4. Sampling size: 2 managers and 30 respondents from owners of personal vehicle
5. Sampling method: convenience sampling method
6. Type of questionnaire: Both open-ended and closed-ended questions.

Data collection tool: structured questionnaire .

A structured questionnaire is a formal list of questions framed so as to get the facts. For collecting the
data I used structured questionnaire.

Data collection: both primary and secondary

Sources of data: the study was basically conducted by means of both the sources i.e
 1. Primary data source: The data were collected through direct communication with the
respondents. Well structured questionnaire were also used for getting information which consist
of open and closed ended questions.
2. Secondary data source: The secondary data were gathered through magazines, journals and
internet

Research instrument:
The research instrument was the structured questionnaire formulated for the respondents. The data
collected has been analyzed and interpreted using statistical tools such as tables, percentage, pie charts,
and histograms.

Techniques of analysis:
This involves conversion of raw data into useful information, I,e, to analyse each questionnaire of the
respondent and to do critical study on the response to each of answer of the respondent.

Data collected through questionnaire is being processed. This processed data is represented by means of
suitable tables, graphs, and diagrams.

Report research findings: The report with the research findings is a formal written document. The
research finding and personal experience will be used to propose the recommendations.