Hyundai Situational Analysis
The Product
Recognizing consumer demand for better fuel economy and reduced emissions, Hyundai introduced the Sonata hybrid gas-electric vehicle in December 2015 as the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle available to the public. The sonata hybrid system is a development from Hyundai as an image on how to increase the quality of life and give a contribution to society. It used the Hyundai Hybrid System (HHS), which combined an internal combustion engine fueled by gasoline with an electric motor.
Hyundai Hybrid System is focused to reduce pollution and guard the precious resources and at the same time can give fun and pleasant driving experience. Hybrid System was designed to reduce fuel consumption and low exhaust emissions, which are environmentally friendly. Although fuel consumption efficiency becomes the main focus, power and appearance still become the priority. First launched in Indonesia in 2015, Sonata hybrid was not accepted well in the market in the first year.
However, Sonata hybrid is still striving to overcome the market by introducing the 2rd generation in the year 2017. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive situational in order to create a marketing plan that will make the Sonata hybrid more acceptable. This paper is based on performance and marketing concepts for the Sonata hybrid within the Indonesia market.
Macroeconomic Environment
Indonesia is one of the world’s emerging market economies and the world’s fourth most populous country with 240 million people. In 2003-2014, the GDP growth has steadily increased between 3.5, 5.5 and 6.1 percent year on year. Therefore, Indonesian people’s demand for vehicles is very high. This can be seen from the rise of car sale in Q1 2014 that reached 239.036 units for wholesales and 226.565 for retail.
The biggest contribution to the raise comes from the hatchback category, which is popular for its modern and aerodynamic body (Cone 2011). However, it is also important to consider the fuel efficiency factor when choosing a car, as the roads in big cities in Indonesia (Jakarta for instance) are congested. Consumers are aware that this is no longer the time to emit smoke just to show whose engine is the best (Cheverton 2011).
The knowledge on global warming and disaster caused by it are continuously spread by environmental NGO all over the world to raise awareness among the people (Bodily & Allen 2009). They will in turn begin to know the importance to have an environmentally-friendly. The automotive industry will switch their main product, from medium-sized cars such as Kijang, Avanza, and Jeep to smaller city cars. Hyundai’s Sonata hybrid has all the features that modern cars have. The elegant body can accommodate the high-class people since it is fuel efficient and environmentally-friendly. However, in 2015, only 19 units of the Sonata hybrid were sold in the Indonesia market.
It is a very small number, compared to the US (139,700 unit) in the same year. It is caused by the fact that green living lifestyle is still not popular in Indonesia. The government has already got the program to check car emission as a form of policy to raise the people’s awareness of environmentally-friendly cars, but there is no support on the sale of the mentioned cars (Bowden 2009). This is different from the US and Japan governments, which give tax incentive for people with eco-friendly cars.
The high tax makes the Sonata hybrid sold at double price. The Sonata hybrid is actually designed as a middle-class car, but the pricing in Indonesia makes it to be perceived as high-class. Despite the excellent efficiency rate, Sonata hybrid has to compete with the luxurious and prestigious cars (Blythe 2006). Facing the current situation, it is so important to emphasize on the green-living lifestyle to boost the Sonata hybrid’s popularity and sale. Having eco-friendly cars should be presented as today’s trend.
Competitor Overview
There are not many hybrid cars that have been mass produced and sold in Indonesia. Based on the market research, the Sonata hybrid has entered the Indonesia market. However, the competition is about to get tougher as some automotive industry players have considered entering the Indonesian market and launch their hybrid cars. Below is the list of hybrid cars that have been launched in other countries with a good selling reputation in the United States and are predicted to be ready to enter the Indonesia automobile market in the year 2017.
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT for the Sonata hybrid summarizes the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities as summarized in the table 2 below.
Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
The Hyundai Motors has its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea with several international plants in countries across the globe. It is the fifth largest vehicle manufacturer in the world with a capacity to produce more than a million automobiles each year. The company has used the cost leadership strategy to benefit from firm specific advantage, location specific advantage, and internalization advantage due to very low cost of production, thus lower cost of the final Sonara hybrid car.
The company has penetrated the global automobile industry through its high quality and very affordable cars, and is currently in the second of market presence in Indonesia for the hybrid car (Aaker 1996). The low cost price tag on its automobiles is associated with having the lowest cost of production since the company has initiated efficiencies in each production unit as a business strategy (Belch & Belch 2009).
As a result, this venture has developed a cumulative experience, optimal performance, quality assurance, and is in full control of their operational chains (Agarwal, Malhotra, & Bolton 2010). In order to cut down the cost of service delivery and marketing, the company has embraced the modern technology in its production, logistics, and customer care (Akpoyomare, Adeosun, & Ganiyu, 2013). The company has entered into a partnership with car dealership agents rather than engaging its resources in obtaining and selling to its customers in the Indonesian market. The cost leadership strategy adopted by Hyundai Motors for the Sonata hybrid is in line with the Blue Ocean principle of fusing cost effectiveness and high value for customers who demand cheap green cars.
Hyundai Marketing Strategy
Market Segment
Purchasing trends continue to progress proportionately to evolving psychographics. Consumer behavior is increasingly being influenced by a host factors including; wealth propensity, behavioral proclivities, globalization, cultural discernment, and enhanced education. This has driven the acceptance of branding and particular store brands as people become aware of their value (Court et al. 2009).
They are willing to evolve their lifestyles more to sample store brands as much as national brands. In the context of the Sonata hybrid, psychographics refer to the data on the lifestyles of its customers, which is used in creating customer profiles. This information is important to the company, especially when it comes to market segmentation. In particular, the Sonata hybrid will use this information on market segmentation on the basis of lifestyles, social class, and personality attributes (Dagnino & Rocco 2009). The Sonata hybrid has specific segmentation due to the special technology that was designed with a high level commitment to creating environmentally responsible vehicles. The market segments for the Sonata hybrid are discussed below.
Target Group
This group consists of people who want to do more for the environment, have a desire to get a better value from their investment, and have a commitment to reducing fossil fuel dependency (Dagnino & Rocco 2009). This targeted group is considered as ‘influencers’ since they are more educated and affluent. Thus, these traits will help shape the Sonata hybrid buying decision of their relatives (Day 2011). Based on the research of Natural Marketing Institute’s labels for LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability), this group of consumers has the following characteristics;
- Very progressive on environment and always looking for ways to do sustain a living.
- They are not too concerned about price.
Technology Adopter
Market segmentation and strategy for high-technology product follow a typical pattern called “Technology Adoption Life Cycle”. When new technologies are introduced, a typical marketing strategy focuses on attracting the “innovators” and subsequently the ‘early adopters’ for the Sonata hybrid product (Day 2003). The adoption life cycle for the Sonata hybrid is summarized in diagram 1 below.
In the case of the Sonata hybrid product, the innovators are defined as those who pursue products with new technology aggressively. This means that they consider technology to be a central interest in their life and buy because they enjoy exploring the new features in a product (Eugene & Michael 2009). They represent a small segment of the total market at approximately 2.5%. However, they are critical to accelerate adoption in later stages since the Sonata hybrid will be integrated in the Indonesia market as a modern green car.
The early adopter segment, estimated to be about 13.5% of the market, will be pursued in conjunction with the innovators. Early adopters, perceived as “visionaries” in the market, buy new products early in the life cycle. They are imaginative thinkers who find it easy to envision and use new technology. They also rely on their own intuition in purchasing, as opposed to depending on references from others.
In addition, they are more tolerant of bugs or glitches in new products than the average consumer. It is estimated that 14% of the total market for the Sonata hybrid will fall into the early majority segment. Following them is the late majority state consisting of 34% potential buyers. Laggards are at the tail end of the Sonata hybrid product’s distribution channel or network (Farris, Bendle, & Rebstein 2010).
Hyundai Target Market
The target market was differentiated along geographic, demographic, psychographic, lifestyle, interest, and insight traits as summarized in table 2 below.
Sonata Hybrid Positioning
In developing and marketing the Sonata hybrid, Hyundai has established a strong model of how to successfully align suitable goals and values with lifestyle needs consumers, while drawing on its own core competencies (Guo 2013). Hyundai continues to drive revenue growth and brand equity from the Sonata hybrid, which adds environmental benefit without compromising traditional product quality, including such intangible consumer values such as styling, forwardness, and fun.
The Sonata hybrid is not only a hybrid vehicle in Indonesia market, but also a symbol of hybrid technology to most Indonesian consumers (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes 2011). This symbol reflects the spirit of green lifestyle as a sexy trend in this modern era. The Sonata hybrid is seen as stylish, distinct, innovative, versatile, technological and a smart emblem of environmental sustainability in the automobile industry in Indonesia and other markets across the globe (Jobber 2012).
Marketing Goals and Objectives
The goals and objectives of the Sonata hybrid marketing strategy in the 2016 are listed below.
To feature in the top ten positions of hybrid automobiles in the Indonesia market.
- To become the prestigious symbol of the green living trend in Indonesia’s automobile market.
- To deliver and educate people on the concept of a green lifestyle in the automobile use.
- To increase brand awareness and create a distinctive brand image through the creative advertisement and product value experience.
- To increase the sales by 30% at the end of the 2016-2017 financial year.
Marketing Strategies
General marketing strategies
Basically, the Sonata hybrid’s marketing strategy is to continuously spread awareness to people about the importance to keep the environment clean. When people become aware, they will internalize the need to keep the environment clean and adapt green living as a lifestyle (Kluger 2011). This goal of lifestyle marketing is to allow consumers to pursue their chosen ways to enjoy their lives and express social identities through the Sonata hybrid product. This is summarized in diagram 2 below.
By emphasizing on the attention to the environment, a certain level of awareness is expected until it becomes an urgent need and an irreplaceable lifestyle through the Sonata hybrid. The grand theme for Sonata hybrid’s campaign in Indonesia is, Efficiency Sculpted Form: New Thinking. The theme will cover all marketing-communication activities for the Sonata hybrid in the year 2016. It will try to touch the consumers’ emotional side by inspiring them to be proud to use Sonata hybrid as a lifestyle product.
A successful product by definition provides graffiti a consumer’s needs and wants (Kinney, Skaife, & William 2007). Product benefits can be intrinsic (pleasure that results from owning or using the product) or extrinsic (monetary value generated from owning or using the product). For the Sonata hybrid, the proposed marketing communication strategy will try to grab the two dimensions above, therefore, extend relevance to multiple consumer segments (Kotler & Keller 2012).
With the new thinking theme, the Sonata hybrid could be a pride for each user. The theme will also highlight the prestigious aspects of the car to gain a competitive advantage over more popular luxurious cars in the same price range (Kossowski 2007). For instance, the theme message will highlight the significance of prestige when using the Sonata hybrid and saving the Earth at the same time.
The car requires less gasoline to run, and therefore cheaper to operate. The more you drive, the more you ‘save’. In addition to saving money, the Sonata hybrid saves the consumers’ time she or he could have spent at the gas station. This advantage creates an intrinsic pride for its owner as a “responsible” consumer with a role in addressing environmental concerns (Kohli & Jaworski 1990). The latter benefit is often overlooked by companies outside the niche industry.
However, with societal challenges such as global warming and foreign oil dependency becoming more prevalent, consumers increasingly want to feel like they are part of the solution, and Sonata hybrid makes this possible. The Sonata hybrid will make its users feel like a proud brand ambassador. As people share their proud feeling with others, they will inspire and influence other people (Noreen, Brewer, & Garrison 2010). It will bring two benefits to Sonata hybrid: spreading knowledge on the importance to save the Earth by use of an eco-friendly car and the increase in sales eventually.
The Marketing strategies that will be used to market the Sonata hybrid are ‘Above the Line’ and ‘Below the Line’. These marketing strategies are aimed at raising the brand awareness in order to shape the brand image as well as reach the benefits wanted by the target market. TV commercial will be broadcast mainly on weekends, during sports or talk show programs. One of the critical strategies is to organize some events to build emotional bonding between the target market and the Sonata hybrid brand.
It can also be used as a medium to share experience and test-drive the Sonata hybrid (MacKay & McKiernan 2011). Since a strong impression will have a long-term effect in the minds of the targeted market, it is assumed that brand-recall affinity will be increased in the minds of potential customers when making the buying decision. It is very important to choose the programs, broadcast times, and the event formats carefully, in order to make the marketing communication effective and maximize the outcome of each marketing strategy (Narver & Slater 1990).
Brand and Product Value Proportion
Basically, accomplishment of brand and item administration relies upon an appropriate arrangement of a useful strategy into the formation of adaptable, automatic, and quantifiable estimation of observation among the intended interest group. Brilliantly, this strategy ought to have fundamental components that can, without much stretch, influence the perception, either emphatically or adversely. In the case of the Sonata hybrid, the SWOT model revealed that the company has a very proactive and successful marketing approach as part of the value proportion.
The primary measurement of this marketing approach puts the estimations on adaptability, caution, and dynamism toward one side of the scale while security, request, and control on the other side for optimal value achievement (Press & Simms 2010).
The second measurement takes a look at interior introduction, mix, and solidarity on one side with brand awareness and contention on the other side. In this way, understanding the product positioning environment has empowered the organization to pick up a vital upper hand in various ways in marketing the Sonata hybrid brand within the dynamic Indonesian market (Tong & Hawley 2009). The Sonata hybrid has been packaged through the cross stage product showcasing procedure to advance a better comprehension of the business dynamics, market forces, customer demand, and competitive advantage sustainability.
Marketing Mix
Current Market Mix
Branding is a “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition” (Wright, Chew, & Hines 2012, p. 57). The objective of the business is to penetrate the hybrid automobile market in Indonesia through provision of affordable and quality hybrid automobiles, service plans, and ownership benefits to clients.
Hyundai accentuates on customer satisfaction and quality automobile services as a strategy for upholding its position as the preferred garage for customers looking for the customized Sonata hybrid. In order to diversify market operations, the Hyundai has created multiple products for the Sonata hybrid with different benefits, financing restoration, and providing an affordable service plan for each category of the automobile.
As a result, this has created an environment of own competition and block other competitors from encroaching into this customized hybrid automobile market (West, Ford, & Ibrahim 2010). These sub-products and services are differentiated by features, prices, and difference in the level of customization as requested by clients. In the presence of increased competition, Hyundai has ensured that its Sonata hybrid automobile products are affordable to the target market. In this case, the appropriate pricing strategy has been the ‘good, better, best’ pricing to ensure that the targeted customer segment has a variety of options in terms of cost of each service plan as determined by the level of customization.
In the establishment of the Sonata hybrid product prices, essential factors are considered and taken care of. These are the sensitivity of the company to its customers’ interest, the market prevalence, and the products to be sold (Jobber 2012). A vigorous research team was instituted to overlook the possible pricing strategies that do not infringe the economic status of the customers in offering affordable Sonata hybrid.
Hyundai has adopted a flexible and proactive advertisements meant to appeal to each customer segment for the hybrid products. Besides, Hyundai has a series of after sales services such as discounts, coupons, and rewards to customers who make the highest number of purchases for the Sonata hybrid. The business uses direct, online and database marketing through its Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and e-commerce models (Bowden 68).
The main objective of the promotion plan is to attract the customers’ market through the company’s website and fan pages in order to increase the customer traffic for the Sonata hybrid product. The objective aims at packaging the Sonata hybrid as a favorite of customers who want green cars. Through massive recruitment of online fans on the Twitter and Facebook pages, the company has not only benefited from an increased traffic of online compliments, but also recorded high rates of customer loyalty as most customers are influenced by reactions from other clients.
Offering the Sonata hybrid product and accompanying services in the right place and time create right place strategy for the business. In other words, clients are supposed to get the services at the most convenient place (West, Ford, & Ibrahim 2010).
Since the Indonesian market is dynamic, with relatively good connectivity, the objective of the place management at the Hyundai Motors was to adopt the business to customer contact strategy in order to directly deal with its customers by creating sales points in different regions to serve the clients. Direct interaction with the clients was critical in knowing the customer needs, which leads to developing hybrid automobile products that suit their expectations as well as market needs (Wormeli 2007). Therefore, the sales locations are currently not limited to Jakarta but major cities in Indonesia.
New Market Mix
The proposed marketing mix for the Sonata hybrid will integrate the aspects of price, product, promotion, and place as summarized in the tables 3 and 4 below.
Table 3: Product, place, and price mixes for the Sonata hybrid.
Table 4: Promotion mix for the Sonata hybrid.
Strategies for Competitive Advantage
Based on the challenge competition and high brand bargaining power as identified in the above analysis, Hyundai should consider the introduction of competitive pricing, multiple product development, and unique market targeting to increase its competitive advantage, especially in the Sonata hybrid brand. Besides, Hyundai should reduce the effects of high brand bargaining power through the creation of multiple products from a single product in an environment of self competition, especially for the Sonata hybrid brand (Wormeli 2007). The competitive advantage mix is summarized below.
Perspective: Learning and Innovation
Perspective: Internal Business Process
Perspective: Customer
Debate in Marketing and Brand Management
Introduction
I have selected the debate on the need for remodeling brand management to fit within the marketing dynamics of the 21st century. The articles I have chosen is Brand Debate: Focus on Product or Purpose? The debate proposes a paradigm shift from the traditional brand management strategies into a more holistic, pragmatic, and market oriented approach. The debate proposes that product branding remodeling will be important in improving visibility and customer catchments in the currently diverse and technology dependent marketing mixes.
Irrespective of the size or location of a business, product branding remodeling is necessary as part of the marketing strategy aimed at creating a unique market niche through brand architecture, brand symbolism, and brand as a product. This is possible through evaluation of the positioning strategies in line with different environmental and demographic variables. From the debate, external factors such as demographic, technological, economic, environmental, and government segments affect the general business environment.
This means that product brand management should be made static and dynamic to accommodate these variables. I selected this debate because of my interest in product brand management as part of a marketing strategy. I am interested in becoming a product branding consultant and this debate is laden with a lot of information on brand management remodeling strategies.
Summary of the Debate
The article, Brand Debate: Focus on Product or Purpose?, highlights the internal factors such as planning, diversification, and competition as essential in remodeling brand management to fit within the marketing dynamics of the 21st century (Somma 2016). This means that a stronger brand management can be attributed to comprehensive brand architecture, strategic demographic segmentation, and promotion of a brand on the basis of product benefits expected by customers.
As indicated in the article, there is a need to improve the current brand management strategies through integration of modern marketing and product visibility tools such as search engine optimization and social media applications (Somma 2016). The article proposes that this state can be achieved through integrating brand equity as the foundation upon which product management is based. Brand equity has an essential tool for marketing, customer services, and communication from within and without an industry setting, relationship with clients, and market segmentation.
This can be made possible by the technological revolution and inventions aimed at remodeling efficiency, reducing redundancy, and embracing systematic orientations in the branding products for the 21st century customers (Somma 2016). To enable a brand to be more efficient, the article proposes that there is a need for a well organized hierarchy in managing the benefits and other components of the brand to appeal directly to different customer and marketing segments.
Thus, keeping a positive image among all stakeholders is essential. Reflectively, the mud mapping plan, as part of remodeling brand management, should incorporate sustainable communication model and promote amazing endeavor to its customers since perception might influence brand intake (Somma 2016). Brand architecture should review technological conversancy and lifestyle of targeted customers.
Many modern customers are technology conversant and have the embraced new technological way of life. Their lifestyles revolve around technology from transport to communication. Since branding in the 21st century is becoming technology dependent, it is necessary to establish the estimate statistics on the same and use the findings to remodel product management as a strategy for optimal output functionality (Somma 2016).
The article concludes that it is important to appreciate comprehensive population patterns as part of the product architecture to ensure that a modern product brand management is focused, streamlined, and holistic in achieving its primary aim of optimizing product acceptance.
Personal Reflection
Technical Communication as a subject has also undergone a lot of metamorphosis due to the emerging use of technological aspects in product management in the currently dynamic consumer environment. Since technology and communication models directly influence how businesses are conducted, business models have also taken the same complexity. This aspect is often underdeveloped in many product management strategies currently employed by organizations across the world.
Therefore, I agree with the proposal in the article that it is mandatory to carry out structural planning, especially in locating target market and actualizing through execution of preset plans without having to physically interact with the target. With proper planning, messaging, and market objectivity, comprehensive implementation is achievable at optimal level, especially when the same is appealing to the cognitive behavior and perception.
In brand assortment, planning is critical, especially in a dynamic market controlled solely by customer preference and perception. In sales forecasting, the brand management strategy should assort its merchandise according to the lifecycle of each category of targeted users of a product. Basically, I agree that the assortment adopted should be informed by past volumes of sales and customer responses to periodic surveys of performance of a brand.
I concur with the debate that a properly researched brand and product management plan determine the success and sustainability in penetrating a market with a product. To increase credibility and maintain professionalism, product processes and feature should flawlessly facilitate a healthy and a lifetime relationship between the company and its clients. A properly designed brand and product management plan should be practical in presenting brand knowledge, awareness, penetration strategy, and passing information to target audience.
In achieving these objectives, I concur with the argument that the plan should map possible competition, positioning strategy, consumer and market analysis, and geographical region of operation. Generally, these concepts are vital in forecasting and act as a guide towards actualizing a brand management plan for a product in the 21st century. However, the plan should be flexible to market dynamics and embrace alterations where necessary.
Product focus is the most compelling strategy for the success of a business. Through product focus, a company is in a position to segment market for the solar light product in line with the affordability strategy. As a result, concurring with the article, the aspect of sustainability and competitive pricing gave a company an upper hand in the rechargeable solar power lamp market. Through partnership with the government and local agencies, a business person may be in a position to reach the target clients and proactively manage the product brand. The clients in remote areas often trust the local agencies than outsiders.
Thus, in my view, it is important to integrate the aspect of localization to increase chances of product intake as part of product brand management remodeling. I agree with the assertion in the article that a good brand positioning, as a marketing strategy, guides the marketing plan by illustrating the brand’s essence, and showing how it helps the consumers achieve their goals. Consumers must believe that there are meaningful differences for branding strategies to be successful and create brand value. In the context of remodeling the brand positioning strategy, branding will ensure that there is sustainability since customers will associate this brand with quality and affordability.
In order to build a strong brand, amalgamation or consolidation will unite a number of sub brands into a single unit that is more appealing to relatively poor clients. Strong brand strategy will facilitate the restructuring of effective sales and public awareness to develop product knowledge to the clients. If well merged with appropriate market mix, the strategy will secure a continuous quantitative increase of the market by constantly maintaining relatively fare prices of the products on offer as well as the maintenance of fair competition level from other competitors.
Besides quality in service, delivery and customer satisfaction depend on the marketing segmentation as a product brand remodeling strategy. Therefore, I concur with the argument that customer retention is achievable through the creation of reliable and affordable marketing channel that is essential in monitoring matrix that maps out potential competitors and identifies weaknesses and strength of the clients. Moreover, the reporting criteria should reflect the success of marketing calendar and set targets generated from time to time.
This is because the success of brand and product management in a new market depends on a proper alignment of a functional idea into the creation of flexible, involuntary, and quantifiable measurement of perception among the target audience. Reflectively, this idea should have essential elements that can easily sway the mind, either positively or negatively.
Finally, I concur with the argument that successful execution of brand and product management solely functions on inclusiveness, creation of quantifiable tracking devices for results, and recruiting an informed support team. Generally, these effects are very flexible since the mind is characterized by constant dynamics that may make previous designs irrelevant. As a response strategy, players in the marketing industry should capitalize on endorsements through testimonials from important figures to promote acceptance.
When the image of the user as projected in such an advertisement resembles the perceived satisfaction of a customer, such a party would aspire to access the same benefits from the use. A properly designed brand and product management plan should be practical in presenting brand knowledge, awareness, penetration strategy, and passing information to target audience. In achieving these objectives, the plan should map possible competition, positioning strategy, consumer and market analysis, and geographical region of operation.
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