Brijesh Shukla Marketing- 9703 Land Rover Case Study

Land Rover
Land Rover North America had just witnessed success in the US market with the launch of their globally successful model The Land Rover Discovery. By the mid 80’s the already successful luxury car maker had experienced an onslaught from the Japanese car firms that were capturing the third world market due to a number of issues faced by the Rover Group. The Japanese firms had identified a gap in the market and were producing SUVs that communicated better with the leisure market which comprised not only of affluent childless adults that looked at these vehicles as a symbol of exclusivity but also the more traditional family sector that also wanted safety and comfort in their cars. Land Rover decided to address the issue by launching their Discovery model to recapture the lost market. Land Rover Discovery proved to be a success in UK.
For the US launch of Land Rover Discovery, we need to look at the data given in the exhibits before deciding on positioning. According to the data given in Exhibit 8, the SUV intenders across the age, sex and marital status have similar requirements. They rate Quality, Safety and Performance over economics or status. Coming to exhibit 13, it is clear that the consumer perception of Land Rover Discovery is pretty high. The only two competitors that score better, as far consumer perception is concerned, are the Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee on the basis of qualities discussed earlier. So it is clear that Discovery needs to be positioned in the market with these qualities as its highlights. Price is one factor that goes against Discovery, but if LRNA could convince the consumers that with all the qualities and aesthetics, it is a better choice over its competitors, the economics would not matter much. The company needs to position Discovery as not only a globally successful 4WD SUV but also take advantage of the already established and successful Range Rover brand. The company must target the market that not only focuses on the routine buyer concerns like safety and quality but also wants their vehicle to be an extension of their identity. As we can see from exhibit 15, the consumer perception of Discovery is better than Range Rover in certain aspects. So the traditional Range Rover market is suitable for positioning Discovery. From the data given in exhibit 16, one can clearly see that almost 60%-80% users of range rover use it for transportation to and fro from work, daily errands and vacations. Positioning Discovery as multi utility, aesthetic and family oriented car would also allow other options to be positioned in the same market. The company definitely needs to increase its marketing budget as is evident from the data provided in exhibit 10. The brand awareness towards Land Rover Discovery is extremely low. Only 2% are intenders are familiar with the vehicle and another 8% somewhat familiar. The ad recall percentage is extremely low too. The marketing strategy should focus mainly on advertising as experience marketing programs. The company needs to cut down on the corporate sponsorship and public relations programs as it has already managed to establish itself in the US market. The need of the hour is to get the information to the consumers about the new model and get them excited about it. The company should allocate 50% of the marketing budget to paid advertising in the form of television commercials, sports and car magazines and billboards. Experience marketing needs to be continued but needs to be tweaked a bit. Rather than focusing on one particular group of intenders who are more interested in an off road experience, the company needs go along with the positioning of Discovery as far as experience marketing is concerned. Holding test drive campaigns and celebrity endorsements would definitely help create awareness towards the brand. Promotions and direct mails would be another good strategy to entice prospective customers. As far as Retailing is considered, the company should go ahead with a Land Rover Center concept. It may appear to be costly in the short run, but it can have multi dimensional benefits for the company. Not only would it accentuate the exclusivity of the brand and strengthen the idea behind promoting it as a status symbol, it would also help the company with sales of off road accessories. According to the data in the exhibits, almost 20% of the revenue could come from the sales of accessories. Having a Center would also help the company serve the customers better, in terms of service and customer relationship as they could train the crew specific to the brand needs.