Direct marketing

Branding

“Maintaining a global viewpoint, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction’’

- Honda Motors

The Honda brand name has strong consumer loyalty, however only in specific target segment of the whole society.The Honda brand is created based on several key aspects, however the most important elements are the fuel efficiency and environmental consciousness.(Martin, n.d)

Competitor Differentiation

The UK, as the seventh-largest economy in the world and the second-largest economy in the European Union with major international trading power (Export, 2012), has proved attractive to many of the leading global vehicle manufacturers. Most of these motor vehicle producers in the UK include the US multinational company Ford, the Japanese manufactures Toyota and Honda, and the German firms Volkswagen, BMW and Audi are the major competitors of Honda Motors.(Keynote, 2008)

Kotler (n.d) has stated " To build a profitable relationship with target customers, marketers must understand customer needs better than competitors do and deliver more customer value. To the extent that a company can differentiate and position itself as providing superior customer value, it gains competitive advantage"

The Honda use product differentiation strategy to increase its possibility to gain competitive advantages over its competitors.

In order to meet customers needs the company develops the design of the vehicles. The company developed the Element brand, which is available in different models.(Green & Keegan, 2010)

Physical evidence

Physical signs help potential customers to estimate the product before they purchase it. (Marketing teacher, n.d.) Therefore physical evidence for Honda will be its large stores in eco-friendly ambience. The walls will be in mix of white and green colours and the floors will covered with artificial grass. The ceiling of the hall will be equipped with HD- display which will showing floating clouds.

Also the hall will provide eco-friendly atmosphere through the design of the billboards and posters, which will be in form of various leaves of trees.

All new eco-vehicles will be surrounded with professional female models in green clothes as eye candy for customers.

People

The current number of employees in the Honda Motors is 179, 060 people worldwide. (Wikipedia, 2012). The Honda Eco will create talent Board of directors who are assigned to identify promising individuals in all businesses and regions and develop them into future business leaders.

The H-Eco will consider about training the sales executives, as the people who sales the product to the customers and present the company. They will be trained properly over adapted sections designed especially for them taking into consideration the various factors. Training will focused on the knowledge about eco-cars and special briefing how to encourage potential customers to use eco-vehicles.

Direct marketing

The Honda will aim in imaginative people, and they are also very well-connected, leaders in the community that operate large social networks. Social media, such as Facebook has become one of the most effective communication channels between the company and customers, fans. (Mulldon, 2011) Therefore the Eco-car will have its own fan page where the brand can communicate directly with its users. Moreover the Honda will introduce calculator of carbon dioxide emissions to attract more fanatics. The Honda will introduce a direct mail campaign to promote its the eco-model cars and show off company’s new image to clients. The company will aim to encourage less usage of fuel and reduced CO2 emission.