Discovery And Land Rover Brand example essay topic

Land Rover North America, Inc. Case Analysis. Executive Summary Charles Hughes, president and CEO of Land Rover North America (LRNA), and his executive committee want to expand LRNA's reach within North America. Based on the growing strength of the U.S. SUV market, research which suggests consumers are seeking vehicles that can help them have "experiences" while being practical, safe, reliable and luxurious, the success of the Discovery in the U.K. and near doubling of the Land Rover brand worldwide, LNRA is seeking to become the "world's premier 4 x 4 specialty company" through effective brand, product and retail strategies. LNRA's success hinges on making the correct positioning, marketing mix and retailing decisions.

II. Problems and Recommendations LRNA needs to determine a positioning strategy for the Discovery and itself in North America to entice its two distinct target markets. LRNA is aware that it has two distinct target markets whose purchasing decisions are impacted by various drivers but also knows that factors such as quality, safety, reliability, comfort, off-road capability and aesthetics overlap. When compared with other SUVs or SUV alternatives, we believe the following differences should be highlighted to develop a distinctive niche for the Discovery and Land Rover brand in the target audience's mind. The Discovery and Land Rover brand should be positioned as luxury car alternatives with rich histories and superb off-road capabilities designed for the cr'e me-de-la-cr'e me of consumers: affluent, intelligent, practical, unique, full of character, and seeking to empower themselves through adventure and exploration during their driving experiences. The Discovery and Land Rover brand should, in effect, convey the following message: you are what you drive.

LRNA must also determine what marketing mix to utilize and how much of its marketing budget should be allocated to each media strategy. First, we would advocate increasing the marketing budget to approximately $30 million to better position LRNA against our competitors. Since our target consumers are educated, married males in the 35-64 age group with annual incomes of $100 K or above, we would suggest allocating sixty percent of our budget to advertising through television and print ads with a 65-35 split between the two. Ads should present the dual nature of the Discovery and Land Rover brand as rugged, exciting, but safe vehicles equally adept at handling the challenge of the jungles of Madagascar and the challenge of the city highway with your children on board. Print ads would be placed in business and news magazines as well as national newspapers such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Washington Post. We would stress corporate advertising of the Land Rover brand as opposed to individual models to increase overall brand awareness.

The remainder of the marketing budget would be split between corporate sponsorship, pr activities and experience marketing. We would recommend continued sponsorship of the Camel Trophy and the "La Ruta Maya Expedition" as well as smaller pr events like the Virginia Cup Tennis Challenge, equestrian trials / polo matches and the ascent up New Hampshire's Mt. Washington. Automotive reviewers and other opinion leaders would be invited to these events at no cost to them. Since the Land Rover Driving Academy yields little to no profit, we would recommend cutting this program. However, we would recommend developing an offshoot of this program that is shorter in duration, lower in operating costs, and provides more practical training such as driving basics and driving under harsh weather conditions because we think consumers will be more likely to opt for a program that addresses their normal driving conditions as opposed to off-road conditions.

We would not recommend promotions such as the "Champagne Invitational Preview", direct mailings or newsletters, but we would advocate development of a site on the World Wide Web to reach a brand new audience. We would also advocate "Love of Product" seminars for staff and retail partners because we think individuals who believe in the product sell it best. Lastly, LRNA must determine if it should continue its use of a dealer network or convert these franchises into freestanding, exclusive retail outlets called Land Rover Centres. Though development of Land Rover Centre's across the nation seems like a risky move, especially in the face of declining luxury car sales and dealership consolidation, we wholeheartedly support it.

Part of the lure of the Land Rover aura is the willingness to tread new territory, take risk and be revolutionary in leadership style. Land Rover Centre's will do just that. Land Rover Centre's will increase consumer exposure to the Land Rover family of vehicles and the Land Rover way of life in a friendly, stress-free environment. We want consumers to not only drive Land Rover vehicles, but to live the Land Rover lifestyle. We want Land Rover vehicles to expose consumers to the wealth of new experiences they are seeking. Centre development costs are high, but we believe the payoff will exceed costs..

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