Auto Brand
Auto Brand

Author: Anders Parment

Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers

Published: 2014-01-03

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0749469307

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The car - once everybody's dream and a key status symbol in most countries and cultures - has been extensively questioned in the last decades and in the last few years particularly. Urbanisation, traffic congestion, pollution problems, heavy reliance on scarce oil supplies, safety issues and ever-growing competition, have all provided significant business challenges for the automotive industry. Many car manufacturers have had to fundamentally rethink their design, brand and marketing strategies to thrive in a savvy, consumer-led culture, and markets that are becoming increasingly restrictive in size and opportunity. Auto Brand provides a roadmap to branding and marketing success in the automotive industry from a leading industry expert, featuring case studies from major car brands including Audi, BMW, Holden, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Porsche, Saab, Seat, Skoda, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, and Volvo. It includes findings from 100 interviews conducted with CEOs, marketing managers, sales managers and sales people, from manufacturer level to small rural dealers, as well as industry experts, policy makers, free-stranding repair shops and professional organizations. Auto Brand is essential reading for marketing managers, sales managers, CEOs, development managers and dealers in all types of companies in the car industry including: manufacturers, national sales companies/importers, dealers, finance companies, insurance companies, free-standing repair shop channels and more. It is the first book to specifically address how to deal with the challenges facing the automotive industry and illustrates how companies can take advantage of new technologies, adapt to emerging trends in consumer behaviour, improve profitability and build even more successful brands in the future.

Once Upon a Car
Once Upon a Car

Author: Bill Vlasic

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-10-04

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 006204222X

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Once Upon a Car is the brilliantly reported inside-the-boardrooms-and-factories story of Detroit’s fight for survival, going beyond the headlines to chronicle how the country’s Big Three auto companies—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—teetered on the brink of collapse during the 2008 financial crisis. In a tale that reads like a corporate thriller, Bill Vlasic, who has covered the auto industry for more than fifteen years, first for the Detroit News and now for the New York Times, takes readers into the executive offices, assembly plants, and union halls to introduce a cast of memorable characters, many of whom are speaking out for the first time, including the executives who struggled to save their companies but in the end had to seek a controversial, last-gasp rescue from the U.S. government. Vlasic goes behind the scenes to portray the men at the top during Detroit’s last stand. Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors, tried to turn around a dying company, only to be forced to resign as a condition of the government bailout. Bill Ford, great-grandson of the legendary Henry Ford, had the will to keep Ford alive but needed the guts to hire an unknown outsider, Alan Mulally, to transform the company before it crashed. At Chrysler, leadership was constantly changing as new owners tried in vain to fix the smallest of the beleaguered Big Three. And through it all, the president of the United Auto Workers union, Ron Gettelfinger, fought to save the jobs of the men and women who build American-made cars and trucks. This tale of an iconic industry in crisis is more than a big business drama and provides a rich, unvarnished portrait of how Detroit’s decline affected tens of thousands of workers and dozens of communities nationwide. The story moves from the gleaming corporate skyscrapers and massive auto plants to the halls of the U.S. Congress and into the Oval Office, where President Obama and his aides wrestled with how to keep General Motors and Chrysler from going out of business. Vlasic shows why the bailout worked, and how Detroit can succeed under new leadership and build automobiles equal to any in the world. Once Upon a Car tells a uniquely American tale of success, failure, and redemption. It is an important and illuminating chapter in an astonishing story that is still unfolding. And no one is more qualified to write it than Bill Vlasic.

Driven
Driven

Author: David Kiley

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2004-04-07

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0471663840

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An exclusive look at one of the world's most successful and controversial companies, and the mysterious family behind it. BMW is arguably the most admired carmaker in the world. It's financial performance is the envy of its competitors, and BMW products inspire near-fanatical loyalty. While many carmakers struggle with falling sales, profits and market share, demand for BMWs continues to grow, frequently outpacing production. Now, David Kiley-Detroit Bureau Chief at USA Today and author of Getting the Bugs Out, which covered Volkswagen's demise and rebirth, goes inside the fabled German automaker to see how it does what it does so well. With unprecedented access to BMW executives, Kiley goes behind the walls of BMW's famed "Four Cylinders" headquarters in Munich at a time when the company is in its most aggressive, and some say riskiest, expansion in its history and when some of the company's new products, like the 7 Series sedan and Z4 roadster, are for the first time drawing as many barbs from critics as bouquets. Kiley covers intimate details of the boardroom drama surrounding the company's nearly disastrous acquisition and subsequent sale of the British Rover Group and its expansion into selling MINI and Rolls Royce cars. Besides being a world-class carmaker, BMW is also considered one of the smartest consumer marketing companies and Kiley explores the extraordinary value and management of the BMW brand mystique. He also takes a revealing look at the mysterious and ultra-private Quandt family of Bad Homburg Germany, which owns a controlling stake in BMW: Johanna and Susanne Quandt, two of the wealthiest women in Europe and Stefan Quandt, one of the wealthiest bachelors on the continent. David Kiley (Ann Arbor, MI) is the Detroit Bureau Chief at USA Today who has covered the auto industry for 17 years. He has been featured on Nightline, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and the Today show. He is also the author of Getting the Bugs Out: The Rise, Fall, and Comeback of Volkswagen in America (0-471-26304-4), also available from Wiley.

A Profile of the Automobile and Motor Vehicle Industry
A Profile of the Automobile and Motor Vehicle Industry

Author: James M. Rubenstein

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2014-01-31

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1606495372

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The motor vehicle industry is one of the world’s largest. More than 1 billion vehicles are in use around the world, and 80 million are produced and sold annually. Motor vehicles—including passenger cars, trucks, and commercial vehicles such as buses and taxis—are the principal means by which people and goods are transported within and among most communities in the world. This book details the history of the motor vehicle and of the leading carmakers. Inside, you’ll learn just how cars are made and sold; the leading suppliers of parts that go into a car; the increasing role of government in regulating vehicles; and future challenges for the industry. The motor vehicle industry includes corporations that design, develop, and manufacture cars and trucks. These carmakers, such as Ford and Toyota, are among the world’s most-familiar corporate brands. The motor vehicle industry also encompasses lesser-known businesses, including several thousand parts makers, tens of thousands of retailers, and specialized lending agencies. The importance of the motor vehicle industry transcends even its central role in the global economy. The industry was responsible for many of the fundamental innovations of 20th century production, such as corporate organization, manufacturing processes, and labor relations, as well as sales innovations including product branding and consumer financing. In the 21st century, the motor vehicle industry has been a leader in adopting new production strategies and expanding into new markets.

The significant revival of the MINI's brand
The significant revival of the MINI's brand

Author: Corinna Jung

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2011-12-08

Total Pages: 25

ISBN-13: 3656079552

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Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 76 % (1,0), University of Exeter (Business School), language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction Consumers consider automobiles like the Mini not only as a means of conveyance but also express their attitudes towards life. The Mini fascinates people due to its outstanding design and image and touches its owners in an emotional way expressed through the brand’s slogan characterized with an “emotional modifier” (Keller, 2008): Mini “Is it love?“ (Automotive Intelligence, 2001). Successful automobile manufacturers realized that cars are not only purchased due to rational reasons but that it highly depends on its design, equipment and image. Due to the importance of the customer perception to a brand and also due to an increasing product portfolio, the goal of car makers is to differentiate their brand from competition by building a strong and unique image (Meffert et al., 2008). The goal of the subsequent paper is to analyse how BMW managed the Mini’s brand significant revival. Beginning with a description of the brand and its related attributes, the paper analyses the Mini’s brand performance in the last five years and its positioning related to its main competitors. Furthermore, it explains the brand’s performance by analysing its customer perceptions and gives some recommendation how to capture and manage future opportunities and challenges. 2. Description of the brand Mini and its attributes Due to the closure of the Suez Canal and its combined oil crisis the engineer and designer Alec Issigonis received the mission from the British Leyland Motor Corporation to design a fuel-efficient car. During the 1960’s the Mini’s brand gained an image of cult and lifestyle however, the car was accident-sensitive and sales figures dropped significantly which is why the BMW Group overtook the Mini brand in 1994 (Bessing et al., 2006). BMW created a high-quality product which is well-known and well ranked in consumer reports. The Mini’s pricing starts at €15.550 for the Mini One, €23.650 for the Mini Cooper S, €18.600 for the Mini Clubman and the Cabriolets’ prices start at €20.950 (Geiger, 2010). The Mini is thus more expensive than its competitors like e.g. the VW Polo whose price starts at € 12.275 and ends at € 20.900 for the CrossPolo (Volkswagen AG, 2011). The core brand attributes of the Mini......