Introduction
The creation of the ‘smart’ car was due to the collaboration between Swatch Watches and Mercedes-Benz. Swatch Watches intended to use the car to embody the brand name into a vehicle. The ‘smart’ car is a 2-seater car. It is fuel-efficient.
The car is available in bright colours. Fuel efficiency is one of the major competitive factors of the car. Swatch markets the car to married Western expatriates. Swatch would use several channels to advertise the car.
Strategies of the Promotional Mix
Advertisement is one of the major forms of promotions that companies use. Companies may use print media, radio, and television to advertise their products.
Swatch should not use print media or other mass media to advertise their products. Mass media target a large number of people. Therefore, it would not be economical to advertise the car to a large number of people who would not buy the car eventually.
Companies use public relations (PR) to market their products. PR refers to efforts by the company to make people understand the company’s practices, policies, and procedures. A company can identify its donations to charitable organisations as a form of PR.
In addition, a company can sponsor vital causes or events that strive to improve individual or societal well-being. PR that focuses on the contribution of Swatch to the society would not improve the competitiveness of the car.
Swatch may use publicity to elicit demand for the product. Publicity campaigns strive to generate commercially significant news about a product in various media. One of the major advantages of publicity is the fact that the sponsor does not pay for the publicity.
The media controls the message. They may portray the product negatively. Therefore, this method would not be effective in marketing the ‘smart’ car.
Swatch may use sales promotion to promote the product. Sales promotion targets retailers and wholesalers of a product. Since Swatch sells the product directly to consumers, sales promotion would not be effective in marketing the ‘smart’ car.
Companies use corporate image to market their products. It is very hard for companies that have a bad corporate image to launch products successfully. Swatch has a good corporate image. The ‘smart’ car would improve the corporate image of the company.
Therefore, there is no need for the company to strive to improve its corporate image since it already has a good corporate image.
Personal selling is one of the most common methods that companies use to market their products. Personal selling involves direct contact with the customers. Therefore, it is vital for the sales representatives of a company to be presentable.
In addition, they should be able to articulate the major attributes that make the product have a competitive edge over products from rivals.
Most companies offer commissions to their employees to encourage them to make more sales. Since Swatch does not give its employees commissions, personal selling would not be effective.
Improving Strategies
Personal selling is one of the major strategies that Swatch should use to improve the sales of the product. Since Swatch does not offer its employees commissions, personal selling would not be effective.
Therefore, Swatch should start offering commissions to its employees. The commissions would encourage the employees to be more aggressive. Commissions would ensure that they earn additional pay for their efforts.
Swatch may also use sales promotion to increase the sales of the ‘smart’ car. The company should engage in sales promotion that targets the married Western expatriates. The company may carry out sales promotion that would associate the product with the domestic country of the expatriates.
Better Target Market
Young adults who are between 20 and 33 years old would be a better target market for the ‘smart’ car. They form a sizeable percentage of the population. Therefore, conquering this market segment would ensure that the company makes more sales.
This would increase the revenue and profitability of the ‘smart’ car. On the other hand, there are very few Western expatriates. In addition, the young adults do not have so much money to spend. Therefore, the cost of the car makes it affordable to the young adults.
The Smart Car is a fuel-efficient vehicle. Therefore, it is much cheaper to use the vehicle. Most young adults do not have children.
Therefore, since the vehicle has a seating capacity of two people, it would be suitable for this target market. Adults who have children usually prefer cars with a large seating capacity to accommodate their children.
Promotional Strategy
Advertising would be a vital component in the marketing mix of the ‘smart’ car to the young adults. The young adults account for a sizeable percentage of the population. Therefore, the company should use mass media to reach this target market.
Swatch should strive to make ownership of the vehicle be fashionable. The advertising campaigns should highlight attributes of the car that would make it be desirable to the target market. In addition, Swatch should use exhibitions to market the car.
The company should exhibit the car in places where the young adults visit occasionally. The exhibitions would create awareness about the existence of the car.
Conclusion
Marketing strives to create awareness about the existence of a product. A company should use several strategies simultaneously to market a product. The target market usually determines the marketing strategies that a company would employ.