Marketing Management

Question 1.1

What differentiation strategies does the Ford Motor Company of South Africa use for its brands (Ford, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover)?

Introduction

FMCSA has several brands that include Ford, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover. They have to find some way for the brands to be unique whilst using a shared platform and technology. The process of making each brand identifiable employs differentiation strategies.

Discussion

Differentiation strategies include:-

• Product differentiation, which takes into account the firm, features, performance quality, conformance quality, durability, reparability and style of the product. It is the process of distinguishing a product from other products and from competitors, and is aimed at a particular target market for profitable gain. Customers perceive them as different from competing products.

• Design differentiation, which relates to the identity of the product and provides for functional performance of tasks.

• Service differentiation, which relates to the type of service that your company renders that leads to customer satisfaction and hopefully delight;

• Personnel differentiation, which relates to the employment and training of staff who can serve customers in ways better than the competition. It usually includes personnel who exhibit competence, courtesy, credibility, reliability, responsiveness and communication expertise.

• Channel differentiation, which relates to the way a competitive advantage is gained from the way the distribution channel, expertise and performance is designed.

• Technology differentiation where the use of new technology may provide sufficient value for differentiation in the market place.

The differing strategies invoke specific and differing behavior in consumers and can, for instance result as follows:-

• Price differentiation fosters a behavior where the consumer seeks for the next best