Marketing and Management Analysis of Honda Motors

This report gives a concise marketing and the management analysis of Honda Motors that internationally positions sixth in car industry. The essential of this task is to think about and basically investigate the distinctive key system identifying with Honda Motors. Through the various aspects of market division, we have made an endeavor to perceive the objective clients.

Stakeholders comprehended as the elements, additionally assume a key job in the organization's decision-making procedure and exercises. Key spotlight is laid on Marketing Mix Strategy (4Ps-Product, Place, Promotion, Price), Sustainable Management Practices and we have likewise basically analysed every one of these parameters, to get a more profound comprehension of Honda Motors. It was likewise seen that these 4Ps and the key strategies profoundly impact the organization's accomplishment. Through this report we have tended to the benefits and faults of the management rehearses pursued by Honda Motors.

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Background

Honda Motor Co., Ltd, Japanese Multinational Corporation, known as a maker of Automobiles and Motorcycles, was found on 24th September 1948 by Mr. Soichiro Honda and Mr. Takeo Fujisawa.Honda in Japanese strict importance is root field or beginning field. Soichiro Honda had an incredible attached to racing just as he was an entrepreneur, and a maker. However, over all these he was a flawless visionary and has an exceptional inventive personality. He used to consider improved methods for assembling cylinder rings, built up a little business, and began fabricating field. Mr. Soichiro filled in as a specialist at Japanese tuning shop, Art Shokai, since in his young age. At that point in a self-trained designer, he structured his first drafts of piston plan and sold to Toyota, yet it was rejected. In light of deficiency of gasoline World War II, he was not ready to create in delivering the car. After that he set up The Honda Technical Research Institution in Japan of little motor for 2 bikes. Also, his first motorbike was Honda Cub; first car was T360 mini pick-up truck.

Mission Statement

Maintaining a global viewpoint, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest quality, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customer satisfaction. 2030 Vision Statement:

1. To improve operational elements of worldwide headquarters.
2. To emphatically advance mutually complimentary inter regional relationship.
3. Serve individuals worldwide with the delight of growing their life's potential.
4. Lead the headway of versatility and empower individuals wherever in the world to improve their everyday lives.

Honda’s Key Marketing Strategies

Honda pursues a holistic marketing for organization's marketing purpose. Holistic marketing is the plan and usage of promoting activities, process and programs that mirrors the broadness and interdependencies of their effects (Keller and Kotler,2006). Holistic marketing perceives that 'everything matters' with marketing for example customers, employee, other companies, competition, as well as society as entire and that a broad, integrated viewpoint is essential.

Honda is certainly not a top-down organization, constrained by central station. Rather, Honda manufacturing units for all intents and purposes wherever around the globe work as self-ruling organizations, planning and creating vehicles dependent on local conditions and consumer behaviour.

Product Strategy

Automobiles

Honda's line-up shifts by nation and may highlight vehicles restrictive to that region. Honda’s worldwide line-up comprises of the City, Fit, Civic, Accord, Insight, CR-V, and Odyssey. The automobiles are demographically segmented into top executive, executive and young executives.

Motorcycles

Being the biggest motorcycle maker in Japan, Honda began its generation in 1955. Honda achieved its top in 1892 for assembling right around 3 million motorcycle every year. Honda’s worldwide line-up consists of Gold Wing, CB1100, CBR1000RR, Rebel, VFR800F and Super Cub. The motorcycles are demographically segmented into teenagers and females.

Power product & Engine

The company started engine production in 1953 with H-type. Honda power equipment reached record sales in 2007 with 6,4 million units. Its quality completes line of generators for commercial and consumer applications.

Price Strategy

Honda Motors is a sales-oriented organisation, it emphasises more on sales of the products. Utilizes market penetration pricing strategy. According to Dean (1969) penetration pricing strategy is lowering pricing as an entering wedge to get into mass markets early.

Promotion Strategy

Honda has been exceptionally cautious and exact in their promotions. Honda promoted their products in greater part print media. The clients were constantly mindful of the organization strategies of giving most recent innovation and overhauling at whatever point vital and furthermore redesigning the whole model after certain time-frame. The promotion was increasingly focused to the organization's mechanical progressions and eco-friendly picture which separated Honda from the competitors.

Honda focuses on personal selling. Personal selling is face‐to‐face connections with at least one imminent buyer, to make deals (Rowley,1998). The sales person assists customers in the process of vehicle selection by convincing the customers to choose Honda because of its quality.

Place Strategy

Honda uses agents and retailers as marketing channels for marketing at different locations. For cars and motorcycles Honda uses selective distribution method. For any one interested in jets and aircrafts engine Honda uses exclusive distribution.

Management Strategies

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a critical tool to analyse the product life cycle for means of identifying the impact of products and operations on the environment. The product life cycle is separated into six distinct areas: development; purchasing; manufacturing; sales and service; in use; end of life.

Honda engineers considers environmental factors in every phase of development and design. They account for factors such as part remanufacturing, reducing the substances of concern and dismantling issues. Honda maintains a minimum 90% and 95% level of design recyclability for all Honda automobiles, powersport and power equipment respectively. With advanced government regulations Honda’s effort to reduce SOCs is consistent. All suppliers giving items, parts and materials to any Honda producing element are required to enter information into the International Material Data System to track the utilization of chemical compounds on a corporate-wide basis. The Honda Chemical Substances Management Standards is utilized to recognize the chemical that should never be utilized again, those for which an eliminate period has been distinguished and those that Honda is observing for potential disposal. All providers are relied upon to reference the SOC management manual for data in regard to Honda's chemical management strategies to meet the most recent revealing necessities and regional prerequisites.

Honda aims to have a PVC free interior in all the automobiles. They are consistent in their efforts to search high quality and cost-effective substitute for PVC.

Honda made 'Green Purchasing' rules to help improve the natural effect all through Honda's all-inclusive supply chain. Reduced CO2 emissions by avoiding unnecessary travel miles by:

• Every day load planning guaranteed on-time conveyance and putting smaller orders onto any available trailer space to make sure trucks were fully loaded before departure.
• Collaboration with suppliers and combining the routes helped them in reducing the emissions.
• Also, CNG filling stations were established on or close to Honda properties along the suppliers and logistic system, supporting the utilization of CNG as a fuel among the logistics partner.

To Honda waste generation by manufacturing is an efficient use of raw materials. They aim to use raw material in an efficient manner to eliminate waste and implement reuse, recycle and energy recovery to avoid sending waste to landfills.

Honda has worked with different organizations to grow progressively proficient methods of transportation and have kept on embracing cleaner strategies for transport to reduce CO2 emissions. It has made an effort in expanding modal shift which involves the shipment by rail and ship which lead to an decrease in CO2 emissions by 27% and 65% respectively when compared to truck transportation.

Honda identified increments in fuel economy and decreases in tailpipe emissions as two of the most ideal approaches to diminish the GHG emissions produced by a vehicle over its lifecycle which occurs during its in-use phase.

The key component of Honda’s zero-waste-to-landfill strategy are its recycling programmes. The recycled materials include wheels (including aluminium and steels), engines, catalytic convertors and Nickle-metal hydride batteries. They use rescued materials from the li-on batteries for nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) units. Honda takes the positive terminal material from the li-particle battery and reuses it as the negative cathode material of the NiMH battery. Electrolyte from the li-ion battery is additionally reused.

Sustainability at Honda

Sustainability means incorporation of economic, social and environmental performance (Lee and Farzipoor Sean 2015) into operational decisions. It is, in general terms, defined as economic practices which meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1987). In order to achieve sustainable development, organisations must redesign their processes and adopt new technology, even though this might change the business models in supply chain management (Nidumolu, Prahalad, and Rangaswami 2009). Following are the sustainable practices by Honda Motors:

1. Collaborations with sustainable brands
2. Green consumption
3. Green Marketing
4. Green Purchasing
5. Innovative Methodology
6. Stakeholder Involvement
7. Sustainable distribution
8. Sustainable Technology
9. Total Quality Management

Honda has since a long time ago sought after its own innovative improvement and has immovably kept up the freedom of the organization, however at this point collaborating up with different enterprises has turned into another methodology for the maker. In the cutting-edge world, Honda perceives that creation more noteworthy utilization of outside thoughts and advances is unavoidable, with automakers around the globe racing to grow new items, for example, electric cars, self-driving vehicles, and cars with direct access to the web.

Honda has exchanged expendable transport bundling that was cardboard boxes and steel cases to reusable plastic compartments to eliminate utilization of steel cases.

Honda Motors publicize their items conveying the subject of new innovations that are naturally friendly, featuring enthusiastic tunes and youthful craftsman which occupies the interests of the clients.

Honda has a planned purchasing strategy which are environmentally concerned and serves to reduce the CO2 emissions during the process and also supports the suppliers to use the alternative fuel by establishing a CNG filling stations near to the suppliers and logistic partner.

Honda uses the programmed fuel injection feature for various vehicles in efforts to make the motor more fuel efficient and to minimize air and sound pollution.

Honda speaks concerning issues encompassing manageability exercises and exhibitions to the partners annually. Thinks about the need and requests of the stakeholders, while likewise giving a comprehension of changes and dangers in the social condition.

Honda oversees its LCA utilizing sustainable distribution while considering all the natural impacts amid its development, purchase, packaging, sales, use and disposal stages. The significant effect was seen from the modal shift in transportation for conveying the vehicles.

Honda brought hybrid vehicles into the market place, illustrating that impressively improved fuel economy can be accomplished at a sensible cost and in this way the hybridization is being built up as the cutting-edge car standard (Frank, 2007).

Honda Motor Company, has the motto, “From a global perspective, Honda undertake to respond to customer needs by producing low-priced products of superior performance”. Honda company voice their concerns about quality and they have a unique philosophy of people-based management (Mak,2000).

Success of Honda Motors on Sustainability

The focal point of ecological management has moved from the organisation level to the supply chain level (Linton, Klassen, and Jayaraman, 2007) in Honda Motors. Honda's pricing strategies by using market penetration pricing had permitted them to attract a substantial quantity of purchasers and keep up an expansive piece of the pie. Their dimension of distribution for example selective and exclusive has helped them in securing the merchant services, promote item differentiation, support conniving conduct in assembling and expand price discrimination. They have accomplished in decreasing the CO2 discharges by the modal shift in transportation and by actualizing longer bearer vehicle for transport over little transporter vehicle clubbing the conveyance for 2 sellers together. The organization has executed activities with contemplations for the environment, safety, human rights, compliance and social obligations among others in association with its providers around the world. The organization reuses the batteries to make innovation that advances reusing of car li-particle batteries, particularly as interest begins to develop for vehicles fuelled by such units.

Conclusion

To conclude I would say that in spite of having a large infrastructure that is spread all over the world, Honda is managing its supply chain in a highly effective manner. Honda’s policy to localise the product is taking the company to higher platforms worldwide. Honda’s approach for a sustainable management is highly efficient with its efforts for consistent improvement. Its innovative methodology and sustainable technology is making it strong to distinguish from its competitors.

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