Marketing international : Skoda

Résumé du document

Skoda, was created in 1895, and started its activity selling bicycles and motorcycles. Its first car was produced in 1905 more than 100 years ago, when it was a niche company trading luxury cars. The company has survived two world wars and the cold war, and is the third oldest car manufacturer. In 1991 after the revolution that overthrew communism and introduced the free market, Volkswagen acquired Skoda with the idea of renewing and developing the Skoda Brand. Going through a general audit of the company and its different marketing and international marketing strategies, will give us the information required to judge if Skoda's former communist-controlled company structure will thrive in a global capitalist economy. To conclude, I will present my point of view and my recommendations on the company strategy.

Extraits

[...] Then German, which is the nationality of most senior executives. They brought their experience, their performance oriented management and offer a cooperative labour relation, emphasis with marketing and design. Both nationalities were a good match, German are precise and strict but don't take decision easily, whereas Czech individualist and innovator. It also represents a risk, two different cultures fighting in a global market. The first difficulty is the language barrier, Blue collar are speaking Czech intermediaries manager either Czech or English and senior manager either English or Deutsch. [...]

[...] There are huge opportunities in that way. The economical as well as the environmental context are favourable to such a development. It is enters completely in the marking line of Skoda, practical car at low price, and could be as well at low maintenance cost. I would recommend as well building a second hand car market. It has been several years now that Skoda sells award winnings cars with premium price for quality and innovation to emerging middle class. I think that they could enlarge their customer base. [...]

[...] Skoda has to get market share on the middle class market while VW is upgrading his range. Skoda is also part of the battle for emerging countries market and in some of them they are even anticipating in building relationships with mass market. The company strategy has proven its effectiveness, and the results have grown up but the last two years this increase slowed down. Maybe it is time for Skoda to invest and develop other segments like trucks, using Skoda Plzen as a brand. [...]

[...] In term of price, Skoda tries to minimize the costs. They take advantage of being part of the VW group and get supplied by companies like Audi, VW and even Seat. It reduces their cost of goods. They are as well minimizing the expenses, giving low budget for communication compared to their competitors. But they still manage to get profit margin, which means that they are charging a premium for the quality of their cars. Combining the product and the price strategy, we could define Skoda generic strategy using Porter's model as a Broad Differentiation, a unique product at minimised cost. [...]

[...] First educating the consumer, and now branding. We will evocate more precisely the product life cycle in the international strategy latter on. The place strategy is once again depending a lot on local possibilities. For example, in the UK there are a lot of independent dealers whereas in France Skoda is building is own retailer network which represent 160 dealers plus independent car dealers. The people strategy is based on the Volkswagen heritage. A performance oriented management, which means a reward policy adapted inside the product line as well as with the field people. [...]