Company Background

Discuss abut the Report of Opportunity Analysis for FORD.

in this assignment, a market plan for the company Ford has been developed. In this part of the assignment, various analyses have been done on the company Ford like macro environmental analysis (PESTL) and micro environmental analysis (company analysis, competitor analysis and SWOT analysis). Depending on the outcomes, the marketing objective of the company has been developed (SMART objective).    

.  The Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational carmaker. The company headquarter is located in Dearborn, Michigan (Sha, Huang & Gabardi, 2013). The key products of the company are such as Luxury Vehicles, automotive parts and Commercial Vehicles. Main service of the company are like Automotive finance, Vehicle leasing and vehicle service. The total revenue of the company is approximately US$ 149.5 billion until 2015 (Khanna & Palepu, 2013). There are more than 199,000 employees are working in the company.

.  Henry Ford founded the company on November 2, 1901. At first the company was known by its owner name Henry Ford. In the year of 1902, it became Cadaillac Motor Company (Abdulsater et al., 2014). Between 1903 and 1908 the company had produced Model A, B, C, F, K, N, R and S. In the year of 1908 the company had produced one of its mass-produced car Model T.  The model Ford Mustang was produced in the year of 1964 (Hawken et al., 2013). In the year of 1965 the company introduced seat belt and reminder light. Presently the company is one of the most renowned car manufacturers globally.

Market Analysis

From a survey analysis, it has been found that there are more than 73 million vehicles during the year of 2015 (Propfe et al., 2013). China and United States are counted as the largest automobile markets globally. United States has become one of the key players of the automotive market when the company Ford introduced a mass-manufactured car Model-T (Hamel & Breen, 2013). Currently the most popular car model is Ford Focus. It was recognized as the car of the year globally. The top 5 car models in term of revenue are Volkswagen, Toyota, Daimler, General Motors and Ford.  From survey analysis, it has been found that international car sale per year is 72.37 million (Bohnsack, Pinkse & Kolk, 2014). 

Political Analysis

Technical innovation is highly supported by government (Opportunity). The company can use the governmental incentives to improve its activities like innovation, sustainability and development government friendly products.

The company has the opportunity to expand its business operation depending on the trade agreements (Bergek et al., 2013). (Opportunity)

Situation Analysis

In developing countries like U.S. and China, the governments have increased their effort to improve infrastructure (Opportunity).
The company has the opportunity to increase its market depending in U.S. It can utilize the slow but steady growth of the economic condition of the company (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2012).

The company can use the high growth rate of other developing countries like China and expand its market.

Strengthening of U.S. dollar is a major economic threat for the company. As Hawkins Gausen and Strømman (2012) stated that, most of the raw materials for the company Ford are produced in United states due to the government support. However that company needs to increase its business efficiency in order to maximize its business opportunity foreign market.
As Hamel and Breen (2013) mentioned that, peoples are becoming more interested towards electric and hybrid cars. Ford can take this opportunity and attract new segments of customers.

The company also has the opportunity to improve its customer service.

However, the increase of wealth gap between people can act as both threat and opportunity for the company (De Mooij, 2013). The intensive growth strategy of the company needs to emphasize on product innovation so that it can satisfy all the preferences of customers. .

1. Increase of mobile computing is an external factor that can create opportunity for the company to increase its mobile marketing activity (Fleming, 2013).
2. The company has the opportunity to improve its business performance with the help of online fulfillment services. For instance, the parts of Ford cars can be delivered to the customers with the help of these fulfillment services (Hamel & Breen, 2013).
3. However, Hardman Shiu and Steinberger-Wilckens (2015) stated that limited availability of alternative fuel stations is a major threat for the company Ford as the company is developing more hybrid cars and electric cars recently.   

1. The company Ford can improve the sustainability by addressing the environmental protection regulation.
2. As Hawkins Gausen and Strømman (2012) mentioned that, the company can enhance its product design in order to take the opportunity of the safety regulation.
3. Increase of intellectual property laws can improve the macro environment for the company.

1. Ford develops cars that are affordable and reliable (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2012).
2. The company has strong internet presence.
3. There are more than 199,000 people works in the company. They buy Ford cars.. 

1. The company has issues related with labor union.
2. Work is dangerous, low-skilled, boring and created low morale (Sha, Huang & Gabardi, 2013).
3. In the company, women can get bonus only if they are single. Men can get bonus only if their wife do not work.

The company Ford has strong brand recognition. It has the maximum profit per unit of car selling in U.S. market. However, the company is presently facing intense competition from companies such as like Honda, Toyota and Nissan.

The four major competitors of the company are such as GM, Toyota, Chrysler and Honda.

Point of Similarities (POS):  Both the company GM and Ford were founded during the same period. Ford was founded on 1906, on the contrary GM was founded on 1908 (Fleming, 2013). Both the companies have strong history. Chrysler, Ford and GM have headquarters in Michigan, USA. All of these companies are mainly U.S. market centered.

Point of Differences (POD): The major difference between the companies is related with core competencies. As Chevalier and Mayzlin (2012) stated that GM mainly focuses on innovation in technology and service. Toyota focuses on total quality management (TQM). On the contrary Ford focuses on innovation in safety, technology and design.   

Figure 1: Competitive market summary

(Source: Chevalier and Mayzlin 2012)

• Mainly young peoples and ladies like to buy Ford cars (Fleming, 2013). Young people who belong to the age group of 20-25 years of age with average income can afford to purchase cars of Ford.
• They mainly like to buy some specific models of Ford such as Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus (Sha, Huang & Gabardi, 2013). Some young males also like have a Ford Mustang in their garage.
• They mainly like to purchase car offline.
• These types of models are liked by most of the young age people as these cars have only 5 seats (Hamel & Breen, 2013). These types of car are not for big size family. In addition, all these models are available at an affordable price.

Strength

• Ford is the second largest industrial corporation in the world. The company has more than $144 billion revenue.
• The company has strong history (Fleming, 2013).
• Ford already has strong internet presence.
• Ford has most profit per vehicle compare to other car makers in U.S.

Weakness

• Overcapacity is the major weakness of the company.
• As Hamel & Breen (2013) stated that, the IT knowledge is low in the lower tier of the supply chain of Ford.
• Poor forecasting of demand
• Average delivery time is higher (45 to 65 days)

Opportunities

• The company has 2000 restructuring plan.
• Ford has the opportunity to improve its global presence.
• The company can improve its internet presence.
• Ford should try to improve its retail network. As Chevalier and Mayzlin (2012) stated that, Ford dealers should stop competing with each other within a specific region.

Threats 

• Increase in competition with foreign car making companies like Honda, Toyota and Nissan (Sha, Huang & Gabardi, 2013).
• As Fleming (2013) stated that, presently developing countries focus on manufacturing their own automobiles.
• Presently smaller companies with fewer assets have greater market capitalization than Ford.

Figure 2: SWOT analysis of the company Ford

(Source: Fleming, 2013)

Marketing Objectives

The major marketing objective of the company is to develop new products like (electric cars) that customers want and give value.

Presently with the increase of environmental issues such as global worming preference of people about cars has changed. People start to like cars that cause less pollution such as electric cars and hybrid cars (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2012). Presently the company Ford is facing intense competition from companies like Toyota, GM and Honda. Hence, in order to attract more customers towards the company, Ford should try to increase product differentiation. The company must develop hybrid cars that will attract new segment of customers.  

Reference List

Abdulsater, A., Balasubramanian, A., Wang, B., Madani, F., Mansour, M., & Talla, R. (2014). Technology Road Map for Tesla Motors Sedan EV. Planning and Roadmapping Technological Innovations. Springer International Publishing.

Bergek, A., Berggren, C., Magnusson, T., & Hobday, M. (2013). Technological discontinuities and the challenge for incumbent firms: Destruction, disruption or creative accumulation?. Research Policy, 42(6), pp.1210-1224.

Bohnsack, R., Pinkse, J., & Kolk, A. (2014). Business models for sustainable technologies: Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles. Research Policy, 43(2), pp.284-300.

Chevalier, J. A., & Mayzlin, D. (2012). The effect of word of mouth on sales: Online book reviews. Journal of marketing research, 43(3), pp.345-354.

De Mooij, M. (2013). Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes. Sage Publications.

Fleming, B. (2013). Electric Vehicle Collaboration-Toyota Motor Corporation and Tesla Motors [Automotive Electronics]. Vehicular Technology Magazine, IEEE, 8(1), 4-9.

Hamel, G., & Breen, B. (2013). The future of management. Harvard Business Press.

Hardman, S., Shiu, E., & Steinberger-Wilckens, R. (2015). Changing the fate of Fuel Cell Vehicles: Can lessons be learnt from Tesla Motors?.International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 40(4), 1625-1638.

Hawken, P., Lovins, A. B., & Lovins, L. H. (2013). Natural capitalism: The next industrial revolution. Routledge.

Hawkins, T. R., Gausen, O. M., & Strømman, A. H. (2012). Environmental impacts of hybrid and electric vehicles—a review. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 17(8), 997-1014.

Khanna, T., & Palepu, K. (2013). Winning in emerging markets: A road map for strategy and execution. Harvard Business Press.

Propfe, B., Kreyenberg, D., Wind, J., & Schmid, S. (2013). Market penetration analysis of electric vehicles in the German passenger car market towards 2030. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 38(13), pp.5201-5208.

Sha, S., Huang, T., & Gabardi, E. (2013). Upward mobility: The future of China’s premium car market. McKinsey Automotive & Assembly Practice. 4(4), pp.89-100.