A Marketing Strategy

Due to shifting consumer preferences and increased brand competition, the automotive sector is extremely competitive. Because of this, it is crucial for auto manufacturers to make significant investments in their marketing tactics in addition to their hard work to produce high-quality vehicles. Identifying the automobile marketing priorities that each firm intends to attain is the first step in successfully implementing their marketing plan (Abby, 2017). The management of the client segments was Minnesota Micromotors' top automobile marketing priority, per the marketing simulation. Four major categories were used by Minnesota Micromotors to group their consumer segments. These include large new customer, large existing customers, small new customers and small existing customers.
In order to effectively reach out to the dynamic needs of these customers categorized by the marketing simulation, both inbound and outbound marketing strategies were used. The inbound strategies were effective enough to attract the new customers both large and small to the Minnesota Micromotors website. The effective use of digital and online sources through social media accounts stimulated the potential customers to search for the available brands of vehicles produced by Minnesota Micromotors (Pershad 2016). Furthermore, outbound marketing strategies were also implemented by Minnesota Micromotors through the use of traditional advertisements in the television, radios and even through the newspapers and the magazines (Walters, 2017). The intention was to reach out to both the large and small existing customers and to relay information on the pricing and any new innovation through the existing vehicle models.
As a result of the implementation of both the inbound and outbound marketing strategies, the brand positon for the company tremendously improved. The improved brand positon triggered an increase in the sales especially from the existing customers which improved by 2%. However, the new customer sales experienced a drop by 16%. On the analysis of quarter on quarter performance, in quarter three, the sales from the existing customers increased by 1% while the sales from the new customers decreased by 4%. Therefore, based on the results that were experienced the overall result is a failure since the overall impact on the organization was decrease in the total sales.

Changes have to be implemented in order for Minnesota Micromotors to improve their sales. As per the quarter four results, the new customer sales dropped. In order to turn around the results, the marketing strategies employed have to solve the problem of the declining sales. Sales is a function of pricing. As a result, the marketing strategies have to revolve around an effective pricing strategy in order to increase the addressable customer base of both the new and existing customers. The automobile industry is very competitive and therefore the pricing strategy adopted by the organization should be aimed at yielding the highest profit return for the organization in as much as it is affordable for the consumers (Griffith & Rust, 1993).
Therefore, in the future quarters, the organization can offer price discounts especially to the new customers in order to encourage the increase in sales. In addition, the organization can also offer competitive pricing especially to the new models. This will especially target the middle-income earners who are always out to save on their costs. Minnesota Micromotors can also invest in their customer care segments and reach out to the existing customers. The aim would be to find out some of the reasons why they are no longer active and some of the concerns raised may be implemented with the aim to improve the customer satisfaction among the existing customers.
The design of the research study aimed at understanding the key competitors of the automobile industry would be to study the marketing strategy of the key competitors. The centre of the study would be to focus on the strategies being applied by the market leaders of the automobile industry. A good example is Toyota, one of the market leaders in the automobile industry. They have positioned themselves in the market mainly through the low cost strategy and market differentiation. As a result they have been able to capture mass markets worldwide as they have been able to effectively respond to the needs of the different consumers by effectively segmenting the market. Moreover, their low cost strategy has enabled them reach out to the majority of the middle class. Therefore, once the research study is able to effectively cover the activity and strategies of the key market leaders, the organization would be better placed to understand the industry.
The game theory approached has been applied for years and by many organizations with the objective and aim to understand the effectiveness of their competitive strategy. Due to its scientific nature, it has aided many organizations to understand the dimensions of their competitive strategy. However, it also has a couple of limitations (Kalpana, 2017). Most of the limitations derive their basis from the assumptions of the game theory. One of the limitations is that most of the stakeholders do not have adequate knowledge of the game theory and most of them end up misusing it. Moreover, as the number of competitors in the market increase, the actual business game theory becomes difficult to interpret. Its basis is more focused on logic rather than providing a winning strategy for organizations and it fails to capture the uncertainty in the competitive environment. In conclusion, the Standard Industrial Classification code for Minnesota Micromotors is 3621 according to the Motors and Generators OSHA.




References
Abby. (2017). Marketing Priorities and Strategies: An Excerpt from the 2017 State of Automotive Marketing Report. 9 Clouds Automotive Marketing Blog. Retrieved from https://9clouds.com/blog/2017-automotive-marketing-priorities-strategies/
Griffith, D., & Rust, R. (1993). Effectiveness of some simple pricing strategies under varying expectations of competitor behavior. Marketing Letters, 4(2), 113-126. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00994070
Kalpana. (2017). Game Theory: Assumptions, Application and Limitations. Essays, Research Papers and Articles on Business Management. Retrieved 9 July 2017, from http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/management/game-theory-assumptions-application-and-limitations/523
Pershad, D. (2016). Trends in the Automotive Industry - New consumers, digital trends, and the impact of technology. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trends-automotive-industry-new-consumers-digital-impact-pershad
Walters, L. (2017). What's the key to your automotive marketing strategy? Retrieved from https://mwpdigitalmedia.com/blog/key-automotive-marketing-strategy/