Range Rover Marketing Analysis

The assignment requires an in-depth examination of Range Rover's marketing activities, including its partnerships with international organizations such as the Red Cross and the Cathy Freeman Foundation. It also involves analyzing the company's pricing strategy and interior design to ensure alignment with customers' expectations. Additionally, the assignment suggests positioning original Range Rover classic models to leverage emotional value for customers.

Business Foundation
Extended Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Major Competitors and Positioning Strategies of Range-Rover................................................3
P2 Aspects related to company's competitive position....................................................................4
P3 Response of Range-Rover in the market....................................................................................5
P4 Positioning of Range-Rover in recent years...............................................................................5
TASK 2 ...............................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Auto-mobile industry includes a wide range of companies and organisations which conducts
activities like manufacturing, designing, developing, selling, marketing of the motor vehicles in the
automotive market (Glänzel, 2014). It is a part of world's most important economic sector in terms
of revenue. The vehicles repair shops and petrol stations are not included in these industries. This
report will be studied with reference to Range-Rover company. Range-Rover is a British creation
which entered the auto mobile in 1970 and its ruling season is still on. It designs full sized luxury
utility vehicle and is made for niche market only. This report will include who are major
competitors of range rover and how the company has positioned themselves in the market in order
to gain maximum advantage. The aspects related to the companies position will also be discussed
and company's response in the market will also be looked.
TASK 1
P1 Major Competitors and Positioning Strategies of Range-Rover
Range-Rover being worlds coolest luxury cars is considered to be unbeatable and is
considered above competition but if there will be no competition there will be no fun in doing
business. Range-Rover also has various competitions in the market and the latest competition which
they are facing is from Audi Q7, BMW X6 along with Jeep, Ford Explorer(2nd best selling SUV)
and Chevrolet products. The new Range Rover Velar is having minimalist design with a new
dashboard having touch screen information panels. This version range rover is based on Jaguar style
which is Jaguar F-Pace which means it is built with extensive use of aluminium and light weight
materials (Golpîra, 2015). It is considered light than the Range-Rover sport cars. It is not cheap
obviously and if compared with the pricing of BMW X5, the person is required to pay $64000. its
price is more than the BMW series but its is giving more functions also. The BMW X6 series which
was launched to after redesigning in 2016 lacks in true of road capability which is also promised by
Range-Rover sport and is delivered by them also.
When Range-Rover was launched in in the market, it had 3 options for positionong them in
the market which were:-
 As a luxury car alternative which was considered by rich people generally,
 The car the queen drives,
 The best off road vehicle available.
These steps were taken because image was not yet made in the minds of people as yet. For
promoting the Car in the market, Advertisements were used but it was all imagery based and no

person was included in the advertisements. The corporate sponsorships that company did helped
them in positioning in market as highly-responsible and Off-road car company. They also chose the
way of public relations through which they were able to establ8ish the brand in the minds of
influential opinion leaders. The primary target audience of the company was the Automotive
reviewers only whom knew what consumers want (Holsapple, Lee-Post and Pakath, 2014). Events
were also organised to promote the product and the car was also launched in a huge premier event.
The marketers of range rover had to position brand as contemporary and cool and should approach
the younger age profile and should target audience who is more into luxury cars.
P2 Aspects related to company's competitive position
There are various aspects related to Range-Rover's competitive position in the market are
like its supply chain, pricing strategies, brand value, marketing activities, HR services and many
more. The company Land Rover who produces Range-Rover series decided to ditched the
traditional supply chain methods and accepted a closed loop value chain. In 2007, a REALCAR
project was signed between Jaguar Land Rover, Novelis and other companies to produce moe cars
with closed loop aluminium. This decision was taken to protect the environment along with low
cost of production . This was beneficial for both company and the nature.
The Pricing strategies used by Range rover is based n its brand value. The company has
delivered the best of its products to top officials which has definitely increase the rand value of the
company (Strengths Of Jaguar And Land Rover, 2015). Since it is an luxury brand and an auto-
mobile unit, it is providing premium pricing policy to its customers. Therefore the brand is
focussing ion the particular luxury lover customers polishing the prices of the cars.
The company has created a strong brand value in the minds of the customers which says that
company has deep rooted place in Asian market an d they also ave plans to open new showrooms in
other countries as well so that they can reach to every customer but the pricing will remain fixed for
their exclusive group of customers (Müller and Jugdev, 2012).
Land over have marketed Range rover as more hip, fashionable, urban oriented brand . The
company has their own prestigious dealer network which maintains the exclusivity if the brand.
They are opting to corporate advertisements in addition to individual models. They also do
promotions through direct mailing to the exclusive 4 SE customers. The continuous sponsorship of
events like camel trophy etc. is also helping company in marketing its products. The sales strategy
used by range rover is that company opens its showrooms with only cars of Land Rover company
and when a franchise is opened in the market it will also follow the same scheme. The showrooms
will exclusively for Land Rover products.

P3 Response of Range-Rover in the market
Range-Rover is using customer- first content marketing model in moving its business
forward in the market. They are doing so because they want to know the customer's first behaviour
which is very important for any company. This content marketing discipline by Range-Rover
company is designed to improve the customers experience and to know the behavioural needs to
enrich the experience of the customers (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). They believe that the time has
changed and customers are different now. Its a two way benefit process as per them because the
company is using the customer for their benefit and similarly the demands of customers are also
increasing from the company at he same time.
They are very scientific in their content marketing strategy but still they decided top look
outside their industry to get some inspiration. One of the tactic which was learned by the company
owner was 'NEED BASED MARKETING'. This can be very useful from the point of view of
customers (Cooke and Alcadipani, 2015). They started making products as per the demand of the
customers and they made cars like:-
 For young , adults , provided visible statements- 3 Door car
 For Conservative smart buyers- 7 door cars.
The company also tried umbrella positioning in the market as per the demands of the
customers and they shifted from single offering to multiple products in a single brand. Range-Rover
is always ready for the customers demand and tries their best to fulfil it in their next product made.
This also comforts the customer as they know their demands will be fulfilled. But Range-Rover is
having a closed knit of its exclusive customers who wait for the next product of the company. If the
company is maintaining its quality, then they should not worry as the customers will come to them
no matter what. Range-Rover has although created a strong brand value in the minds of the
customers as an elite, high class, luxury brand. Therefore giving response to consumers is handled
well in Land rover company as they are serving for the niche market customers who generally have
similar demands and complaints (van der Wiele and et. al., 2011.).
Criticisms:- Sometimes the response was negative also. Company had to face problems
regarding production in Land Rover plant in Solihull,which was initiated by members of Green
peace. In 2004, some SUV owners were criticised for driving their cars in urban areas and depicting
it as their status symbol but the company told that they never launched the car as a status symbol.
The reliability issues are common for the company. As per J.D. Power 2014, Range rover was
ranked last in overall customer satisfaction.
P4 Positioning of Range-Rover in recent years
Range-Rover is an elite brand which entered the market in 1970 in Paris but the company
started selling the brand in U.S market in 1987 officially, earlier the products of Land Rover

company was sold in grey market only. Since then Range-Rover ruled the entire U.S market
because they were the only American brand there at that time. In 2004, the company launched
another car under he Range-Rover brand which was called as Range-Rover Sport and in 2011
Range-Rover Evoque was launched. Land Rover distinguished their cars in terms of generations.
 First Generation:- The first generation of land Rover was between 1970-1996. It was available in a
two way body until 1981 but later on it was designed in three door. This model of range rover was
not a luxury class brand (Weske, 2012). First generation car was known as Range-Rover only until
they launched another car and named it as Range-Rover classic.
 Second Generation :- This model was from 1994-2002. This model contained a Rover V8 engine .
It was the first model of company to feature satellite Navigation as an option . This model was also
very successful in the market and company was able to create a brand value in the minds of the
customers (Alaeddini and Salekfard, 2013). the new models which were introduced here were
having more equipments and premium trims which positioned the vehicle above Land Rover
Discovery and they had to face more competition in SUV market.
 Third Generation:- This model was between 2002-2012. This model ruled the market for more
than 10 years because of the facilities which they are providing was very good and the customers
whom the ere serving was happy with the services by the company. It was planned and developed
under BMW guidance. Its electronics were being replaced by the BMW 5 series . The cars produced
under these generation created a brand value for the company. In these models manual
transmissions was dropped entirely and automatic was adopted. The 7 series electronic system was
also phased out in this 3rd gen range-rover and it was replaced with the electronics of BMW 5
series.
 Fourth Generation:- it is from 2012- present. Range-Rover Vouge was launched under this
generation. Its is already ruling the market and the company's sales are increasing continuously
without any downfall (Bach, and et. al., 2013). Now the latest member in the 47 years old Range-
Rover family is Range-Rover Velar which will be sold in more than 100 markets globally. This new
car is presently on display at Design Museum in London. The price of this car will be higher than
rivals i.e. BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi.
The company believes that they have confidence in UK market because of which they are able to
bring more and more new products. Because of this reason only the company is growing
continuously.
CSR Activities:- In order to gain customers confidence and set in the market, company has to
involve in certain types of CSR activities. It is compulsory also now. CSR Activities done by
Range-Rover are like they have done partnership with Th International Federation of the Cross and
Red Crescent Societies, The Cathy Freeman Foundation (CFF), Climate Free etc.

TASK 2
Attempted in Template attached.
CONCLUSION
The key recommendations hat the company require is :-
 The price tag is high with only basic interiors which confuses the customers about the
product whether it is luxury or not.
 The interiors of the product should be improved so that it can match with the pricers of the
product so that the customers feel satisfied after paying huge amount.
 It should be clearly presented as an of road capability product so that the customer gets fuull
knowledge about the product.
The company should also position original range rover classic because of the emotional value of the
customers.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alaeddini, M. and Salekfard, S., 2013. Investigating the role of an enterprise architecture project in
the business-IT alignment in Iran. Information Systems Frontiers. 15(1). pp.67-88.
Bach, E., and et. al., 2013. Quantification in natural languages (Vol. 54). Springer Science &
Business Media.
Cooke, B. and Alcadipani, R., 2015. Toward a global history of management education: The case of
the Ford Foundation and the São Paulo School of Business Administration, Brazil.
Academy of Management Learning & Education. 14(4). pp.482-499.
Glänzel, G., 2014. Semi-Autonomous School: Bertelsmann Foundation and the Largest School
Development Project in German History. Philanthropy and Education: Strategies for
Impact, p.97.
Golpîra, H., 2015. Extended Earned Value Management Based on Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision
Making. International Journal of Service Science, Management, Engineering, and
Technology (IJSSMET). 6(4). pp.16-32.
Holsapple, C., Lee-Post, A. and Pakath, R., 2014. A unified foundation for business analytics.
Decision Support Systems. 64. pp.130-141.
Müller, R. and Jugdev, K., 2012. Critical success factors in projects: Pinto, Slevin, and Prescott–the
elucidation of project success. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.
5(4). pp.757-775.
Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and technology.
Taylor & Francis.
van der Wiele, T., and et. al., 2011. A new foundation for quality management in the business
environment of the twenty-first century. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence.
22(5). pp.587-598.
Weske, M., 2012. Business process management architectures. In Business Process Management
(pp. 333-371). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Online
Strengths Of Jaguar And Land Rover. 2015. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/what-strengths-of-jaguar-and-land-
rover-marketing-essay.php>. [Accessed On 23rd September 2017].