Principles of Marketing Management

This document provides an overview of the principles of marketing management and applies it to Aston Martin, a leading luxury car manufacturer in the UK. It includes a macro and micro analysis of the company, competitive analysis with its primary rivals, and a SWOT analysis. The document also discusses the impact of external factors such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic on Aston Martin's marketing strategies.

Principles of
Marketing
Management
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Aston Martin is leading car manufacturer in UK and provides premium high speed cars to
the consumers. The micro environment of the company includes target consumer base, marketing
intermediaries and suppliers of the firm which play a role in success of the firm. The firm is
affected by various external factors in UK market which have positive and negative effect.
Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls Royce are primary competitors of Aston Martin and are market
leaders in luxury are market of UK.
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the company......................................................................................................4
Macro analysis........................................................................................................................5
Micro analysis........................................................................................................................6
Competitive analysis..............................................................................................................7
SWOT and analysis of SWOT...............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
RFRENCES...................................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing audit refers to the complete investigation and evaluation of the marketing
environment of a business firm. Marketing audit helps business firms in developing an effective
marketing plan for promoting products or services offered by the enterprise. The present report
includes marketing audit of the British luxury car brand Aston Martin for the UK market. Aston
Martin is one of the leading luxury automobile manufacturers in the world. This marketing audit
provides information about the current market position and background of Aston Martin. Macro
analysis of Aston Martin is also provided in this report. Micro analysis of Aston Martin is
conducted in this report covering consumers, suppliers and marketing intermediaries of the
company. Competitive analysis of Aston Martin is given in this report which focuses on two
business opponents of the firm. SWOT analysis of the business firm is provided in this report
along with analysis of the SWOT framework.
MAIN BODY
Overview of the company
Aston Martin was established in the year 1913 in London United Kingdon and is
currently headquartered in Gaydon, United Kingdom. The company has strong international
presence with the dealer network of the company extending to more than 160 locations in 53
countries (Locations, 2021). In case of the UK market, Aston Martin is facing a challenging time
due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the sale of the company for the year 2020 decreased by 32%
and the wholesale volume which depicts sale of cars to dealers was also affected negatively with
a drop of 42% from 5862 units to 3394 units. In addition to this fall in valuation of share in the
year 2020 affected the brand value of the automobile manufacturer as decrease in share valuation
by 16% resulted in the valuation of the company at 435p in 2020 (Aston Martin warns on profits
after 'very disappointing' year, 2020). The vantage two-seater which is the lowest priced car of
the company in British market had weak sales which are one of the reasons behind inadequate
performance of the company. The British automaker needs to take steps in order to rebuild their
market position and recover from huge loss created by the pandemic. It is important for the
company to build an effective marketing plan which helps in establishing the company as
leading luxury automaker in British market.
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Macro analysis
Political Factor
The primary political factor affecting the business firm is implementation of Brexit as
this deal has affected the British car manufacturing industry. The Brexit trade deal enables tariff
free commercial exchange between the UK and the EU. On the other hand, the addition of extra
procedures and paperwork will affect trade and supply chains.
Positive Effect: Aston Martin will be able to enhance profitability with decrease in supplying
cost related to EU trade as tariffs are eliminated.
Negative Effect: Extra paperwork created by Brexit will delay daily business operations in Aston
Martin supply chain.
Economical Factor
The UK is facing the largest economic decline after the Great frost of 1709 with UK
economy contracting by 9.9% in 2020 (UK suffers worst annual economic slump since the Great
Frost of 1709, a 9.9% decline, 2021). This affects the sale of Aston Martin as the company offers
luxury products in time of economic decline.
Positive Effect: The firm has the opportunity to offer their products at an affordable price and
gain middle income consumers.
Negative Effect: The demand for luxury products will decrease sue to economic downturn.
Social Factor
The growth of the used car market affects the luxury car industry as consumers have the
ability to rent luxury cars instead of purchasing from the firm (Oliveira and et. al., 2019). In
addition to this female consumer base for luxury cars is growing.
Positive Effect: Aston Martin can use their female friendly DBX SUV to attract growing female
consumer base. This will help the company enhance their sales and ensure market penetration in
the British market.
Negative Effect: Car rental markets negatively affects the ability of the company to reach middle
income consumers as they can easily rent Aston Martin models at lower cost.
Technological Factor
The progress in self driving technology provides opportunities for Aston Martin.
Positive Effect: Aston Martin can gain profitability by producing safe autonomous vehicles.
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Negative Effect: Construction of effective autonomous vehicles requires huge investment in
R&D which has high risk as the infrastructure in UK is not capable for usage of autonomous
vehicles.
Environmental Factor
Sustainability is a major concern for luxury car industry (Xu and et. al., 2019).
Technological developments in sustainable automobiles can be used by the company to offer
high speed and sustainable luxury cars.
Positive Effect: This will build reputation of the company and attract consumers which are
environment conscious. In addition to this the firm will also be prepared for the future as the
world is moving towards maximising sustainability in every industry.
Negative Effect: The primary negative created due to advancement in the field of sustainable
automobile is that business firms which offer sustainable alternative to fossil fuel based
automobiles have to set up infrastructure required to power the running vehicles used by the
consumers. This is highly costly and affects the profitability of Aston Martin.
Legal Factor
The primary legal factor which affects the company are compliance with the vehicle
safety norms which need to be followed by the firm in order to sell their products in the British
market.
Positive Effect: Compliance with this law helps the firm complete their business in a timely
manner.
Negative Effect: The firm has to complete various paperwork which affects swift functioning of
the company.
Micro analysis
 Consumer base: The target consumer base of the company influences the marketing
activities of the company as the marketing activities are centred around persuading the target
market of the company. The target consumer bases of the company include high earning
individuals which are able to afford premium pricing. In addition to this the firm has
launched SUV model Aston Martin DBX for female drivers in order to expand the consumer
base from primarily male dominated. The main features of this model, such as the seating
position and location of buttons on the dashboard, are changed to accommodate female
drivers (Aston Martin unveils £158,000 'female-friendly' SUV, 2019).
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 Suppliers: It is important for business firms to maintain long-term relations with quality
suppliers in order to ensure that the firm is able to produce high quality products in a timely
manner. The respective organisation works with more than 200 suppliers on a global scale.
Less than half of these suppliers are based in UK. All suppliers of the company are required
to follow the responsible procurement guidelines in order to ensure that the process of
supplying material is completed ethically, sustainably and responsibly.
 Marketing Intermediary: This refers to the independent firms which help in transferring
goods or services from the manufacturers to the end users (Palsule-Desai, 2021). In case of
Aston Martin the car dealerships across UK which sell the automobiles of the company are
the primary marketing intermediary. In addition to this the company has expanded their
contract with DHL as their third party logistics company as their third party logistics partner.
Competitive analysis
The closest business rivals of Aston Martin in the UK market are Bentley and Rolls
Royce. The competitive analysis of Bentley and Rolls Royce are provided below:
Rolls Royce
This is one of the most prominent business rivals of Aston Martin and is one of the oldest
luxury automobile maker in United Kingdom. The company was established in the year 1904
and has made a name in the British luxury car market for hand assembled interior and exquisite
material used in the cars (Roberts and Armitage, 2019). The company has developed a premium
brand image which has resulted in the ‘Spirit of ecstasy’ which is a globally recognisable brand
mascot of the company becoming a status symbol.
Turnover: The overall revenue generated by the company for the financial year 2020
equalled to £11,824 million (Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc 2020 Full Year Results, 2021)
Profitability: The gross profits of the company equalled to £210 million.
Strengths:
Association with British royalty: Rolls Royce is the holder of a Royal Warrant. Queen Elizabeth
uses a Bentley State Limousine, specially manufactured by the brand for Her Majesty on the
occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 2002. This royal association has contributes to creating brand
image of the company as a status symbol and provides the firm competitive advantage.
 Product Range: The wide ranging product line of Rolls Royce is strength of the
company as it has a product for every segment of the targeted consumer base. The
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company has expanded its product line to include extended wheelbase, two-door coupé,
and convertible versions of the Phantom Sedan, as well as the smaller Ghost four-door
sedan, Wraith two-door coupé, Dawn Convertible, and the Cullinan SUV .
Weaknesses:
 Corporate debt: The company has high corporate debt which is a weakness of the
company and may stop the company from gaining perpetual success.
 Evolutionary design: The evolutionary automobile design of Rolls Royce models makes
every car of the company look similar and does not offer different design styles to the
company.
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover is premium car manufacturer headquartered in Coventry United
Kingdom. The company produced luxury along with sports utility vehicles which include the
brand names of Jaguar and Land Rover. The product range of Jaguar Land Rover includes high
speed technologically advanced cars such as Sporty P300, R-Dynamic, Jaguar E-Pace. The
manufacturing facilities of the company are located in Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Gaydon
along with joint venture facility in Slovakia and contract manufacturing and local assembly
operations in Brazil and India (Jaguar Land Rover, 2021).
Turnover: For the third quarter of 2020 the overall revenue of the company amounted to
£6 billion which is increase in revenue from the previous quarter. The total free cash flow of the
company in the third quarter equalled £562 million, short term investment increased to £4.5
billion which includes £1.9 billion in undrawn credit facilities ( Jaguar Land Rover posts £439m
pre-tax profit in final quarter of 2020, 2021).
Profitability: Jaguar Land Rover gained record profitability for the third quarter of 2020
with increase of £121 million from the previous year. The overall sales of the firm increased due
to ease in lockdown restrictions and the firm saw an increase of 13.1% in sales in comparison to
previous year.
Strengths:
 Skilled Workers: The company has employed a skilled workforce which facilitates
design, production and delivery of high speed and high quality cars which have helped
the firm gain success in the British market. In addition to this the skilled workers behind
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the making of Jaguar Land Rover cars act as an attractive feature which plays an
important role in acquiring loyal consumers as consumers gain the best quality products.
 R&D: The business enterprise has a dedicated and well-funded research and development
department which helps the company build technologically advanced cars which meet the
expectations of their consumers. The firm will soon start testing of prototype of hydrogen
fuel cell automobile as a zero emission car (JLR will begin testing prototype hydrogen
Land Rover Defender later this year, 2021). This technological advancement is made
possible because of best in industry R&D department.
Weaknesses:
 Dependency on few models: The company is dependent on few automobile models
which has affected the ability of the company to attain high profitability.
 Sustainability: The firm is not sustainable which has alienated consumers during rising
global demands for sustainable products from the automobile industry.
SWOT and analysis of SWOT
Strength Weakness
 The brand image of the company
associated with British heritage created
by securing a royal warrant with the
British royal warrant holders
association (Aston Martin Lagonda,
2021). In addition to this the firm is
also linked with iconic British fictional
character James Bond which further
elevates the brand identity of the
company.
 Hand assembling of the car interior is a
unique characteristics which helps the
firm gain high sales despite premium
prices of the firm.
 The exuberant prices of the products
offered by the firm are one of the
reasons behind low profitability of the
firm. This has led to closure of share
price collapse (Aston Martin chief
leaves after 94% share price collapse,
2020).
 The low market penetration of Aston
Martin is weakness of the company as
it stops the company from maximising
profitability in British market.
Opportunities Threats
 The company has the opportunity to  High competition from domestic as
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offer low priced version of their
automobiles to attract middle class
consumers.
 Aston Martin has the opportunity to
develop affordable range of sustainable
automobiles by investing in hydrogen
fuel technology.
well as international luxury automobile
brands such as Jaguar Land Rover,
Bentley, Porche and others in UK is
threat to the firm.
 The firm faces threat from economic
downturn in UK caused by the
pandemic affecting sale of luxury
products.
Benefits:
 The SWOT analysis helps in identifying opportunities which can be exploited by Aston
Martin to regain competitive position in the UK luxury car market. The opportunity to
offer affordable options for middle class consumers in UK is specific opportunity which
will provide long-term advantage to the company upon exploitation.
 Application of the SWOT analysis provides information about the strengths of the
respective business firm which can be highlighted in the marketing plan to gain effective
results. This is benefit of SWOT analysis is that it helps in identification of capabilities of
Aston Martin such as association with royal family and recognised British symbol James
Bond to use in marketing plan to ensure attainment of marketing objectives.
Drawbacks:
 The threat from business rivals faced by Aston Martin is not specific and does not
provide information about ways in which business opponents affect Aston Martin. This
drawback of lack of clarity reduces effectiveness of SWOT analysis.
 The SWOT analysis provides information about the economic downturn in UK as a threat
which fails to consider various other variables such as government actions taken to
recover the economy of the region from pandemic, vaccination roll-outs and the
economic effects of vaccination drives and international recovery from the pandemic.
These variables play a role in decreasing the negative effects of this threat which are not
considered in the SWOT analysis and are a major drawback of this analysis.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is analysed that marketing audit involves macro, micro and
competitive analysis of a business firm. In addition to this SWOT analysis is useful framework to
conduct an effective marketing analysis. This framework has various advantages and
disadvantages which need to be considered in order to gain effective results from the marketing
audit. The most beneficial strategic positioning for Aston Martin is opting for a hybrid strategy in
which the company offers product at affordable prices for middle income consumers while also
promoting the value adding aspects of the products. This will enhance help the company exploit
the opportunity of selling products to middle income consumers and extending the consumer
base of the company. In addition to this for the coming year, the business firm needs to ensure
market penetration by extending their consumer base from niche market of elite consumers to
middle income consumers.
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RFRENCES
Books and Journals
Oliveira and et. al., 2019. A co-evolutionary matheuristic for the car rental capacity-pricing
stochastic problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 276(2). pp.637-655.
Palsule-Desai, O. D., 2021. Multi-product supply networks: Implications of
intermediaries. European Journal of Operational Research, 292(3). pp.909-929.
Roberts, J. and Armitage, J. eds., 2019. The third realm of luxury: connecting real places and
imaginary spaces. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Xu and et. al., 2019. Supply chain sustainability risk and assessment. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 225. pp.857-867.
Online
Aston Martin chief leaves after 94% share price collapse, 2020. [Online] Available through
<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52804705>
Aston Martin Lagonda, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.royalwarrant.org/company/aston-martin-lagonda-ltd>
Aston Martin unveils £158,000 'female-friendly' SUV, 2019. [Online] Available through
<https://news.sky.com/story/aston-martin-unveils-158-000-female-friendly-suv-
11865613>
Aston Martin warns on profits after 'very disappointing' year, 2020. [Online] Available through
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/07/aston-martin-profits-vantage-dbx-
suv>
Jaguar Land Rover posts £439m pre-tax profit in final quarter of 2020, 2021. [Online] Available
through <https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news-sales-figures/jaguar-land-
rover-posts-%C2%A3439m-pre-tax-profit-final-quarter-2020>
Jaguar Land Rover, 2021. [Online] Available through <https://www.tata.com/business/jlr>
JLR will begin testing prototype hydrogen Land Rover Defender later this year, 2021. [Online]
Available through <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/jlr-will-
begin-testing-prototype-hydrogen-land-rover-defender-later-this-year/articleshow/
83536899.cms>
Locations, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.astonmartinlagonda.com/about-us/locations>
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc 2020 Full Year Results, 2021. [Online] Available through
<https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/press-releases/2021/11-03-2021-rr-holdings-plc-
2020-full-year-results.aspx>
UK suffers worst annual economic slump since the Great Frost of 1709, a 9.9% decline, 2021.
[Online] Available through<https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/12/uk-economy-shrank-by-
9point9percent-in-2020-its-largest-contraction-on-record.html#:~:text=Europe
%20Economy-,UK%20suffers%20worst%20annual%20economic%20slump%20since
%20the,of%201709%2C%20a%209.9%25%20decline&text=The%20U.K.
%20economy%20contracted%20by,the%20Great%20Frost%20of%201709. >
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