Hot Wheels: Analyzing the Mixed Play Experience with PACADI

This case study analyzes Hot Wheels' marketing strategies, particularly the launch of their "Mixed Play" experience, which blends physical and digital play. It employs the PACADI approach (Problem, Alternatives, Criteria, Analysis, Decision, Implementation) to evaluate the challenges and opportunities associated with this new product. The analysis covers problem definition (potential loss of young customers due to technology), alternative solutions (limited edition toys), criteria for success (positioning, segmentation, advertisement), SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), decision-making (addressing age comparison issues), and implementation plan (projected costs, competition, risk management). The study emphasizes the importance of clear target audience segmentation, attractive packaging, and careful risk management for successful implementation in a competitive market.

Case Analysis in Marketing

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PACADI Approach:.....................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is fuel of every business decision regarding product and service, without
marketing new product can not survive the market (Baker and Hart, 2016.). This study is based
on Hot Wheel, this company is one of the most successful toy car and game manufacturing
enterprise. This report will discuss case analyse of Hot Wheel and will use PACADI Approach to
analyse.
MAIN BODY
PACADI Approach:
This approach allow company follow six steps in decision-making process, PACADI is
mainly used when company plan to introduce new product in the market.
Problem definition: Hot Wheels is one of the most successful toy manufacturing company that
have wide range of product allowing them win young customer or parent segment in the market.
The Mixed Play experience is new product of the company which include both, physical and
digital area of customer which means they can now have better experience with use of digital
technology (Liu, 2021). Major challenges will arrive in implementing new product and
promoting this product, such as company may face loss of young customer due to advance
technology. It is very clear that parent may have experience to use these digital technology but
young user of this product do not have any experience in digital technology which will become
one of the biggest problem.
Hot Wheel have seen effect of age comparison in their new product, this age comparison
arise due to digital technology which increase experience. Mixed play platform of Hot Wheel
may be designed for increasing digital experience but this is major problem for young user, the
idea of mixing physical and digital technology is problem for the company in terms of marketing
as well because parent might be confused whether this product is for digital use of physical use.
The Mixed Play experience may have certain benefit for the company such as greater brand
image and reputation and mainly advancement but this product can become problem and reason
for failure because of connecting both physical and digital activity.
Alternative: every business decision should have alternative way out which can help company
to overcome failure or to use other way to make decision successful, alternative decision need to
be made quick because impact rapidly spread in product (Merriaux and et.al., 2017). Hot Wheel
need to have alternate plan or way to overcome failure of The Mixed Experience, this plan or

decision of the company have higher chances of failure because mixing physical and digital
experience will confuse user. It is very clear that this decision may not failure because of brand
name and reputation Hot Wheel have but alternative option is best for company. Alternative
option may include exclusive, realistic, creative and feasible.
Hot Wheel need to have creative alternative option which means if they fail or is
marketing fail then they can creatively cover their cost for example; if The Mixed Experience
fail then company should manufacture limited edition toy car as backpack plan, this will push
demand of other product and company can cover cost occur due to failure. Marketing of limited
edition toys will attract customer and engage them to purchase these products. Sometimes
creativity of company allow them to manage failure, when Hot Wheel introduced Volkswagen
Beach Bomb they had alternative option available if this product fail, this product estimated to be
worth $150000. Marketing decision of launching limited edition toy, will become effective
option if The Mixed Play Experience due to problem covered in step one.
Criteria: every business decision mainly marketing decision of the company is impacted due to
certain criteria, such as marketing type, sales and pricing, segmentation and positioning and other
criteria. The Mixed Play Experience of Hot Wheel need to make certain criteria to make this
product successful, these are:
Positioning: Hot Wheel is one of those companies who target emotion attribute of customer, this
allows them to position their brand in highly competitive market. The Mixed Play experience
need fuel of positioning to survive in the market, this product need to target emotional attribute
of both, parent and young user. Using both, physical and digital area will allow them to improve
experience of their customer. Positioning is only possible if marketing is strong in the case of
Hot Wheel.
Segmentation: every customer is segmented according to different group with same taste which
means Hot Wheel have clear target audience and group which are segmented into different age
group. It is very clear that The Mixed Play experience of Hot Wheel is facing problem of age
comparison which can be solved with segmentation process (Camilleri, 2018). Targeting niche
market customer such as younger people, Hot Wheel have to remove age comparison of their
product.
Advertisement: advertisement is fuel of marketing, this can be done with the help of online and
print media. Hot Wheel is introducing The Mixed Play Experience which target young customer

including both, parent and young user. Through online media, this company can catch their
audience at different social media, advertising about use of physical and digital experience can
lead to success of the product.
Analysis: internal analysis of the company allow them to understand whether the new product
will be successful or not, every decision of influence with analysing both internal and external
environment (GURL, 2017). Through SWOT analysis Hot Wheel can overcome problem, make
use of alternative option and understand different criteria, these are:
Strength analysis: Hot Wheel is one of the most successful toy manufacturing company
allowing them to make The Mixed Play more successful. Strength of this product lies in
uniqueness because this mix two most important elements which are physical play and digital
play, there is higher chance of success because of brand image and reputation of the company.
Weakness analysis: weakness of Hot Wheel lies in interest of customer, this company lose
customer because of interest. The Mixed Play have certain weakness which can influence
marketing decision of the company such as new product with unclear USP, price range and
interest of customer. Weakness will going to disturb process of marketing.
Opportunity analysis: every company can convert their weakness to strength by identifying
certain opportunity, Hot Wheel have opportunity to win customer experience with their new
product. The Mixed Play have various success factors such as connecting physical and digital
area, this will allow them to become more reliable in attracting parent customer or young
customer. Hot Wheel can untap those market where demand is high and supply is low, these
market demand technology with existing or new set of toys.
Threat analysis: threat lies in competition and its movement, threat for new product of Hot
Wheel lies in substitution threat of competition. The Mixed Play have certain threat which can
impact company and its strategy such as there are many toy manufacturing company who bring
digital advancement in their toy (Sarsby, 2016). This product of Hot Wheel is not new to the
market which means there is high chance of failure.
Decision: decision is one of the most important thing allowing company to end their research,
planning and other business process. Every decision is justified with in depth analysis, Hot
Wheel now can take decision based on SWOT analysis and identification of those problems
which will occur. (Elgendy and Elragal, 2016) The Mixed Play of Hot Wheel will become
successful if company clear problem of age comparison, it is very clear that age comparison is

the biggest weakness, decision will be impacted. There are some changes which Hot Wheel need
to take before implementing decision such as;
Market decision: Hot Wheel need to be clear about their target audience, selecting age group is
very important. The Mixed Play product need changes such as more segmented market where
company is clear about age group of customer, marketing only can be possible if Hot Wheel
know exact target audience with in depth knowledge.
Packaging decision: it is recommended for Hot Wheel to carefully and attractively pack their
product which can pull customer, this area can impact decision of customer in the market.
Marketing can only be effective if they highlight use of both, physical and digital experience of
their customer. With strength of Hot Wheel decision of introducing The Mixed Play can be
successful in highly competitive market.
Implementation plan: business plan can fail because of certain reason mainly because of poor
execution, the process of implementing plan is quite challenging. Which means Hot Wheel need
to be careful while implementing plan of introducing The Mixed Play, sometimes time of
launching of product decide its effectiveness (Aicheler and et.al., 2019). There are certain steps
in implementation of plan, these are:
Projected cost: every plan have cost which is one of the most important fuel in the process, Hot
Wheel need to analyse actual cost and projected cost, this way their can make profit from sales.
For example; cars cost $6.99, Portal cost $49.99 and track cost $179.99 which totally will cost
$236.97, this actual cost of product that means company have analysed projected cost.
Expected competition: competition play vital role in every business decision, implementation of
plan can be difficult because of movement of competitors. Hot Wheel face competition from
Brookln Models, western model and Enchantment Land, the new product of Hot Wheel have risk
of failure because its competitors will copy product and introduce them in lower price.
Risk management: analysis and managing risk is one of the most important process in
implementing plan, there are certain risk faced by Hot Wheel in introducing The Mixed Play
such as risk of age comparison, risk of ineffective marketing and risk of insufficient knowledge
in digital experience. Hot Wheel need to be careful in implementing plan and need to manage
risk occur during the implementation and decision process.

CONCLUSION
This report has discussed case analysis of marketing of Hot Wheel. This company is
planning to introduce new product The Mixed Play experience where both, physical and digital
experience of customer is being used. At last this report has discussed PACADI Approach where
six step of decision-making allow company to become more reliable in the business.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aicheler and et.al., 2019. The compact linear collider (CLIC)-project implementation plan. arXiv
preprint arXiv:1903.08655.
Baker, M.J. and Hart, S. eds., 2016. The marketing book. Routledge.
Camilleri, M.A., 2018. Market segmentation, targeting and positioning. In Travel marketing,
tourism economics and the airline product (pp. 69-83). Springer, Cham.
Elgendy, N. and Elragal, A., 2016. Big data analytics in support of the decision making
process. Procedia Computer Science, 100, pp.1071-1084.
GURL, E., 2017. SWOT analysis: A theoretical review.
Liu, A., 2021. Problem Definition. In Design Engineering and Science (pp. 167-189). Springer,
Cham.
Merriaux and et.al., 2017. A study of vicon system positioning performance. Sensors, 17(7),
p.1591.
Sarsby, A., 2016. SWOT analysis. Lulu. com.
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