Strategic Marketing Communication Analysis: Vauxhall Motors Report

This report analyzes the marketing communication strategies employed by Vauxhall Motors, a British car brand. It evaluates the effectiveness of various tools and techniques, including advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, and direct marketing. The report examines how Vauxhall profiles its target market and discusses the company's 360-degree marketing approach. Furthermore, it develops a strategic marketing plan for the successful launch of the Vivaro in the UK marketplace, considering company overview, vision, and mission. The report also delves into the current challenges faced by Vauxhall and provides insights on how the company can recapture its brand image and increase market share through effective marketing communication. It also covers the communication mix and its application for the brand.

Marketing Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of effectiveness of marketing communication tools and techniques used by
Vauxhall......................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
A Strategic marketing plan for Vauxhall Motors........................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
.......................................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication refers to a most complex procedure, where marketers put their
efforts into advertising the products of a company. For this purpose, they perform a series of
activities like identifying preferences of customers, new trends of marketplace, increasing online
presence, sponsorships and more. Marketing communication concerns on two main objectives as
to create and sustain demand, while another one is to reduce the sales cycle (Abushadi and et. al.,
2015). The present assignment is going to describe the concept of marketing communication and
techniques used by a company, for enhancing its brand image. For this assistance, Vauxhall
Motors is taken to analyse its procedure for profiling targeted market. It is a British car brand
that deals in automotive sector and offers a range of passenger cars and commercial vehicles
such as Viva, Victor, Crossland X, Mokka and more. Here, a marketing plan is developed that
respective company needs to take into account for promoting its new product – Vivaro in
overseas market successfully. For this purpose, some relevant market theories are also described
for execution of marketing plan.
TASK 1
Evaluation of effectiveness of marketing communication tools and techniques used by Vauxhall
Marketing refers to most crucial activity of a company that concerns mainly on
promoting a business in large area of marketplace. It carries out various activities for enhancing
sales performance of a company. It includes advertising and promoting brand, identifying
customers' demand, determine competitors' strategies and more (Akbar and et. al., 2017). For this
purpose, marketers adopt effective communication techniques for performing all such activities
more efficiently. Marketing communication is considered as a means to convey message of a
company related to its products, for enhancing sales performance. It helps in reinforcing the
purchase behaviour of customers for maintaining current customer base of a brand (Allen,
2016). In context with present company i.e. Vauxhall Motors, it is one of the largest selling car
in UK that offers a range of passengers and commercial vehicles as well as financial services at
UK marketplace. The company's product mainly range in the family car segment including
Passenger, Commercial and VXR high performance cars. Vauxhall is a subsidiary company of
German car manufactured brand named by Opel. Hence, a high proportion of products
manufactured by Vauxhall have been rebranded as Opel and sold across Europe. The main
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branded cars that manufactured at Opel and rebranded as Vauxhall include Insignia, Crossland
X, Grandland X, Corsa and more. Apart from Fleet Maintenance and purchase consulting, the
company provides an excellent nationwide after-sales service and Financing options to its
customers.
Vauxhall's Marketing Communication Mix includes a 360 degree marketing technique
which helps in promotion as well as branding of its products worldwide. For profiling of target
market, this company has adopted various effective marketing techniques. It includes:-
Marketing communication techniques: Advertising: It includes all messages a business pays to deliver through a medium to
reach targeted audience. It is an indirect paid method used by company to inform
customers about their products and services (Arendt and Allain, 2019). Advertising can
be done through television, radio, print media, online websites etc. Advertisement is one
way communication. Through advertisement large geographical audience can be covered.
It builds brand image. Consumers perceive advertised goods as more legitimate. In the
context of given case scenario, Vauxhall has been spending huge amounts on
advertisements and other paid media which includes newspapers, magazines and TV
Commercials. This is achieved by the business in association with McCann Velocity
which is an advertising agency dedicated towards Vauxhall's achievement of customer
base expansion as well as retention (Vauxhall Adveritsing, 2019). Vauxhall's Crossland X
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SUV has been built around a concept of everyday lives of its customers which helps in
grounding the needs of business with that of its customers. In addition to this, the
company also employs the benefits of Google's Ad-Sense Advertisement which is a
social media platform along with YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so as to
develop a greater brand association as well as recognition in the minds of its customers.
In one way its a great way of customer engagement and retention strategy that is achieved
through advertising method. However, increased focus on Advertisement has not resulted
in much impact on its overall profits in the recent years. Thus, resulting in decline of its
brand value and overall customer experience as well as increase in unnecessary costs for
the company. Sales promotion: It refers to short term tactics used to encourage the purchase or sale of
the product or service. Sales promotion is the process of persuading a potential customer
to buy product (Brychkov and Domegan, 2017). Sales promotion methods includes
premiums, coupons, contest, discount, free gifts etc. This stimulates quick response. This
techniques are not only helps in retain existing customer but also attract new customers
also. Sales promotion is not effective for long term branding. Vauxhall's focus on
increasing the brand as well as customer experience has led to it undertaking a wide
variety of highly differentiated Sales Promotion Strategies. For instance, the business
undertook sponsorship of Football Clubs as well as Football Leagues which have a
substantial following among the residents of both United Kingdom as well as Europe. In
UK, specifically, Vauxhall has been an official sponsor for most of the Football Clubs.
This helps the business in obtaining the essential brand exposure which is required by the
company. On the other hand, this requires an in-depth knowledge of customer behaviour
and pattern which has not proven of much help as the company's efforts to introduce their
products in sports segment are still lacking. Hence, its sales promotional strategies have
been consistent to some extent and to some extent they have just increased the costs with
zero returns earned on such investments (Sales Promotion, 2019). Personal selling: In personal selling presentation is given by firm's sales force for the
purpose of making sales and building customer relationships (Eletxigerra, Barrutia and
Echebarria, 2018). This is traditional method of marketing communication wherein
salesmen approach and inform prospective customers directly about their goods and
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services. This is the most effective tool for building relationships and convincing
customers. Personal interaction allows proper feedback also. As far as Personal Selling
goes, Vauxhall provides detailed training and learning program to its salespersons which
help in prompt selling as well as identification of potential leads that can be converted
into loyal customers. For instance, Vauxhall provides its sales-force with resumes that
detail the strengths and weaknesses of company's different range of products in addition
to those of its competitors. Such a technique helps the salespersons to know not only their
as well as their rival's weakness making sure that the potential customer is turned into a
loyal one when they leave their doorstep. This indicates that Vauxhall does a critical
evaluation of its external environment. However, since most of the people are not much
interested in what a person has to suggest in comparison to what they find online or
consider desirable, too much emphasis on this results in wastage of money as well as time
for the business (Personal Selling, 2019). Public Relations and publicity: Public relations may play a key role in an organization's
promotional strategy. It involves variety of programs designed to maintain or enhance
company's image and product or services it offers (Hisrich and Ramadani, 2017). Public
relation material includes press releases, publicity, news conferences. Vauxhall is of an
opinion that public relationships as well as publicity can help build a brand in a much
more effective way if combined with a business' marketing mix and other communication
strategies. The company employed lots of positive publicity through publishings made for
the company in local newspapers. This led to the depiction of interest exhibited on
Vauxhall's part for Barns winning the Award of Motor Trader (Publicity, 2019). Such a
move helped the business in gaining recognition as a supportive car dealership that
believed in acknowledgement of excellence in the industry. However, publicity is not
always a hard and fast technique that ensures positive feedback for the business. Hence, it
is important for Vauxhall to undertake such a technique on a frequent basis.
 Direct marketing: This technique relies on individual distribution of sales pitch to
potential customers (Holbrook, 2018). This includes use of emails, fax, mobile phones to
communicate directly with the prospective customers, without involving any third party
in between. This is customized and interactive form of marketing. In order to retain its
customer base, the company undertakes a wide variety of direct marketing techniques
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which help in customer retentions as well as expansion of its existing market share in the
car dealership segment. For instance, Vauxhall provides exclusive discounts to its
customers with a motive to gain their long-term loyalty towards the brand. In addition to
this, the company also awards best performing retailers to those which are associated
with it in order to ensure that they do not switch themselves with the rival businesses
whenever they deem fit. These are some of the most diversified techniques of Direct
Marketing that may be adopted by a business operating in the car dealership. However,
such may not be affective again as any rival can introduce a higher offer of discount to
the consumers which can eventually result in the switching of brand from Vauxhall to the
rival ones.
As per article given by Sarah Vizard (2014), it has been evaluated that Vauxhall has
restructured its marketing team for enhancing customer experience (Vauxhall focuses on brand
experience as it looks to recapture lost momentum, 2014). The reason behind this is to recapture
its brand image, which has affected after a decline in market decline when respective company
fails to align its customer experience with business requirement (Hugos, 2018). For this purpose,
it mainly focuses now on brand experience for recapturing the market share. According to a
report presented under YouGov BrandIndex, Vauxhall has listed on 15 among 34 car-branded
companies, in terms of quality, value and sales performance. This is due to lost in implementing
effective communication system, that gives advantages to other rivals including Volkswagen,
Ford and more, to take competitive edge over them.
TASK 2
A Strategic marketing plan for Vauxhall Motors
Marketing Plan is considered as most important activity that a complete prepares to
outline the main strategies need to launching a new product successfully (Kassambara, 2018). It
refers to well-structured plan which aids a firm in analysing techniques and procedures require
for promoting a business. In context with Vauxhall, as due to inefficient marketing
communication strategies it has lost its brand image at UK marketplace. In this regard, in order
to recapture the brand image and increase market share, respective company seeks to launch one
of the manufactured product of Opel named by Vivaro at UK marketplace (Lane, 2016).
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Therefore, for launching this product successfully, its management has prepared a marketing
plan as given beneath:
Company Overview:
Vauxhall Motors is founded by Alexander Wilson in 1857 and offers a wide range of
automobile commercial vehicle at UK marketplace (Nirschl and Steinberg, 2018). It also
provides vehicle financing services and considered as largest manufacture and seller of light
commercial vehicles. It also concerns on reducing Co2 emission therefore, bring innovation in the
field of autonomous as well as connected vehicles.
Vision and Mission:
Vision: This statement of a company accounts to inspire individuals by provision of
effective work environment. It offers a wide portfolio of services or products to satisfy customer
demand more efficiently. In context with, Vauxhall its main vision it to offer more innovative
and comfort drive vehicles, which are mainly inspired by needs of targeted customers (Okumus
and Cetin, 2018).
Mission: To tailor the mobility of Britain and use light commercial vehicles and
passengers cars with more easy and confidence, is the main mission of Vauxhall (Pappas, 2017).
Strategic Objectives:
In order to recapture the market share and brand image, the main objectives of Vauxhall
Motors are given as below:-
 To recapture the brand image within a year by launching new product at UK marketplace.
 To increase sales performance by 30% in upcoming two years in order to gain high
competitive advantage.
 To enhance customer experience to 10% by restructuring the marketing communication
procedures
Product Description:
Vivaro is available in various forms such as minibus, platform crew cab, panel van, car. It
is launching their product in United Kingdom market. It has features such as digital radio with
USB and Bluetooth connection, high load area, sliding side access door, 16-inch wheel with
steel, multi-function trip computer, anti-lock braking system and 12 volt electrical socket. This
product consume low fuel and great traction (Pike, 2016). It has done innovation where parking
can be done in easy way through help of rear view camera and high on back door. It has facility
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of connectivity where it has Navi 80 intellilink and 3D bird eye view, voice control and free tom
live services and provide update for real traffic. It possess comfort cabin where people can sit
comfortably. It also consider safety where features are added such as anti-locking braking and
electronic stability control in order to keep all things in control under all conditions (Piñeiro-
Otero and Martínez-Rolán, 2016). This has hybird vehicle, which can be extended up to 250 mi
having 21 kWh lithium ion batteries which enables 60 mi of electric driving range.
Market Research:
It is one of the main key elements where Vauxhall Motors need to concern for identifying
demand of customers, new trends of marketplace, analysing competitors' strategies and more.
For this purpose, market research can be conducted by undertaking given two activities:- Primary Research: This technique is used to identify current trend and pattern of
marketplace as well as demand of targeted customers. For this purpose, marketing team
of Vauxhall can carry out various techniques to survey the same. It includes
questionnaires, online and offline surveys etc. to analyse specific demand of customers
related to comfort and safe drive.
 Secondary Research: This research technique is mostly used to analyse most prominent
techniques for new product development (Wilson, McCabe and Smith, 2018). Through
secondary research, marketing team of Vauxhall can evaluate competitors' strategies for
launching its new product – Vivaro, successfully at UK marketplace. By carrying out
secondary research they can identify factors that leads to project failure of other car-
branded companies. This would help in developing more effective plans to prevent
business from failure.
SWOT Analysis:
This technique is used to analyse the competence level of company and determine its
capabilities required to achieve strategic objectives. In context with Vauxhall Motors, its
competencies can be analysed in following manner:-
Strengths Weaknesses
 Strong position and brand portfolio in
automotive sector
 Eco-friendly, safety measures, powered
 Ineffective marketing communication
techniques may impact on new product
promotion. This would also affect
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with high technology and more shows
high level of competencies of
Vauxhall’s new product Vivaro.
Therefore, it increases the chance of
getting success in launching this new
product successfully at UK
marketplace.
influencing targeted customers and
getting their engagement with
Vauxhall’s new product.
 Heavily dependence on UK market
only limited the profitability sources for
Vauxhall.
Opportunities Threats
 Increase online presence of business
through adoption of digital
technologies will bring awareness
among targeted customers about its
new product.
 Increasing GDP and high economic
development give opportunity to
Vauxhall in achievement of marketing
objectives of Vauxhall.
 Increase in global warming impact on
production of automotive companies
and government policies for fuel
efficiencies and emission of Co2 create
threat for Vauxhall business also.
 Presence of competitors also create
barriers for respective company in
launching its product successful.
STP Approach:
To determine the target market, marketing team of Vauxhall Motors has used STP
techniques that stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning (Van der Wagen, 2015). This
would help in segmenting the UK market and profiling Segmentation: This technique is used mainly to divide the entire market for profiling
targeted area more efficiently. In this regard, Vauxhall mainly targeted to other
organisations of UK and design its new product Vivaro which is powered with 120 PS
and assembled with 1997 cc engine type. into several segments. Targeting: This technique is used mainly to divide the entire market for profiling
targeted area more efficiently (Uncles, 2018). In this regard, Vauxhall mainly targeted to
other organisations of UK, upper-middle and upper class people, belongs to urban areas.
Therefore, design of new product Vivaro which is powered with 120 PS and assembled
with 1997 cc engine type into several segments, take preference of them first. In order to
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increase customer satisfaction, Vivaro is featured with ESP Plus, Anti-lock Braking
System, Trailer Stability Program, adaptive load control, hydraulic brake and more.
 Positioning: In order to reach at top position within list of YouGov BrandIndex,
Vauxhall has assembled its new product Vivaro with all active safety levels, without
compromising the efficiency, economy and comfort with passengers (Sharp, 2016). This
would help in recapturing its branded image and earning high profitability as well.
Marketing Mix:
In order to increase sales performance and achieve current mission, management team of
Vaux Hall needs to adopt an effective marketing techniques like marketing mix. It includes
various components as 7Ps as given below:-
COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION
PRODUCT
The new products which Vauxhall Motors is going to launch in
UK market is Vivaro that is car offered by company to their
people. This product is manufactured taking in consideration of
need of business people living in United Kingdom.
PRICE
The pricing of such product is high as compared to other products
which is already provided by Vauxhall Motors in market. It has
various different features such as multi-function trip computer, anti
lock braking system, 12-volt electrical socket, illuminated load
area, 16- inch steel wheels and other (Ryom and et. al., 2016). This
has focused particular group of people of UK who can easily afford
it. Thus, it follow premium pricing strategy for new product.
Vauxhall Motors also provide product to consumer at offers and
finance so that large number of people buy it.
PLACE
Vauxhall Motors place their new product that is Vivaro in
traditional way. This will be available at company store only. It is
also using online website of Vauxhall Motors for selling product.
PROMOTIONS In order to promote product, Vauxhall Motors is using various
promotional channels for their consumers such as television, print
media. It is also using internet and social media for promotion of
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