Principles of Marketing: Electric Vehicle Marketing Strategy Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of the marketing planning process for electric vehicles, focusing on Vauxhall Motors. It explores the components of marketing planning, including market research, target market identification, positioning, and competitive analysis, emphasizing the importance of adopting a marketing orientation. The report conducts an environmental audit using the PESTLE framework, examining political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting the EV market. It also examines the micro factors, such as suppliers and marketing intermediaries. Furthermore, the report analyzes the extended marketing mix (7Ps) and its contribution to effective marketing planning. The document also distinguishes between B2B and B2C market segmentation in the context of electric vehicles, discusses targeting strategies, and explores positioning techniques for EVs in both markets. Finally, the report presents a marketing mix analysis and draws conclusions based on the findings.

Principles of Marketing

Tables of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Part One...........................................................................................................................................1
Explain the Components of marketing planning process in terms of Electrical Vehicles
Marketing along with importance of adopting a marketing orientation and its application to
EV business............................................................................................................................1
Conduct environmental audit with the help of PESTLE framework for EV market along with
relevant micro factors.............................................................................................................3
Extended marketing mix 7p’s and explain how the development of marketing mix contribute
to effective marketing planning..............................................................................................4
Part Two...........................................................................................................................................5
Distinction between the segmentation of the B2B and B2C markets with reference to
electrical vehicles...................................................................................................................5
Targeting of either B2B market or B2C market and who would be primarily target with an EV
promotion...............................................................................................................................6
Explain the term positioning and suggest how electric vehicle could be positioned in the B2B
or B2C market........................................................................................................................6
Part 3................................................................................................................................................7
Marketing Mix analysis..........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References:.....................................................................................................................................11
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................11

Introduction
In order to attain success and growth it is vital for the business firms to have an effective
marketing strategy which is based on the four prime principle of marketing, often regarded as the
marketing mix which are product, price, place and promotion. These four principles are
interconnected with each other and help the companies to evaluate and re-evaluate the business
and makes sure that business is reaching to its highest potential and growth (Mofokeng, 2020).
Marketers with the help of these principles identify where the demand exists for the products and
services and how to meet them effectively through making customer aware about the solutions
these products and services meet. All these principles are related with costumer and assist
marketers in focusing on the meeting the emerging needs and wants efficiently. Vauxhall Motors
limited, a British car manufacturer was founded in the year 1857, by Alexander Wilson,
headquartered at Chalton, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. The objective of the report is to
highlight the marketing process particular in reference with marketing audits, environmental
analysis and marketing planning. Apart from this the report also highlights the contribution of
marketing mix for effective marketing planning and defining the concept of segmentation,
targeting and positioning.
Main Body
Part One
Explain the Components of marketing planning process in terms of Electrical Vehicles
Marketing along with importance of adopting a marketing orientation and its application to
EV business.
Marketing planning process is a essential for the companies to attain its objectives as it is the
systematic approach for setting marketing goals, strategies to achieve them and tactics for the
implementation. Below mentioned are the components of marketing planning process:
 Market research: Detailed and extensive research will help Vauxhall Motors to
understand the market size, growth, recent trends prevailing, competition and
opportunities for growth and risk (Petrylaite and Rusk, 2020). Research is the backbone
of marketing plan and will determine the success of EV in market. Market orientation
based research helps the company to focus on the needs of customer to provide better
solution and meeting their level of expectations.
1

 Target Market: In order to identify the buyers for EV, it is essential for Vauxhall Motors
to segment customer on the basis of three or more factors to clearly understand who
potential buyers are such as demographics, lifestyle, geographical and behavioural.
 Positioning: This is essential for creating a brand image in the market so that customers
perceive the brand associated with derived value and quality of products (Abdul-Hamid,
2021). At this stage, unique features and attributes of product makes difference how
customers view company with regards to other competitors. For instance, Electrical
vehicle with longest battery life and charging cycle with maximum running kilometres in
single charge. Competitive analysis: Analysis of competition helps Vauxhall in identifying the pricing
policy opted by other rivalries, what are their unique selling points, present and future
target audience, all these factors helps in designing effective marketing plan and
strategies to achieve goals. Market Strategy: Market strategy explains how Electrical Vehicle Company is likely to
communicate and attract the target audience. In a technological era it is recommended for
the company to go for a digital marketing as it enables company to reach large audience
at a single point of time irrespective of geographical boundaries and increasing brand
awareness(Rini, Roni and Maharani, 2021). Use of social media is a great tool to spread
the new and increase customer awareness with regards to electric and hybrid vehicle. Budget: Creating a budget helps the company to conduct marketing activities within
prescribed amount with the aim of not going over budget and plan activities accordingly.
Apart from this wise advice is to establish a metric for each activity signalling to stop if
there is no adequate return on investment or if activities go over budge. It helps in
keeping focused and on track towards meeting marketing objectives. Metrics: Establishing metric will allow Vauxhall to measures its actual performance with
desired one and taking necessary steps if any deviation found.
Therefore it has been seen that market orientation approach helps Vauxhall to design and
develop as per the needs and desires of customer leading to high customer satisfaction and
loyalty (Thakur, 2021). Focusing on the customer needs and giving preference to their choice
brings improvements into product thus making customer feel valued which in turn increase
positive word of mouth publicity of Vauxhall Motors Limited.
2

Conduct environmental audit with the help of PESTLE framework for EV market along with
relevant micro factors
Political factors: In order to promote electric and hybrid cars UK government is offering
attractive schemes such as tax credit for buying an electric which leads to rise in demand of these
cards and sales volume of company. However, frequent changes in the laws related with
maintaining desired standards and emission can affect the performance of Vauxhall.
Economic factors: Stable economic conditions makes resources such as labour, battery, and
other resources makes cheaper for company, thus making the manufacturing cost effective and
profitable (Badaró, 2020). On the other hand any shift in the economic conditions may slice into
company’s profit.
Social factors: Customers are becoming more responsible and eco-friendly which is why the
people are embracing electric and hybrid cars at large scale. With this attitude customer attracts
towards the company which is more responsible, sustainable and associate values of customers
with products and services.
Technological factors: Advancement in the technology allows Vauxhall to make electric cars
more fuel efficient, low carbon emission and automatic which in turn helps in gaining
competitive over others However, fast paced changes in technology can make the product of
Vauxhall obsolete and out of customer choice.
Environmental factors: One of the biggest strength of Vauxhall is growing concern of people
towards environmental impact through carbon emission produced by fuel driven vehicles
(Rautela and Agrawal, 2020). Vauxhall electrical vehicles are less carbon producer thus making
positive impact over environment and making use of gas or electricity for vehicles, thus making
their business sustainable and green.
Legal factors: Vauxhall strictly abide with the international laws and regulations related with
environment in each and every nation and promote its business as an eco friendly as their cars
are energy efficient, foster sustainability and promote green industry.
Micro factors that impact over Vauxhall business
These factors prevail in the environment which is in direct contact with the company and
makes direct impact on the business activities and level of performance along with day to day
3

activities (Shih and Wang, 2021). Below mentioned are the few factors which impact on
Vauxhall business:
Suppliers: These business partners affects the profitability of business as they provide the raw
materials to business and any changes in the price and quality of material will impact the
production process of electrical vehicles. Reliable and credible suppliers are essential for the
success of Vauxhall Motors Limited.
Marketing intermediaries: These are those personnel who assist company in sales, promotion
and distribution and working towards adding value to the delivery network of Vauxhall with the
aim of meeting customer expectations and level of satisfaction.
Extended marketing mix 7p’s and explain how the development of marketing mix contribute to
effective marketing planning
Marketing mix is defined as the set of actions and tactics which is used by the companies
to promote and sell the goods and services to the target audience. By identifying and arranging
theses essential elements, product, price, place, promotion, process, physical evidence, and
people, of marketing mix enable the company to make profitable marketing decisions.
Product: This is the solution company offers to the needs and wants of target audience identified
at the research phase (Lies, 2021). Extensive and detailed research is essential before developing
a product, and indentifies the life cycle of the product as there are growth, maturity and declining
stage which impact on the decisions of producing product. Vauxhall must produce a product
which offers value to customers and meet their expectation level.
Price: Price is the amount customer is willing to pay in order to consume products and services.
It is often depends on the perceived value of the product by customer and can impact upon the
overall marketing strategy. Low pricing strategy makes the product accessible while premium
pricing strategy is for customers who are looking for exclusivity.
Place: Placing a product or opting for a highly valued distribution helps is significant for the
marketing strategy (KUMAR and JAIN, 2021). A product must be within reach of customers,
and can make use and access the product from a definite location.
Promotions: It is concerned with marketing communication process which assist the company in
educating customer about the unique features of product and increased its brand awareness. One
of the most expensive and significant part of marketing mix which helps in grabbing attention of
customer and persuading them to buy for a product through appealing content.
4

Physical evidence: These are the unique and tangible attributes of a product or physical
environment where customer interacts with business and associate these features with product or
brand image (Jamri, Hassan and Ahmad, 2020). It can be the packaging, signage, dress code of
employees, layout of the physical store or even attractive logo.
People: Employees determine the success of business and increasing satisfaction of customers
as they interact directly with customers. It is essential to recruit, train and retain right people who
understand the value of product and committed to deliver exceptional services to the customers
whether they are sales team, customer support or delivery people.
Process: Process is defined as the series of activities taken place to deliver products and services
to the customer and something that have a direct impact over how offering of company is
handled by employees and provided to customers. Business process must be well structured and
evaluated regularly to avoid errors, effective utilisation of resources and minimise cost.
Part Two
Distinction between the segmentation of the B2B and B2C markets with reference to electrical
vehicles
Segmentation of B2C customers
Customer segmentation is dividing the practice of dividing the target audience into small
groups based on unique features. The first customer segmentation is on the basis of
demographics which include the customer with moderate income between the age group of 25-
50 years having a total member of five in a family and mostly working professional who need
vehicles to commute on daily basis from home to office and office to home.
Second segmentation used by Vauxhall Motors limited is psychographics that are environmental
conscious and prefer travel with minimal impact over environment and in sustainable way
(Udah, 2020). These people give priorities to their values and ethics than a satisfying the desire
and wants.
Third segmentation use by Vauxhall is behaviour to segment the target where they have
place customers who are frequent traveller with the preference of their own vehicles for the
comfort and ease. They hold high purchasing power and value quality over price.
And the third segmentation used by the company is geographic where they have targeted
primarily the people of United Kingdom, and nearby areas.
5

Segmentation of B2B customers for Vauxhall motors limited
Industry: Vauxhall motors limited target the most efficient and durable battery manufacture to
inbuilt these batteries into car.
Location: For getting these batteries company has targeted the manufactures from UK and other
European countries to avoid high cost and tax on imports (Benaka Prasad and Kumar, 2021).
Size: Under this segment Vauxhall have approached to small and medium enterprises who offer
best prices and innovative quality products.
Status: Entrepreneurs and partnership business are targeted by Vauxhall for making purchase of
highly reliable and durable batteries.
Targeting of either B2B market or B2C market and who would be primarily target with an EV
promotion
Targeting refers to the target market that the company wants to capture. These are the segment
where the company can find its potential customers and audience. The electric vehicles are
generally proposed to upper middle class and the high class people as the electric vehicle are
expensive in nature. There is not a very big market for electric vehicle but the market is
eventually getting bigger and electric vehicles are getting more and more trustworthy for the
customers. The target market segment of the company is generally urban people who can better
understand the importance of the electric vehicles. The tagline of the company is “different for
different models”. It will help the company in targeting different segments of the market and can
provide better options to the people according to their budget. The target market of the company
is the one who are concerned about the environment and are willing to make changes that can
help in spreading awareness about sustainability and importance that electric vehicle provide in
the current environmental situation and in comparison with traditional fuel vehicles (Roy and et.
al., 2021).
Explain the term positioning and suggest how electric vehicle could be positioned in the B2B or
B2C market
Positioning refers to the selection of best possible marketing mix that the company can opt for in
order to market and promote their products and services. The company have to select their
marketing mix according to the characteristic of the products and the services that the company
is providing. The strategy of positioning of the company is British heritage but for masses which
means that the company is carrying on the heritage of British people and cars for the different
6

segments of the market (Rahman and et. al., 2020). The company uses multi segment positioning
which will help the company in providing products and services for all the customer segments
present in the market. The company tries to attract individuals that are concerned about the
environment and are willing to spend on products that are sustainable. The company tries to
make a difference in the market and lives of customers by providing them eco friendly products
and by making sure that these products contain value for the customers. Vauxhall is also using
anticipatory positioning which makes the company to position their products and services in the
electric automaker market which makes the company serve the customers who have low turnover
with the anticipation that their turnover is going to increase in the near future. The positioning of
the company helps the company in capturing the bigger market segment and will help in
achieving efficiency and effectiveness in the marketing process of the company.
Part 3
Marketing Mix analysis
Elements Electric cars/ hybrid cars
Product The general segment of products that the company makes is of
sports car but the company has also entered the segment of sports
car. The current products of the company includes passenger cars,
commercial cars, VXR high performance cars, etc (Hopkins and et.
al., 2020). The company is providing all range of vehicles in hybrid
as well as electric cars segment. The product of the company is well
known in the market and the best selling car of the company is
Corsa which is a fully electric vehicle.
Place The company provides its services majorly in United Kingdom and
has around 383 retailers in the United Kingdom. The company
exports its vehicle to the Europe through their dealers network Opel.
The company exports around 80% of its manufacturing to Europe
(Mofokeng, 2020). The distribution network of the company that is
Opel provide the manufactured vehicle of the company in 50 other
countries which makes the reach of the company wider and give the
opportunity to attract more customers. The company also provide
7

financial services in locations other than this.
Price The company follows the value pricing strategy in which they
provide products with lower prices that can help the company in
gaining loyal customer base which is essential for every company to
survive in the market. The company is also taking an providing
benefits of lower tax rates as the company is making product which
comes under ecological laws (Petrylaite and Rusk, 2020). The
pricing of the product of the company is based on the target
customers. The company provide products in three different
categories which is the premium segment, the middle segment and
the lower segment and the prices of the products are on the basis of
that segment which provide better availability of products for the
customers.
Promotion The company promotes its products as the are environmental
friendly. The trend of sustainable and eco-friendly products are on
top. People wants the products that does not harm the environment
and are sustainable in nature. The electric cars that are provided by
the company to its customers are 100% safe for the environment and
does not produce and carbon footprints (Abdul-Hamid, 2021). The
company uses 360 degree marketing strategy in order to promote
their product. In order to create buzz in the target segment the
company promotes press releases for the newly launched products
of the company.
Physical evidence These are the additional features that the company provides along
with their actual products in order to provide more satisfaction and
delightful experience to the customers (Rini, Roni and Maharani,
2021). The company also provides best in class and extremely good
after sales services as well.
People The company firmly believes that the most important resource that
the company have is their human resource that is their employees.
Without talented employees no company can succeed in the market.
8

Employees of the company plays a major role in the management of
the workings of the company and in achieving the goals and
objectives of the company.
Process The company has automatic systems for all of their activities which
makes the workings of the company highly efficient and effective
and will also help the company in completing all the tasks within
time limit (Thakur, 2021).
9

Conclusion
From the above report it is concluded that it is important for the company to make sure that they
have an effective and efficient marketing mix so that the company can do proper marketing and
promotion of their products. Macro environmental factors that can affect the management of the
company are also given. It is important for the company to understand the market trend that is
going towards environmental friendly and sustainable products. Their is a huge demand for
environmental friendly products and electric cars are one of the major product that can help the
company in coping up and in getting competitors advantage.
10

References:
Books and Journals
Abdul-Hamid, I.K., 2021. FIGHTING COVID-19: THE ROLE OF RESPONSIBLE
FIRMS. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 25, pp.1-2.
Badaró, M., 2020. Pedagogies of value: Marketing luxury in China. HAU: Journal of
Ethnographic Theory, 10(1), pp.85-98.
Benaka Prasad, S.B. and Kumar, Y., 2021. An Overview of Marketing of Agricultural in
India. International Journal of Modern Agriculture, 10(2), pp.2932-2939.
Hopkins, C., and et. al., 2020. Self-Efficacy, Locus of Control and Engagement as Determinants
of Grades in a Principles of Marketing Class. Marketing Education Review, 30(4),
pp.236-251.
Jamri, A., Hassan, M.F. and Ahmad, M.F., 2020. Innovative Portable Marketing Set for Outdoor
Activities. Journal of Design for Sustainable and Environment, 2(2).
KUMAR, S. and JAIN, V., 2021. A Survey on Business Profitability for a Music Artist by
Advertising on YouTube. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and
Government, 27(3), pp.806-812.
Lies, J., 2021. Digital marketing: Incompatibilities between performance marketing and
marketing creativity. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 8(4), pp.376-386.
Mofokeng, T.E., 2020. Switching costs, customer satisfaction, and their impact on marketing
ethics of medical schemes in South Africa: An enlightened marketing
perspective. Cogent Business & Management, 7(1), p.1811000.
Petrylaite, E. and Rusk, M., 2020. Entrepreneurial marketing learning styles used by
entrepreneurial teams. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
Rahman, M.S., and et. al., 2020. Optimizing competitive performance of service firms in data-
rich environment. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.
Rautela, M.A. and Agrawal, M.P., 2020. A Review Of Modern Marketing Tools In The Era Of
Covid-19. PalArch's Journal of Archaeology of Egypt/Egyptology, 17(6), pp.11583-
11602.
Rini, R.S., Roni, F. and Maharani, B.P., 2021. SALURAN PEMASARAN LANGSUNG JASA
PERIKLANAN MEDIA LUAR RUANG PT WARNA WARNI
MEDIA. SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF REFLECTION: Economic, Accounting,
Management and Business, 4(1), pp.101-110.
Roy, G., and et. al., 2021. Analytical study of low-income consumers’ purchase behaviour for
developing marketing strategy. International Journal of System Assurance
Engineering and Management, pp.1-15.
Shih, T.J. and Wang, S.S., 2021. Cause-Related Marketing in the Telecom Sector: Understanding
the Dynamics Among Environmental Values, Cause-Brand Fit, and Product
Type. Sustainability, 13(9), p.5129.
Thakur, M., 2021. Marketing and Export Potential of Organic Products. In Biopesticides in
Organic Farming (pp. 365-370). CRC Press.
Udah, S.C., 2020. AGRICULTURAL MARKETING AS AN INSTRUMENT OF
DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: A REVIEW. Nigeria Agricultural Journal, 51(3),
pp.121-125.
11