The Concept Of The Marketing Strategy In Light Of One Of Indian Companies
To explain the concept of the marketing strategy in light of Indian Company doing business successfully in India and abroad.The company which I chose to explain its marketing strategy is Apollo Tyres Ltd.Apollo tyres Ltd. established on 28 September 1972 as a public limited company. They are theworld's eleventh greatest tyre maker, with the yearly turnover of 146.74 billion in FY 17-18. Theirfirst plant was opened in Perambra, Kerala, India. They focused on the two-wheeler and truck tyresin India.
Situational Analysis
Company: They have more than 16000 representatives and assembling nearness in Asia, Europe,and Africa. They are accessible in more than 100 nations With 6 manufacturing facilities. A portion ofthe brands which are auxiliary of it is, Dunlop, Kaizen, Maloya, Regal and Vredestein.Customer: The customer is generally interested in price, type of technology, mileage, the presenceof product and services offered to them. The primary deciding factors are price and durability of theproduct. Generally, purchasing decision is based on word of mouth and availability of the product inthe local market.Collaborators: They have a wide network of roughly 5000 merchants in India, of which around2500 are selective outlets. They work for the most part through a thick system of marked, restrictiveor multi-item outlets. They likewise include an association for a satisfactory supply of crudematerials. Some of them are, Aditya Birla, Styron, and Arcelor Mittal.
Competition: Some of the key competitors for Apollo in the tyre industry are:CEAT: Flagship company of the RPG group, They is the prominent brand in Indian tyre industry. Itfares to 110 nations over the world. They have a solid publicizing effort which prompts a decentbrand picture and customer base.MRF: They is the largest manufacturer of tyres in India and fourteenth in the world. It has a verystrong association with sports which helps it to build a very good brand image. Virat Kohli, aprominent face in cricket, is the current brand ambassador of MRF.JK Tyres: They has a worldwide presence in over 80 countries around the world. They are the marketleader in truck and bus segment. They have 9 production facilities in India.Other competitors which affect the market of Apollo are Bridgestone, Continental, etc.Context: The import obligation on rubber is 31.25% which is significantly higher when contrastedwith 20% import obligation on completed tyres. Socioeconomic factors are in charge of expandingthe offer of traveler and business vehicles in creating nations, which prompts an expansion in theoffer of tyres. GST and uneven appropriation of rainfall have diminished interest in horticulturaldivision vehicles. There is also an increase in the cost of natural rubber in the last few years.Technological advancements are also an important factor which influences the market.
Segmentation and Targeting
They currently focus on radial and tubeless tyres. The market mainly divides into two parts:I) B2B industry (OEM market): The customers here are, passenger car manufacturers, off-highwayvehicle manufacturers, light commercial vehicle manufacturers and medium to heavy commercialvehicle manufacturers.II) B2C industry (Replacement market): The customers here are, passenger car owners, offhighwayvehicle owners, light commercial vehicle owners and medium to heavy commercial heavyvehicle owners.Presently, the company gives attention to detail, quality and no credit policy in truck and bussegment and focuses on increase their market share in passenger car and vehicle segment.
Positioning
Apollo positions itself in passenger and commercial vehicle owners. All brands come under theumbrella of it provides a diverse range of tyres catering to varied needs. They focused on customersatisfaction and provides high performance, safety, and superior quality. They have an utmost levelof technology, prevalent in the industry, employed in its products and delivered at an optimal price.Brand ladderAttributes: They focuses on many attributes which enhance the quality provided by a product. Someof these are, tyres have a visual alignment indicator, passes the quality tests on worst test drives,etc.Functional benefits: They has the stability which tends to long life and high performance. They alsoprovide extra benefits which enhance customer satisfaction, like, low noise, steering precision, etc.Emotional benefits: They build the brand image on the basis of providing the emotional benefit ofproviding a comfortable and safe driving experience.Core Value: The core value focuses on the company is to deliver the quality product and high aftersales service.With a proper analysis of the brand ladder, we come to a conclusion that benefit positioning is thepositioning strategy use by Apollo Tyres LTD. In the perceptual map, it lies in the segment of highpricing and high performance.The points of similarity with competitors are:a) They provide great performance at the nominal price.b) They have the wide distribution network.c) They have a very diverse portfolio.The points of differences with competitors are:a) They constantly innovate in their products.b) They focus on the safety and comfort of the consumer.c) They focus on the B2B industry which results in major part of sales of the company.
Marketing Mix
Product: The product offered by them has basic functions, like, traction, durability,etc., andexpected functions by the consumer, like high elasticity, low steering force, etc. The additionalbenefits which made their product differentiated are rapid acceleration, superior controls at highspeeds, etc. They have multiple portfolios of products focusing on the different segments ofcustomers.Place: They has pre-existing roughly 5000 merchants with a diverse network of branded or multiproductoutlets. they use both push and pull strategy to claim a firm presence in the market. In pushstrategy, they have initial stages for their new products and sell their accumulated stock. They alsoprovide different techniques to sale their moderately successful products. In pull strategy, theyprovide new products which are the improvement of previous products and provide new technologyequipped products at value for money price. They also use the alternative channel of direct sale tolarge players in automobile businesses.Promotion: They focuses on communicating their vision, through promotion, to customers, which isproviding satisfaction to customers in the area of durability and quality. they use 2-3% of income foradvertisement and promotion of its products. Relationship marketing, direct marketing, and publicrelations are the media which they use to promote its products.Price: In the tyre industry, all companies have a similar pricing strategy. The major components oftyre price are the cost of natural rubber, competitive pricing, and demand for tyre. The pricingstrategy used by the industry is to provide good quality products at a nominal price. It is a mixture ofcompetitive pricing and cost based model. In this industry, there is no credit policy for sale.
Challenges
There are many challenges for Apollo Tyres Ltd. to become the top tyre company are:a) There is the absence of them in the Chinese market, which is important and rich in demand.b) There is also the threat of cheap imports from China, which gives a cut-throat competition.c) Entry of large MNCs also makes this industry more competitive.d) The tyre is a very strange product in terms of brand loyalty. For different segments, they need adifferent strategy.
Recommendations
There are some recommendations to maximize the share are:a) They should focus to enter into the two-wheeler market as this market has a huge market size.b) They should optimize its current brand awareness and present opportunity to become themarket leader.c) They should be flexible in its credit policies, by taking account of changing market behavior.d) They should utilize its point of differences to differentiate its place in the market.e) They should focus on research to find alternate materials in place of conventional products formanufacturing.f) They should increase its promotion and advertising share to spread awareness about its productamong the consumers.
