Product details

The European car market has seen many changes in the last 50 years, not least in the UK, where the formation of British Motor Holdings in 1952 subsequently led to the formation of British Leyland and then to the Rover Group. Rover itself has had several owners/partners. The latest change took place recently with BAe selling its 80% stake in Rover to BMW, an action which completely and utterly bewildered Rover''s other shareholder, Honda. Through the clever acquisition of Rover, BMW has repositioned itself in the European car market. By gaining valuable market share and significantly broadening its product base, without affecting its core business and brand identity, it has become a major force to be reckoned with in the European car market. Consequently this has left Honda to ''lick its wound'' and to ponder its future in the European car market. The teaching objectives are: (1) to allow students to apply ideas presented in the customer satisfaction and competitive analysis chapters; (2) to give students an opportunity to analyse a small-share competitor''s marketing strategy and its attempt to revise that strategy; (3) to provide students with practice in developing marketing strategy recommendations.