Chrysler: 'The best little car company in America'

"While sales will decline in the U.S., the automaker says it wants to think locally, but act globally."

Chrysler has announced a new marketing scheme to become "the best little car company in America". It is a known fact that in recent years Chrysler has been facing severely declining U.S sales and an even weaker international presence.

From the material that I have learned in the first and second lectures this week, I can create a generalized overview about the steps that a company must take in order to set up a effective and efficient business plan.

First of all, there must be a valid reason/objective to start up a company or change the way it is operating. In this case, Chrysler is facing declining sales within the U.S and sales overseas are not reaching the company's minimum expectations. To become the best little car company in America, Chrysler has set up a business plan and has set a goal of a global volume (number of cars) of about 3 million cars.

Secondly, there must be an available market (the buyers). Chrysler is planning to cover the declining sales within North American with sales overseas. They are planning to target the consumers that are looking for something identifiably American.

The Business plan/strategy. Currently, the known leading car companies of the U.S can be seen as GM or Ford. These companies have a global product strategy of designing domestic cars differently to the design of cars that will be sold in the international market. This is because these sorts of companies know by experience and surveys that buyers in the international market generally seem to have different preferences (to North American buyers) when purchasing a car. "If you take an American car into the rest of the world, there's a natural reluctance," However, Chrysler is planning to design their cars to appeal to buyers who are looking for something different and identifiably American.

The Problems/Difficulties that Chrysler faces. The reluctance of the international market to American cars (American design) is not the only barricade blocking Chrysler's global market success. There is a saying that "even the roads are against you when trying to sell a car worldwide" because in European cities, streets are often narrow and twisting requiring smaller vehicles (a big proportion of buyers know of American cars as 'fuel guzzlers' [big cars requiring absurd amounts of fuel]). Even through my personal experience, Korean adults have the tendency to think of American cars as a 'fuel waster' and expensive compared to the accessories they offer. Also, the U.S does not have a long-standing reputation of producing high quality or desirable cars. To expand their global market, i think Chrysler should adapt to what the majority of buyers are looking for.

However, it seems that Chrysler is taking a big step of bravery or even fearless motivation by planning to put "a very American face on its products". In other words, they are trying to approach the global market in a totally new way. As I have had very limited experience or education about the business world, this plan seems to be very risky or even foolish. John Hossack of automotive marketing consultants AutoPacific said that "I think it's going to be tough to make up overseas with what they're likely to lose at home," This seems to be leading to a certain decline of sales for Chrysler.

On the other hand it may be a successful plan. Because Chrysler is going ahead with their business plan without offering products uniquely tailored to various markets, it will be even tougher, but Chrysler seems to be having high hopes. I think it is because selling the same car both domestic and overseas will reduce the cost of production because a luxury car like Chrysler can command high prices to offset high costs and also the cost of differing the safety and emissions regulations and peculiar customer expectations will not be required (as the design does not need to be changed).

Last but not least, I think a successful business must learn to change and adapt to the changing environment (in this case global market). Personally, I think Chrysler has taken a brave step towards expanding their markets to a global standard, but I think that adapting to the expectations or requirements of the majority of the market is a necessary step... And as if reading my mind, one sentence stands out among all the others in the article :

' "That represents a picture of the past," Chrysler president Press told reporters recently, promising that quality was already improving. '

Source : CNNMoney.com

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