Marketin Plan for Dongfeng Motor Corporation

Introduction

Fengshen brand is owned by Dongfeng Motor Corporation. As the milestones during the creative development of car business of Dongfeng, Fengshen initials the project of electric automobile so that this new product 'I-car' would support firm to reach global market. There is a market plan for Dongfeng's move into America with 'I-car' as part of joint venture of PSA Peugeot-Citroen. A broad outline would be shown in terms of situation evaluation, SWOT analysis, marketing goal and objectives, marketing strategies.

Situation analysis

The internal environment

Winning glory for the motherland and setting up the dominance in international automotive market is the consistent ideal of Fengshen. In the first-five planning, firm aims to become the leader of Chinese brand. Then it would take another five years to be the first-class brand of electric automobiles in China. After these two plans, firm intends to leap into international mainstream automobile brands.

The strategy contains joint venture with PSA Peugeot-Citroen, promotion on Beijing auto show and the concept of green. In 2010, I-Car made a stage pose on Dongfeng Auto Show booth and attracted people's eyes. With the idea of fully electric vehicle and lovely appearance, Fengshen tantalize both dealers and target market by the promotion. Furthermore, for placement such as channel, it not only focuses on 4s including 75 boutiques, but also utilizes 'seed dealers' and over 400 service networks to cover the whole China.

In 2015, it is estimated that the sales of new energy vehicle would account for 25% of the whole sales volume, around 100000 electric cars in Dongfeng Group. Now Fengshen has total assets of 73.5 billion RMB and 124,000 staffs working in this firm. As the joint venture with I-Car, PSA Peugeot-Citroen performs great in global market and has an ambition to become the world seventh largest carmakers from the current rank of world tenth.

The customer environment

As Fengshen's share in U.S. is small, more emphasis could put on potential customers. Demographic segmentation is based on age, sex, education, income, and social class (Belch, G. E. and Belch, M. A. 2009). Apparently, their target audiences are female with high income, well-educated and young people. Women favor its delicate body design and futuristic interior. Psychographic segmentation is according to values, lifestyle and personality. Those who have high status would prefer new electric car. In fact, there are four consumer categories in the field of electric automobile. They are 60% behavioral greens, 20% think greens, 14% potential greens and 6% true browns. In American market, behavioral greens and think greens have a green attitude against air pollution (The green and variegated consumer, 2008) and receptiveness of new technology so they are involved in firm's target. As to think green with limited purchasing power, they are price-sensitive so that reasonable price of I-Car would appeal to them.

The external environment

Volt of General Motors Corporation and Leaf of Nissan Motor Co are two big constrains for Fengshen expansion in U.S.A. Despite strong competitors, the opportunity is still available. In 2008, America suffered from financial crisis. Gloomy economic situation offers aperture for I-Car with low price strategy to win a place. And the encouragement of electric car from American Government and the strict criterion in carbon emission of 236g/km in 2007 would also make contribution to Fengshen. Furthermore, U.S. contains huge profits for about 175000 Americans have owned electric cars and 350000 potential audiences intend to engage them. These potential customers with high environmental awareness seem to be curious about electric products since the increasingly serious environmental pollution have ruined people's life.

SWOT Analysis:

The SWOT Analysis emphasizes the need of successful business owners and managers to understand the importance of an annual strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (Sarah, Simoneaux & Chris, n.d.). It helps the company to assess what is going on today and what is the next step.

Strength

1: Strong government support

The Dongfeng Motor Corporation is the first car manufacturing which makes a movement to research and develop the electric car in China. Therefore, it gains the strong support from the Chinese government which includes set up the R&D base and enjoys the government subsidies. In addition, the US government has enacted a series of policies to limit the CO₂，hence the company can make use of the national support policies issued by the government to promote its electric cars.

2: Clean energy and inexpensive

Another competitive advantage for the icar compared to the other electric car brands is its clean energy technology and low sales price. The price in the US is around twenty thousand dollars and people in the Behavioral Green, Think Greens and Potential Greens have the ability to afford it. Furthermore, the appearance of the car is so little and cute and the automotive trim is quite elegant and fashionable.

3: The form of Joint Venture

The vast majority of Dongfeng's car sales are derived from its joint venture form automobile enterprises and the four major partners are Nissan, Honda, Kia Motors and PSA Peugeot-Citroen. The form of joint venture has a superiority of extending the product line and the joint venture enterprises have further completed the models, technologies and accessories factories. It helps the company gain more return potential, a higher degree of control and reduces the investment risk (Kotabe et al., 2011).

Weakness

1: Lack of government subsidies

Although the company gains a lot of support from its own country China, it is lack of government subsidies in the America market as a new entrant. Without the subsidies, the sales volume of icar in the first a few years may be inferior to the other competitors.

2: Geographic and culture diversity

Since geographic culture diversity between different markets, it is not easy for a standardized product to sell to an oversea market. Obviously, the propensity, lifestyle，communication