The scientific assignment consists of a market analysis and the market definition for the Porsche 911 in the German market from a marketing perspective.
It includes internal and external aspects which are crucial for a successful marketing strategy. The analysis covers a general overview of the company and the respective product, followed by a customer analysis and the internal and external analysis. Instruments which have been used are the SWOT analysis, the PEST analysis and Porter´s Five Forces. The document closes with a conclusion of the analysis.
Table of Contents
III. List of Figures
1. Introduction
2. General Information about Company and Product
3. Customer Analysis
4. Internal Market Analysis
4.1 SWOT Analysis
4.1.1 Strengths
4.1.2 Weaknesses
5. External Market Analysis
5.1 SWOT Analysis
5.1.1 Opportunities
5.1.2 Threats
5.2 PEST Analysis
5.3 Porters Five Forces
6. Conclusion
7. References
III. List of Figures
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis
Figure 2: Porter´s Five Forces Model
1. Introduction
When talking about the company Porsche, most of the people you ask have an association of famous and expensive sports cars with this brand. Actually, even the numbers “911” are familiar for nearly all who have at least a driving license and driving regularly on German streets. For the new Porsche 911, the company said they were starting at zero to design and built the best Porsche 911 of all times and do not look back to historic achievements (cf. Porsche Homepage New 911). The following assignment will provide a detailed market analysis for the Porsche 911 in the German market. As the 911 has several models and types, this assignment will focus on the 911 Carrera, which is the “entry model” to the 911 series.
2. General Information about Company and Product
The company Porsche was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany. The full company name is Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft (cf. Porsche Wikipedia Article). The company belongs to the Volkswagen Automobile Group since Volkswagen took over Porsche in 2012 (cf. Handelszeitung Porsche Übernahme, 2012).
The core business of Porsche is the manufacturing of cars in the upper and luxury price segment. Starting in the early ages of the company with sports cars, Porsche expanded their product portfolio during the last years including SUV´s and other models. The current portfolio covers six general models with several sub-models and types (cf. Porsche Models).
This assignment focusses on the 911 Carrera, which can be called the entry model to the 911 series. This series includes the Carrera, Targa, Turbo and some other Carrera-like models (cf. ibid.). The basic model of the Porsche Carrera starts with a list price of 96.605,00 Euros including VAT with manual shifting (cf. Porsche 911 Carrera).
3. Customer Analysis
If we take a view on the market analysis, we should always focus on our potential and existing customers for the product we want to analyze.
One criteria for the customer analysis and our peer group is the price of our product. As above mentioned, the Porsche 911 Carrera costs at least around 96.000 Euros list price with the basic settings. Therefore, the customer group is already limited due to the income factor. Porsche wants to attract customers with a high income who can spend those nearly 100.000 Euros for a car.
Even though the analysis done by Porsche is from 2003 and therefore already 13 years old, one of the major reasons of the customers for buying a Porsche 911 is the emotional component, which represented more than 60% in the study 2003 (cf. Porsche GfM 2003, Page 6). This shows that the potential and existing customer are seeing a car and making their decision of buying a car with an emotional component and not only with a rationale component. You can assume that these customers have an emotional component to the part of car driving. For them, it is not just a tool for getting from A to B (cf. ibid. Page 11). But it is not only the component of driving. It is also the component of owning. Porsche is still an exclusive product due to the high price. Additional reasons are design and functionality, sport car ambitions and everyday usability (cf. Marketing Club 2012).
Regarding the sexual background, it is assumed that there is a higher percentage of male customers then female customers, even though the study is from 2003 (cf. Porsche GfM 2003, Page 5).
To summarize the customer perspective, the targeting customer for the Porsche 911 Carrera in Germany is:
- Male with a very high percentage
- Emotional regarding his decisions on the topic of cars / driving
- Has rather a high income or saves money for years to get this car
- Aged between 40 and 50
4. Internal Market Analysis
After having gained an overview about the company, the product and the potential customers, it is now time to analyze the market for the above mentioned product. First of all, we have to define what a market exactly is. In general, the market can be defined as the place where the competitors meet the customers and demand and supply are coming together (cf. Weis, 2013, Page 26). Markets can be sub-structured with several aspects. One quite important aspect is the differentiation between a selling market and a purchasing market (cf. Koppelmann, 2006, Page 28). It is also important to know that not only the company and the customer are participants at the market. Additionally, we find competitors, suppliers and sales-assisting companies (cf. Ramme, 2009, Page 49). We will now analyze the internal and the external aspects for the market definition for our product.
To start, we will take a look on the internal aspects of the market analysis. Therefore, it is important to know that, besides the marketing department, other factors have an influence on the internal aspects, such as other departments and suppliers (cf. Kotler et. al., 2011, Page 217).
4.1 SWOT Analysis
One instrument which is often used for the internal analysis is the SWOT analysis. It has in general four components, while two of them focus on the internal analysis. The SWOT analysis is used for the positioning of the own company regarding the competitive players in the market (cf. Gabler Lexikon SWOT Analysis). An example of the SWOT analysis is shown in the figure below.
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis
illustration not visible in this excerpt
Source: Gabler Lexikon SWOT Analysis
For our internal analysis, we will now focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the product itself.
4.1.1 Strengths
The strengths of the company Porsche and the related product 911 Carrera can be summarized as following:
- High margin on turnover – increased to 28 percent gross margin in 2015
- Increased Cashflow and therefore enough potential investment capital
- Increased number of sold products in total and on the 911 Carrera
- Turnover increased by more than 25 percent
- Increasing investment
(cf. Porsche Geschäftsbericht 2015, Page 126ff)
4.1.2 Weaknesses
The other part of the SWOT analysis which focusses on the internal aspects is the weaknesses analysis. Therefore, we need to figure out which internal weaknesses Porsche and the product 911 Carrera have. The weaknesses can be summarized as the follows:
- Long lifecycle of the product (up to 8 years)[1]
- Technologically behind other premium manufacturers – focusing on emotion
- High gas mileage[2]
- Downsizing with Turbo charge instead of capacity – Not appreciated by some customers2
5. External Market Analysis
After looking on the internal aspects in relation to the market analysis, we now focus on the external analysis, which switches the view on the factors outside of the company.
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[1] Cf. Porsche Model Overview
[2] Cf. Porsche 991 2015