Swot Analysis Of Vauxhall Car

Introduction

The internet is now an important part of the marketing sector. Using internet resources, companies can reach a larger audience than through traditional marketing, and do it faster and cheaper. Second Life, (SL) owned by Linden Lab, was founded ten years ago, and is one of the leading 3D virtual world software platforms. It provides virtual world, virtual life exploration, and real-life simulations in cyberspace. The virtual world is a web-based simulated environment for a user to participate via a virtual representation, referred as an “avatar”, who is provided with tools to view, navigate, and modify the virtual world space and participate in its virtual activities. (Second Life, 2009). SL provides a new arena for creative advertising methods and mechanisms. This report looks at the SL “virtual” marketing plan for the Vauxhall Car Company.

Phase 1 Branding & identity of Vauxhall Cars

• Background & Branding strategy

Vauxhall is owned by General Motors (GM), and is the second largest selling car brand in the UK. (MBASkool, 2008) The brand refers to ‘economy and functionality, cars for families and fleets’ (Rohrer, BBC, 2009). The main target group is the upper-middle and upper-class families in a mainly urban population. The main market segmentation is ‘families looking for affordable and reliable cars’. Vauxhall is a British heritage brand, but caters for the masses. The main competitors are Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Honda and Hyundai. (ibid).

Kotler (2001) defines a brand as a complex symbol that can convey up to six levels of meaning such as, attributes; benefits; values; culture; personality and user. The below table is to address the six levels of Vauxhall brand. It based on Coomber (2006); autoevolution (...

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...ffed by avatars. This entertainment based platform is now very popular. It provides a potent new marketing tool for a company to develop its brand in a virtual world.

This report has looked at a process of development of a virtual marketplace; the real case of the Vauxhall Car company. Each phase of the process has a specific concept of development. The company uses an integrated marketing mix, with digital, social media and traditional advertising methods. These marketing tools mix is to support its main marketing strategy. Virtual marketing is a new phenomenon. There are some interesting success stories in the virtual marketplace. It is easy to enter, and helps to build the brand, an image of being up with the times, ahead of the game. This will not succeed on its own, but it has become a growing and increasingly essential part of the integrated marketing mix.