Case Analysis

CASE ANALYSIS: THE HONDA ELEMENT

Title of the core: The Honda Element

Time context: Element began in 1998

Perspective/ print of view: Honda’s approach to launching the “Element” came as a bit of a surprise in that their approach was not what one would describe as traditional in the auto industry, they tried to appeal to their target market through a carefully thought out process of understanding what their young customers would like in a small SUV, and also using the SUV in a matter that their customer potentially would; hikes, traveling, moving, etc. The success of Honda’s element had mostly to do with understanding how the Gen-Y generation thinks, researching what the Gen-Y generation finds appealing in a vehicle, but most importantly how the Element was to be priced so that it could be affordable to the Gen Y masses. Honda wanted to attract the young potential customers of the Gen Y generation, most importantly a customer that would develop loyalty to Honda in the long run. Honda saw an opportunity to understand what a potential young customer would like in a vehicle, especially at the point of their lives were they were of college age or slightly past it, thus to say a Gen-Y’er would be looking for a vehicle that provided “flexibility: it should be able to easily carry sporting equipment, dorm room furniture, or plenty of friends, and could even serve as sleeping quarters for weekend trips” . Honda’s overall platform strategy with the Element was to design, and develop a vehicle that would fit the Gen-Y’ers budget, tastes in aesthetics, and mobile lives. The positioning of the vehicle was that it could fill a gap that Honda’s other vehicles like the CR-V, and Odyssey did not provide, it was for the “single individual with an unconventional lifestyle” . Honda’s vehicles all offer the company’s vision of performance, safety, and value, but the designers wanted to appeal to the Gen-Y’er by providing a fun driving experience but at the same time not...