Saturn

PRINCIPLE OF MARKETING

CASE STUDY 1

1) Saturn is now targeting geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentation. It wants to reach the type of import buying customer. After GM had decided an image makeover, it wanted to sell the car outside America especially Europe (This is an example of geographic segmentation). GM had found new division for Europe, called Opel. It made firstly Sky, two-seat roadster. It wanted to sell this car to young people and to people who like sportive life style with good income. (These are example of demographic and psychographic segmentation). After Sky, Opel made Vectra for people with good family size is 4 or 5. (This is an example of demographic segmentation) Opel made also the eight passengers outlook crossover vehicle for high-end customer and customer with large family (This is an example of demographic segmentation). Later, Opel made Astra for people who use the car everyday and who want fuel economy, car safety and balanced drive. (This is an example of behavioral segmentation). Finally Opel made a hybrid car, Vue. This car is environmentally friendlier (This is an example of psychographic segmentation).

The targeting strategies differ from S series by making a lot of models and increasing quality more than industry average. Saturn with S series targeted firstly behavioral and psychographic segmentation. Later, it targeted geographic and demographic segmentation. Saturn targeted lower, middle, upper middle class and ambitious class. It provided good quality and variety cars to customers. Briefly; GM made non-luxurious, poor quality cars. But Saturn made luxurious, stylish, good quality and different models including hybrid cars for USA and Europe customers.

2) SWOT Analysis

Strengths: Saturn had valuable assets like rock solid dealer network, purchase process satisfaction and loyal customer base. Higher prices and margins would represent greater growth in profits and revenues. Saturn introduced a...