Automobile and Product Essay

1a. The company this case is about is a company named DoorGuard. DoorGuard is a company that is trying to create a new market that protects cars from getting dinged or dented. 1b. Strengths: DoorGuard strengths are that there is currently no one else who has a product that does the same thing, along with a big target market. 1c. Weaknesses: Doorguard’s weaknesses are that he couldn’t find a concrete way to distribute and promote their product. Another weakness is that DoorGuard is a pioneer product it could boom or bust, with a pioneer product you cannot predict as well how successful your product will be. 1d. Opportunity-There is a big opportunity for this product to take off if he sold to only 5% of his target market he would be making $6,100,000. 1e. Threat- DoorGuard’s threat is they are a product pioneer. This will be a high risk, high reward company. It could skyrocket or else it will fall right on its face. It could be ahead of its time or the economic times could take a large portion of his target market and sway them in a different direction. 2. The market described in this article is anyone who has a car that costs $15,000 or more. These people are normally people who have are from their mid-late 20’s to 60’s that have a well paying job. They market also teenage kids who come from a wealthy family. 3. There are no direct competitors in this case. There is some indirect competition though with AutoShades. This is a company that prevents the sun from coming into the car. Their strengths are that they are cheap, sometimes come with the car when bought new, and also have different designs. The companies weakness compared to DoorGuard is that it does not protect the car at all. 4. The people possibly consuming or buying this product ages range from the mid 20’s –60’s. Most of these people are middle-upper middle class. The majority of these people have kids. These people drive to places where this is tight parking (grocery shopping, schools (elementary, middle and high), malls). For these people this product could be valuable in the long run it’d cost less off AutoGuard doors compared to removing dings and dents. 5. The technological market is important to recognize because DoorGuard’s anti-theft mechanism still destroys the product the consumer bought. This could be a problem that an adaption to the anti-theft mechanism could prevent. Economic market should also be acknowledged because with bad economic times most of DoorGuard’s target market people who are in their mid-late 20’s-60’s who not extremely wealthy people are but ordinary everyday people will be less likely to buy a good that they want and don’t necessarily need. If the car door gets dinged or dented the car will still run it’s not a necessity. Problem Statement: Should Steve Harris take the next step with his product and look to distribute it? Steve Harris focuses on distributing to the top five automobile manufactures (Ford, Chrysler, GM, Toyota, and Honda). With Harris looking to distribute to the top five automobile companies in their retail stores. They would be stored on a car as the customer walk into the store or stored between the main entrance and the secretary’s desk. There is a By targeting these big 5 automobile companies Harris will maximize his productivity by reaching almost all of his target market, while also having time to work on other aspects of his company. Distribute to every automobile retailer out their. With Harris selling his product in every automobile retailer it will guarantee that he is able to access his entire target market. By targeting every automobile retailers it takes away a more of a majority of their time and money compared to targeting only the top 5 retailers or not selling to any automobile retailers. Advertise and open your business and sell as a wholesaler to the customer. The advantage of not looking to distributing to any retailers is that you save on shipping cost to retailers. Harris will also have a lot more time to figuring out how to advertise and promote his product. The weakness is that it will be very hard to advertise and promote his product without an automobile company supporting his idea. Have Harris distribute DoorGuard to two or three car companies. The strengths with this strategy is he’ll be able to target a decent amount of the market. The amount he targets varies depending on which companies he picks. Harris will be able not worry about distribution as much as if he was distributing to the top 5 automobiles companies or every automobile company. This will allow Harris to focus more of his time towards his product, and promotion of the product. By have only a few car companies distributing his product there is a great chance that these companies will remain loyal to you in years to come. There are some negative effects though to this distribution process. With so few of distributors your fate is in their hands. For example say you decided to distribute to GM and Ford. For some reason Ford goes bankrupt and out of business. That’s roughly half of your target market that disappears. If one of the companies Harris distributes to goes down, AutoGuard as well will be in serious trouble financially. Your target market will be so small that it will be hard to hit 5% of all people buying an automobile. You need a plan B (alternative option) incase you one of the few automobile companies drastically falter. Recommendation Mr. Harris should focus on only distributing to the top five automobile companies. This will allow him to target the majority of the market while still being able to spend a lot of his time worrying about all the other aspects of his company (promotion/ advertising, and improving the product). With targeting this large section of the market for such a small cost it will allow him to adapt other aspects of his business and should be able to 5% of his market.