SUMMATIVE CASE ANALYSIS

o COURSE – MG101 MARKETING

o CASE – FORD KA
o CLASS TEACHER- LAURA ZIMMERMANN

o LSE ID NUMBER – 201773410 (GROUP 9)

– 201777095 (GROUP 7)
o WORD COUNT – 2500 (APPROX)
 INTRODUCTION

The Ford Ka is a small car manufactured by the American manufacturer, Ford Motor Company from
1996 to 2018, as a city car, and from 2014 onwards as a subcompact car. Gilles Moynier. Brand
manager at Ford France of Ford’s latest smallest model. The Ka sat in his office in Rueil-Malmaison
near Paris in 1996. The first two generations have a three-door hatchback body style, with the first
generation also having a two-door convertible version that was marketed as the StreetKA, alongside
a sporty hatch version, known as the SportKA. There is also the Ford Ka Now. The Ka has been the
best-selling car in its class in the United Kingdom for a number of years and commands around a
fifth of the city car market because people prefer more of smaller cars or hatchback cars then sedan
cars because in UK, there is so much of road congestion and parking problem that it is so difficult to
drive a car in UK. Since the size of the car was correlated largely with the production cost and thus
with the price, this product categorization led car manufacturers to segment customers according to
their income and age.
Q1) How should Giles Moynier segment the French small car market for Ford Ka and what
segment(s) should he target? In thinking about this question please be sure to think through the
following issues:
(a) A clear description of the target segment(s).

(b) An explanation of which segmentation method(s) you are using (geographic, demographic,
psychographic and/or benefit/behavioural), and why you feel it is more appropriate for Ford Ka
compared to the other segmentation methods you are not recommending. Discuss also weaknesses,
if any, of your recommended method for Ford Ka.

(c) A justification of why you have chosen the particular target segment you recommend. This should
include not only the advantages of this target segment, but also a discussion of why it is 4 superior
to at least two other target segments that a reasonable person might choose, using the same
segmentation method.

Ans. Setting strategy includes 3 main heads in it:-

1. Segmentation
2. Targeting
3. Positioning
4.
Segmentation is very important tool in setting strategy. It is basically means dividing a large group of
consumers into smaller groups which have same behaviour, taste, preference and react to things
similarly.

Ford Ka had 3 main segmentation options:-

Gender Attitudinal
Segmentation Segmentation

Traditional
Demographic
Segmentation
Gender Segmentation

Ford Ka decided to opt for gender segmentation because 38% of all the cars in France were driven by
women and three out of ten car buyers were women. Also, 44% of the women car buyers admitted
that they bought the small car for urban driving whereas on the other hand 25% of men admitted
that they bought small car for urban driving.

This segmentation strategy was already been taken by the Peugeot 106 and they thought that this
would be unoriginal.

Attitudinal segmentation

Attitudinal segmentation refers to that the market should be segmentation as per the consumer
lifestyle and behaviour.

Goldfarb had defined four main segments in Attitudinal segmentation:-

1. Freedom Lovers
They are those people who love outgoing and are open, warm, communicative and active.

2. Attention Seekers
They are the avant-garde, opinion leaders and garish.

3. Sensible Classics
They are responsible, risk averse, traditionalists

4. No-nonsense Neutrals
They are brand attentive, TV watchers, unenthusiastic consumer

Traditional Demographic Segmentation

1. People took first time buyer’s step by purchasing small cars.

2. Different age groups, income and household size.
3. Working singles, multi car households
B) I would recommend Ford to choose traditional method for segmenting as I feel that it is more
appropriate for Ford Ka as compared to the other segmentation methods because people will buy
the car as per their age, income and other requirements and needs.

Since the small cars are cheaper than other segment of cars like Sedan, Suv, Luxury, Sports model
people who have household income less than 100KF often buy the small cars.

The statistics shows that:-

1. 53% of the Ford Ka choosers are women

2. The most numbers of Ford Ka buyers age from 40-44 in women
3. People who own cars previously more than 3 choose Ford Ka
4. People who have one to two cars in household choose Ford Ka.

There are certain weakness of this method of segmenting:-

1. Customers in same segment have different perceptions of the Ford Ka

2. 25% of the people rated Ford Ka in the middle four in the ranking of the Ford Ka from a list
of ten small cars.
30% of the people rated Ford Ka in bottom 3. This conclude that more than 50% of the
people don’t see Ford Ka in the top 3 list. This means that Ford Ka have a high dislike
rating.
3. General market trends that were going the markets

I would not recommend the gender segmentation because Peugeot 106 has the similar target.
Large number of the people doesn’t like the Ford Ka such as No-nonsense Neutrals. Dealers were
not effective in targeting the women buyers.
C)

I have chosen the traditional method of segmentation because:-

1. Customer can be identified very easily

2. A particular group of people can be approached through this method
3. The top management can provide the support
4. Ford’s competence

The traditional method is more superior to the other two methods that are attitudinal demographic
segmentation and gender segmentation because in the case of attitudinal segmentation the market
size is very uncertain and doesn’t have enough potential in the segment. Also this segment is very
small. It is difficult to identify the genuine customers. Ford does not have the necessarily consistent
with providing emotional benefits.
Q2) Giles Moynier has asked for your advice on how to position Ford Ka vis-à-vis competition.
Please…
(a) Describe this positioning both in words and using a perceptual map of the market.

(b) Justify why you think this positioning will be most effective.

(c) Include at most ten cars as competitors, and discuss why you feel these are the most important
competitors to include.

(d) Discuss the dimensions you are using for Ford Ka’s positioning, and why you feel these are the
most appropriate dimensions.

a) MORE

PRICE

LOW HIGH

LESS

FEATURES
 MARKET POSITIONING

In Marketing, market position refers to the consumer's perception of a brand or product in relation
to competing brands or products. Market positioning refers to the process of establishing the image
or identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a certain way. Positioning helps to
tell the features and many other different segments of the product so that customer can
differentiate the product and choose according to his choice. Positioning is an internal analysis
method. It is online marketing mix. It is a core brand proposition.
The main concept of Positioning is “what a product does and “who it is for”.
Positioning is a part of market strategy which includes segmentation, targeting and positioning. It is
also known as S-T-P approach. Positioning is a process of identifying the concept of each target
segment, select the best among the rest and communicate it. It also helps shape a consumers
preferences which is a major source in guiding them towards a particular brand. The positioning
strategies can be by attribute, by benefit, by price/quality, by use/occasion, by product user, with
respect to the competitor, by emotion, etc. So in this case people can differentiate by the factors of
Price and Features by comparing it from another cars of same segment.
The customers will prefer which give them high utility.

ADVANTAGE of positioning is like it will get easier for people to differentiate the products from their
competitor’s brand.
It also creates a competitive advantage.

DISADVANTAGE is weakness of product positioning is that every company wants to position its
products favourably in the minds of consumers, so there is usually a high level of competition.
Another weakness is like maintaining competitive position in market if tough.

PERCEPTUAL MAPS

Perceptual maps are a diagrammatic representation of consumers' mental representations of the

relative place various brands occupy within a category. Perceptual word comes from the word
perception which basically refers to the consumer understanding of the competing products and
their attribute values. Perceptual mapping selects 2 variables which are relevant to customers to
differentiate from competitors. These 2 variables are placed on graph on X-axis and Y-axis. It helps in
understand the market structure. It also tells us about the new product concept. It also helps to
direct R&D to satisfy customer needs better.

Like in case of FORD KA, we have taken 2 attributes in perceptual map for comparison.
On X-axis its Price from low to high and On Y-axis, its features from less to more.

DISADVANTAGE: Only general guidelines and prior beliefs are used to define the dimensions of the
perceptual maps.
Results are usually available in aggregate forms.
Brand evaluations are limited to the attributes.

ADVANTAGE: Based on many attributes, the respondents give their inputs for each brand Both brand
and attributes can be represented in a single map which is helpful.

B)

I think that this positioning is effective because people can choose the car they want to buy by
looking at the map. In the map the cars which are closer to each other possess some similar
attributes. So it becomes easy for them to choose a car from the pool of cars which are closer to
each other. The cars which are far away are different from each other. The cars are in different
quadrants have different attributes.

MORE

CITREON

PANDA

PEUGEOT 106

PRICE FORD KA POLO CORSA

LOW HIGH

CINQUECENTO CLIO

TWINGO

MICRA

FEATURES

LESS
C) For at most everything, there are competitors in the market. In this case of FORD KA, there are
many competitors of FORD KA like:

1. CITREON AX
2. FIAT CINQUECENTO(1992)
3. FIAT PANDA
4. FIAT PUNTO
5. NISSAN MICRA
6. OPEL CORSA
7. RENAULT TWINGO
8. PEUGEOT 106
9. RENAULT CLIO
10. VOLKSWAGEN POLO

I think these are the most important competitors to include because these companies also
manufactured the cars in same segment as of FORD KA, and all these are small cars and
approximately in the same price range segment (small difference of prices). But they all possess
somehow different features as per the companies.
Customer will check and differentiate the cars from all these options.
These all cars have different engine, different company brands, max speed, fuel consumption, etc.
Customers will evaluate the cars as per their requirements.
Either customer prefer brand preference or where he is getting maximum utility of his money.
D) I think the price and features dimension of Ford Ka’s positioning will be most appropriate. The
customer who wants to purchase the car, firstly check the features according to his requirements
and then the most effective thing is price. Everyone can’t afford expensive cars so customers
purchase cars as per their budget. If the features and price both gets matched up as per the
requirement of customer so the customer will get ready to buy. Before purchasing anything, the
customers are willing to compare it from another product of same segment, so it is easy to compare
with the help of positioning map. The features include Engine (cyl/cm3)2, Power, and Max. Speed
(km/h),

Acceleration, fuel consumption, length/width, ABS, power steering, etc. So every person has
different needs and they require features as per their convenience. Prices are also from low to high
so that people can prefer what they want. If I also go to purchase the car firstly I will also see the
features and price so I think this will be the most appropriate positioning in case of cars. The
Disadvantage of this can be people who also wants to compare some more attributes other than
price and features, so it will be difficult for them to compare. In today’s scenario, most of the
teenagers and women want to drive small car and some basic feature is enough so they can just
compare it by perceptual map.
The price range of these cars are from 36000-116000