Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

CHAPTER 3 THE CHANGING MARKET ENVIRONMENT
Japanese strategic group gave them an advantage over the European broad-range suppliers, 
but now the Japanese are gaining even more power by becoming local manufacturers and 
therefore overcoming the local content barriers.
High European labour costs have meant that the European companies operate in stra-
tegic groups selling high added-value luxury cars or specialist cars, the luxury cars being 
supplied by relatively large-scale manufacturers with moderately wide product ranges (such 
as the German firm Mercedes-Benz), or specialist manufacturers producing the very expen-
sive, small-volume products (the British Morgan cars, for instance).
The strength of the barriers surrounding the industry is reflected by recent shifts that 
have taken place. Although the Samurai have never successfully attacked the hard core of 
the Big Three, they have continued to nibble away at the weaker imports: first the Faded 
Champions by introducing cheap, reliable family cars; and more recently against the luxury 
car makers with the advent of the Lexus and other luxury offerings. Even though they are 
very large, the Big Three have found it difficult to defend their position by developing their 
own luxury cars and so have been seeking to defend their flanks against the Samurai by 
purchasing European manufacturers such as Jaguar, Volvo, Lamborghini, Aston Martin 
and Lotus. After years of the Big Three and the Samurai avoiding direct competition, the 
luxury car market has become the point where the two meet. Although the Samurai have 
not found it appropriate to purchase European companies in order to overcome entry bar-
riers to those sectors (with the exception of Toyota, which has bought, and sold, Lotus), 
so distinct are the luxury car markets that both Honda and Toyota launched totally new 
ranges with new brand names and distribution systems to attack the market (the Acura 
and the Lexus).