Good Example Of Term Paper On Porsche Strategic Plan

Introduction

Porsche is a famous name within the automobile industry and many people associate Porsche with luxury, speed, elegance, and quality. Throughout the history, the company had to overcome some difficulties and to set a firm foundation for successful performance. Porsche is operating in the market for more than 80 years already, and through the years of functioning the company’s team has proved their skills and strive for excellence.
Ferdinand Porsche set the very first engineering office of Porsche in Stuttgart in 1931, and that office employed only 12 people, who managed to cover the whole process of automotive engineering. During the first years of operations, Porsche’s employees were working hard on designing motors and performing orders of the car manufacturers. For example, in the first year of Porsche functioning, the founder himself, Ferdinand, designed a six-cylinder sedan for one of the automobile manufacturers in Germany, and also introduced a new eight-cylinder motor, which became a sign of the upcoming development and innovations (Porscheengineering.com).
Further, in the beginning of 1933, Ferdinand Porsche got the offer and signed a contract for designing a racing car that would work on 16-cylinder principle. The team of engineers with Karl Rabe in head started to work on the design of this car, and, consequently, after continuous work, they introduced the Auto Union P racing car, where P indicated that Porsche was working on it. As the result, this car set several record in the races, and earned a status of “one of the most successful racing cars in the pre-war era” (Porscheengineering.com). In 1934, Porsche’s team conducted the ‘Study on the Construction of a German People’s Car”, which turned out to be one of the turning points for the company, because after that Ferdinand Porsche has introduced the compact car concept, and started to receive numerous order for their engineering (Porscheengineering.com).
Still, despite the fact that the first Porsche engineering office was established in 1931, many consider the beginning of the company’s operations only in 1948, when Ferdinand Porsche with help of his son decided to introduce their first automotive shop that employed approximately 200 workers. Moreover, in this year Porsche introduced their world famous “356” car. There are several interesting facts about the company. First, the principles that Porsche introduced for the racing cars are still used in Formula 1, popular racing context. Second is the fact that 70% of the cars that the team of Porsche has ever constructed, are still on the roads over the world. In addition, during the year 1949, the company’s team managed to build with their hands 52 cars in a garage in Austria, which required a huge amount of working hours, specific skills, strategies, and strength (Press.porsche.com).
In the next years of operations, the founder of Porsche died, and the company continued its operations without his leadership. Porsche was working hard on building “356”, and introducing new models of sports cars. The company continued to build “356” car for more than 17 years, but after that they had to respond to the emerging needs and to design new models. Therefore, throughout hard work and continuous innovation Porsche became a symbol of sports car legend. The company’s strategy was to respond to the customers’ needs effectively and strive for the best performance in the market. Currently Porsche is a manufacturer and retailer of luxury cars and sport cars for the society and for the professional to participate in the race (Press.porsche.com).

Marketing Mix

One of the important elements of every company is a careful analysis of its marketing mix, or 4P’s that include product, price, place, and promotion. As far as Porsche is a successful performer with the automobile industry, they have a strong marketing mix with interrelated elements.
Product. Porsche representation a company that offers a combination of products and services.
Porsche is a legend in the automobile manufacturing industry. Thus, one of the main products that the company is offering is luxury cars at high quality prices with a fair correlation between price and quality. However, there are other products, towards which the company has extended its operations. Those products include various Porsche designs in different industries, such as clothing, eyewear, sports, and electronics. The company is cooperating with world famous brands, such as Blackberry. Together they create the designs for the popular products (Porsche-design.com).
In addition to the products Porsche creates and designs, the company also involves various types of services associated with automotive engineering, repair and technical support. The company’s specialized employees provide the after-sale service for the cars, helps to establish various communication tools and information technology programs. Porsche has service centers in different countries all over the world, so that customers can easily access the company in case of questions or problems (Porsche.com).
Price. Porsche is implementing a premium price strategy, which implies that they offer high quality products at high prices. Porsche products are not something that anyone can afford. The company is positioning itself in the market as a company that offers luxury products and services, and they set high prices for them because the prices justify the quality. Thus, the company wants to represent its exclusiveness by setting premium prices, and at the same times, creates a feeling of exclusiveness for customers (Porsche.com).
Place. Ferdinand Porsche established the company in Stuttgart, Germany. Through the years of operations, the company has expanded its functioning to different corners of the world, making the experience of Porsche available to higher number of people. Porsche is providing consulting services in such countries as Italy, United States, and China. Everything that is connected to the engineering process is located in Germany, but the company has dealers in various countries, including countries of North America (Porscheconsulting.com).
Promotion. Currently Porsche does not need to invest that much in advertising, because the company has already established a strong brand image and has earned a positive reputation in the automobile engineering and retail industry. Still, Porsche is making advertising videos in order to introduce the concept to the potential customers. In the advertising videos, the company wants to pursue the values and enthusiasm of the customers, so that they will realize that they need such a luxury car as one of the Porsche models (Robertson). Moreover, throughout the last several years Porsche started to target women. Many years ago, hardly any woman bought a Porsche sport car, while currently they comprise approximately 20% of total sales. Thus, Porsche id trying to appeal to women in their advertising videos, making their promotion strategy applicable to a wider range of customers (Dent, 2012).

Position in the Market

Porsche’s position in the market can be explained by different factors. One of those factors is the company’s strive for excellence and constant concentration on customers and employees. By being honest and providing great employment condition, Porsche is enhancing product quality and productivity of the workers, which helps the company to perform efficiently. Moreover, one of the main objectives of the company is to become the market leader. One of the main competencies of Porsche is creating value to society and establishing an enthusiastic community. The community of Porsche loyal customers and potential customers, as well as of loyal employees and potential employees, make the company thrive and one of the best luxury sports cars manufacturers in the industry. What is more, Porsche’s services and consulting departments bring value to their customers by offering an excellent services, and thus, keeping the positive image of the company (Porsche.com).

Financial Performance

The next important factor in the company’s analysis is its financial performance, because it gives a broader picture on the company’s operation and gives a hint for investors about company’s profitability. Porsche is a publicly traded company, which means that the company can issue stocks.
We can observe the company’s performance by looking at the stock price of the company, which has significantly increased throughout the last five years. For example, in March 2010 stock price for Porsche was $5.85, while currently this indicator reaches $9.64. In addition, Porsche is showing a continuous historical growth, as it introduces new products and services to the market. Porsche reports that in the year 2014 revenues significantly increased: they grew by 17% and constituted more than $12 billion. The operating profit also rose by 8% in the first half of the year 2014. Moreover, in the middle of 2014 Porsche has achieved a record number of employees, thus providing more career opportunities for the population all over the world. Hiring new employees means that the company needs more resources to implement its plans and to achieve even higher growth in the future. One of Porsche’s objectives is to grow with profitability, and the company is working hard to generate enough revenues so that it can provide more benefits to the employees and bring more value to the customers (Nasdaq.com, Porsche.com).

SWOT Analysis

It is crucial for every business to conduct an internal and external analysis of the company. Porsche is not an exception, and it has to look carefully at its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths. The two indicators of the internal analysis as a part of SWOT analysis are strengths and weaknesses.

Internal Analysis

First, strengths play a crucial role for Porsche, and having established strong sides positively contributes to the company’s performance and position in the market. One of the major Porsche’s strengths is that there are almost no substitutes for it products. Porsche is offering sporty cars with the base of racing cars, which makes them unique. Luxury automobiles with a long history of the company contributed to the creation of a strong brand image of the company, and currently are working for the company’s success. High quality and high prices keep Porsche’s production at the luxury niche, and thus the company has unique features that provide the company with a firm position in the market (Henderson & Reavis, 2009).
The next important strength of Porsche is that currently two companies, Porsche and VW, operate under the name of Porsche SE. This cooperation creates an amazing combination of the technologies, skills, innovation, knowledge, and research of the two strong companies in the automobile industry. In addition, Porsche has a successful financial performance, which give the company an opportunity to invest resources in the research and development. Moreover, the company is creating many job places for people, and this fact positively applies to the international economy (Henderson & Reavis, 2009).
There are also some weaknesses of Porsche. One of the weak sides of the company is that recalls of production due to some technical or quality problems can weaken the reputation of the company. For example, in 2012, Porsche had to recall more than 1000 automobiles from the worldwide sales, because it figured potential defects of the turbocharger. The recalls of the productions represents a symbol of declining quality, and Porsche should pay attention at this issue carefully (MarketLine Report).
Moreover, Porsche has been involved in various legal disputes in different countries in the world. Legal claims and administrative cases create problems for the company in the terms of reputation and financial objectives. Therefore, the weakness is that Porsche encounters several issues with customers and other companies, and legal cases sometimes appear (MarketLine Report).

External Analysis

External analysis of the company, in turn, involves opportunities and threats. Porsche is experiencing growth, and there are several opportunities for the company. First, the customers’ needs are constantly changing, and currently there is an increasing demand for hybrid engine automobiles. With high investments in research and development and strive for innovation and excellence, Porsche can significantly benefit from these customer needs. Industry analysis shows that the demand for those environmental friendly cars will keep growing in the next decades. Porsche has already started to work towards this trend and has launched Cayenne Spyder model with a hybrid engine. Introducing more of Porsche’s style, hybrid engine vehicles represents an essential opportunity for the company (MarketLine Report).
Moreover, currently North America market generates approximately 50% of Porsche’s sales. Thus, concentration on the Asia Pacific region and expanding the market can significantly benefit the company, because Asia Pacific market represents an organism that is continuously growing and that shows the need for luxury innovations (MarketLine Report).
However, there are certain threats for the company that potentially can negatively influence Porsche’s operational excellence. Environmental regulations all over the world is one of the threats. Widening the requirements and regulations for the environment can increase the need for contributing more resources to the sustainable development. What is more, there are requirements on the level of emissions in the environment, and making those requirements stricter can create potential dangers for the engineering process of Porsche, as it involves the development, manufacturing and testing process, all of which produce emissions (MarketLine Report).
One more potential danger for Porsche is the current level of excess capacity in the automobile industry. The thing is that the manufacturing capacity of the automobile companies is more that the demand, especially in the markets of Europe and North America. Therefore, if the excess capacity will continue to grow, Porsche can face financial issues related to the insufficient demand for its production (MarketLine Report).

Strategy Formulation

SWOT analysis of the company gives a representation of where the company should move and at what issues it should pay careful attention. In addition, SWOT analysis gives the hints on the potential strategies for the further company’s development. It is crucial to look at the external and internal performance of the company and to review thoroughly all of the potential opportunities and threats in order to formulate a further development path for Porsche.
One of the insights is that Porsche should combine its strengths and weaknesses into one in order to increase the financial performance of the company. The objective is to concentrate on thorough investigation of potential production problems and to eliminate then. This activity will help the company to maintain high quality of the automobiles and will save the reputation of the company by minimizing the number of legal disputes and eventually eliminating them.
Another strategy can be driven from Porsche’s opportunities. Concentrating on the production of environment friendly automobiles will help the company to increase the sales due to the increasing demand of customers. It is crucial for the company to keep the track of customers’ needs, and as far as Porsche is focusing on people’s experience of their cars, the company should offer a special line of hybrid-engine automobiles. Moreover, investing in research and development can bring more knowledge about other potential features of the vehicles that will positively contribute to the environment. Moreover, by pursuing environmental initiatives, Porsche can reduce the potential threat of increasing environmental regulations.
In addition, creating more promotion techniques for Asia Pacific regions is the opportunity at which Porsche should pay attention. This growing region creates a wide range of unexplored markets for every company, and Porsche is no exception. Entering Asia Pacific market can dramatically increase the sales of the company. Furthermore, Porsche should use targeting strategies in this region in order to gain more of loyal customers. In addition, increasing the sales in this region will create more job placements, which would be beneficial for the company’s image.
In order to measure the implementation of those strategies, it will be necessary to review the financial reports of the company on the quarterly basis. Financial reports reflect main elements of the company’s operations, and we will be able to observe the fluctuations in the sales of the company and its investments in such spheres as marketing and research and development. Besides, analyzing annual reports of the company will provide a representation on the company’s activities and performance indicators. Thorough analysis of those reports and statements will help to judge how the company is operating in terms of the desired objectives and pursued strategies.
Overall, Porsche is a strong company in the market, which has proved itself as a successful, innovative and enthusiastic business. Creating a unique luxury experience foe the customers and being a good employer for the workers brings positive results in the company’s performance and productivity. Implementing new strategies that will contribute to the continuous growth, will strengthen the company’s position in the global arena and will eliminate potential problems is essential for Porsche’s further development.

References

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Henderson, R., & Reavis, C. (2009, August 25). What’s Driving Porsche? Retrieved March 19, 2015, from https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/CaseDocs/08-075-What's Driving Porsche.Henderson.pdf
Porsche AG Historical Background: 1948-2007. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://press.porsche.com/more_about/history/
Porsche Automobil Holding SE Stuttgart ADR (POAHY) Stock Chart. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/poahy/stock-chart
Porsche Automobil Holding SE SWOT Analysis. (2012). Porsche Automobil Holding SE SWOT Analysis, 1-7.
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Porsche Service. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.porsche.com/usa/accessoriesandservices/porscheservice/
Products: Porsche Design. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.porsche-design.com/en/Products/#
Robertson, T. (n.d.). Difference Between Push & Pull Marketing. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-push-pull-marketing-31806.html
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