You will prepare and submit a term paper on Smart card. Your paper should be a minimum of 500 words in length. 1. Daimler is a diversified group making cars, trucks and vans with the Mercedes Benz. The Smart Car was manufactured in Hambach, France. The car was launched in the US Markets in 2008. Since the introduction of the car in 1998, Daimler had launched the car in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australia, Mexico and Canada. The car was marketed as an affordable cute, unconventional car with excellent fuel efficiency. Daimler’s distribution network is known for high-end vehicles. This resulted in use of other distribution channels such as the use of Penske Automotive Group in USA. This proved to be a hindrance to the growth of the car because of the high waiting time.

2. There were 4 models of the car: Smart fortwo pure model for $11,590. Smart fortwo Passion Coupé for $13,590. Smart fortwo Passion Cabriolet for $16,590. and smart fortwo BRABUS for 17,990 (smart fortwo, 2009). The advantages of owning a Smart Car includes low price, and low expenditure on fuel. However, the disadvantage is that only 2 people can be seated in the basic versions. The target customers for Smart Car are the small sized-families with no or one child with low budget. Those who have high travelling requirements also may intend to buy this car. This is because of its high fuel efficiency and low price. Before purchasing the car, it should be made sure that the car follows the safety features of USA.

3. In order to market the product, the company conducted city-tours, introduced the concept of Smart Towers in order to build the brand image. The car is marketed as a fuel-efficient, affordable stylish smart vehicle. The strategies shall be very effective in countries such as China because of the price range, and the fuel-efficiency of the car. Road shows in the major cities will help it get focus. The company shall try to get more mileage in road shows, have celebrity endorsers and the focus shall be to highlight the high fuel-efficiency and low price range aspect of the car.

4. The Smart Car which witnessed high demands during the time of launch has taken a drop in demand owing to similar launches by other companies. Various reasons can be attributed to this drop: Economic slowdown. Availability of more such products. poor distribution network. In order to boost the sales, the company needs to improve its marketing and branding exercises. The company also needs to improve its distribution channels. The company shall try to include Mercedes-Benz and smart car centers in the overall distribution channels rather than just relying on the Penske Group. The dealers and distributors shall be trained about the marketing and branding of the car and asked to actively market the car. The distributors can also be asked to launch various financing schemes in order to encourage the customers to buy car in spite of the economic situation.

5. The smart car is cheaply priced. It has great fuel efficiency that will help me to keep my gasoline costs down. It looks stylish and is suitable for me as I rarely travel with more than 1 person. If we look at some of the alternatives that are available to me include: Chevrolet Aveo5 LT, Pontiac G3 and Kia Rio5 SX. There are many fortwo cars available, but I find that other cars are more costly and yet have low fuel efficiency. So, Yes! I will buy a Smart car fortwo (2009 smart car fortwo Comparisons, 2009).

References

“2009 smart car fortwo Comparisons.” Automobile. September 13,2009. September 13, 2009. Available at: http://www.automobilemag.com/am/2009/smart/fortwo/compare.html

“Smart fortwo.” Smart Car USA. September 13, 2009. September 13 2009. Available at:

http://www.smartusa.com/smart-car-fortwo.