Business

Research
Final Assignment –
Term I - ECU

Submitted to:
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Submitted By:

Naved Hussain

Mohit

Nagendra

Table of Content
1. Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………..1

2. Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..2

3. Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………………3

4. Background………………………………………………………………………………..4

5. Research Question and Objective……………………………………………….5

6. Literature Review……………………………………………………………………….6

7. Methodology………………………………………………………………………….....7

a) Data collection methods……………………………………………………….8

b) Sampling……………………………………………………………………………….8

8. Research strategy……………………………………………………………………...9

9. Tentative recommendation …………………………………………………..…10

10. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..…..11

11. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….……12

12. Appendix………………………………………………………………………….……..13
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Acknowledgement:
Customer’s expectations from a luxury brand are always high as compare to a normal brand and
when it comes to luxury cars it become crucial for companies producing these luxury cars to
strategize more on brands pull factors. To produce a luxury brand is not enough in present
market where the competitors are far more adaptable to change and armed with lot of
information using industrial espionage as a weapon against your product to get competitive
advantage over you. (Carder, 1996)

Advertising to promote luxury brand by integrating it with the film is the most advantageous and
the best suitable method to acknowledge the customer about value offering of a product.
Advertising of cars via films provides wider accessibility and sustainability to the luxury car
manufacturers companies to get maximum penetration in the luxury car market, so that better
result can be expected. (Kotler, 2009)

Research Question:
Advertising strategies adopted by the Car companies for promoting through the films does have

an impact on consumer behavior, does it creates brand equity and brand loyalty?

Objective:
The revenue generation is very high in promoting the cars through film and therefore helps these
cars manufacturing company a solid foundation of anticipation to know about the consumer
behavior and buying patterns.

The objective of this research is to find out the various advertising marketing strategy or action
plan and various alternatives that had been adopted by the luxury car manufacturer companies as
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

medium for promoting campaign of their brands in order to create brand equity, brand loyalty
and as well as boost their sales so as to acquire large number of share in international market.
(Bryman, 2003)

Abstract:

There is a strong relation between film celebrity and their fan. Fans always supposed to be
diehard lover of their celebrity and adore all the attributes belongs to their celebrity. Things
involves demonstration of their personality, emotions, attitudes and all psychological factors
when the act in the film, apart from there are some materiality factors that are associated to these
celebrities which are luxury brands. These luxury brands may be of any kinds ranging from a
cigarette, wine, bear, clothing, bike, watches, mobiles etc; to the luxury cars. Fans are addicted to
their celebrities, embraces appreciates and adores their celebrities’ liking and intend to do what
their celebrities does. These fans are at the target of all these luxury brand manufacturing
companies, and they see it as a potential market to offer their luxury product whereas to generate
higher profit to encash strong internal stimulus impelling in these fans which will become loyal
to these brands and has been seen as a potential customer by these luxury automobile
manufacturer companies. (Luxury Beyond Excellence, 2009)

Background:

Car promotion in film has always benefitted the performance of revenue generation by both film
industry as well as the automobile industry to a large extent. Undoubtedly, Films are the unique
and the most powerful medium to reach out at a large number of people and thus helpful in
promoting awareness, cars whenever used in the films are always been a key factors for inspiring
and influencing large number of fans when they are promoted in the films. When these luxury
premiums branded car get an association with the hottest celebrity of the film it creates an appeal
of fashion statement and lifestyle. It is supposed to be the strong motivating factors for creating a
conscious impulse purchases. (Wiles & Danielova, 2009)
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The interesting fact of popularity of cars in the films that demonstrate the relationship between
the automobile and film industry was started with launch of 007’s most famous car which was
Aston Martin DBS and furthermore it has been seen in many other films like Gold Finger,
Golden Eye, Thunder ball, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale. BMW Roadster and
various other popular models BMW had been promoted in the films like Gone in 60 seconds,
Fast and Furious film series and is the mainstream film to feature the Asian automotive  import
scene in North America. Also, Nissan’s Fair Lady and some popular models such as
Lamborghini, Mitsubishi Evolution 8, and Ford’s Mustang had been used in a superb film
Tokyo Drift which was largely appreciated by the fans. In a film called Italian job uses a
fantastic luxury small car called Mini Cooper which is made by world renowned international
motorcycle manufacturer company, Harley Davidson. (Zoia E. D., 2008)

Audi, being a part of Volkswagen Group known for its luxuries cars that has been promoted
several times in the films. Most popular films that had been known for Audi promotional
campaign are Transporter 2 and Transporter 3.There are several models of Audi which is a
German Cat manufacturing company produces luxury cars under its brand name called Audi.

Q7 Q5 R8 TT A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A8

2007 1996 2007

2009 to   2006 to 1999 to  1999—2005 1996 to  1995to   1994 to 
to  to  to 

(Luxury Beyond Excellence, 2009)

 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Indian film industry is also fascinated by automobile industry since its inception of changing
trends in modern cinema. If we talk about the Indian film industry there are many luxury car
manufacturing companies who have promoted their cars in many films likewise Kal Ho Na Ho,
Dil Chahta Hai, Race, Awara Pagal Dewana and Ghajini etc are some of the examples where
promotion had done by BMW, Audi, Lamborghini, Mercedez and some other cars of
Volkswagen Group. As far as the BMW is concerned it had been promoted in many Bollywood
films and as far as the Company history in India is concerned, BMW established in 2006 a sales
subsidiary in Gurgaon (National Capital Region) and a state-of-the-art assembly plant for BMW
3 and 5 Series started operation in early 2007 in Chennai. The construction of the plant started in
January 2006 with an initial investment of more than one billion Indian Rupees. The plant started
fully fledged operation in the first quarter of 2007 and produces the different variants of BMW 3
Series and BMW 5 Series that has been recently promoted in the film Ghajini. (Zoia E. D.,
2008)

Analysis:

Luxury car manufacturer companies are always strategize their business by adopting the
advertisement campaign of promoting their luxury segment cars through films. According to the
VALS network it has been observed that personality, values and lifestyle, various attributes of
psychographics segmentation, are the predominant criteria for luxury car manufactures for
segmenting and targeting their available market. Although, product’s pull strategy is another
factor to influence a large number of customer as well as providing a solid consumer base for the
car manufacturing companies to allocate more and more variants of cars to increase their profit
higher and higher. (Kotler, 2009)

It is imperative to understand the promotional campaign adopted by various luxury cars

manufactures as a medium of advertising. Moreover, Luxury brands are international premium
brands which are supposed to be within the reach of every remote customer sitting in any part of
the world. Today’s marketing is not confined only to the customer satisfaction because the
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

present scenario of marketing is directly linked to the globalization, industry convergence and
heightened competition and it is relevant to say that today’s customer is much more armed with
information. Film are the best method on which most of the luxury car manufactures companies
of world can rely upon, and prioritize their best brand offering to communicate value to the
customers. Luxury brands have the characteristic of point of difference that is why it facilitates
low volume of sales but at a higher benefit. Establishing unique image of the brand in the minds
of customer, the strategy is to promote luxury cars in the film is to emphasize on over positioning
for creating an iconic image of premium product. (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, & Wong, 1999)

The topmost contender in the field of automobile industry in the world for the luxury cars in terms
of revenue generation and operating profit are as follows.

Founde
d in
Company Headquarter Year Revenues(2007)
Toyota Japan 1937 $262
General Motors USA 1908 $181
Volkswagen Germany 1938 $74
Ford USA 1903 $173
Honda Japan 1948 $120
Nissan Japan 1932 $89
(http://www.filmwad.com/film-industry-revenue-at-record-high-for-2007-5573-p.html,
2007)

Executive Summary:
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Unquestionably, Luxury car manufacturing companies are always been fascinated by the
popularity of their product whenever it got promoted in the films, reaching out at a larger
segment of higher level income groups. Money spent on advertising has increased in recent
years. In 2007, spending on advertising was estimated at more than $150 billion in the United
States[2] and $385 billion worldwide,[3]and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or

services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort
to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Different types of media
can be used to deliver these messages, including traditional media such as newspapers,
magazines, television, radio, billboards or direct mail. Advertising may be placed by
anadvertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.

Organizations that spend money on advertising promoting items other than a consumer product
or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental
agencies. There are several car manufacturing companies that invest high amount like:-
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (info) (BMW), (English: Bavarian Motor Works) is a German
automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company. Founded in 1916, it is known for its
performance and luxury vehicles. It owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent
company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

AUDI AG, (Xetra: NSU) is a German company which produces luxury cars under
the Audi brand, pronounced /ˈaʊdi/. It is part of the Volkswagen Group. Audi is headquartered
in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany.

It has been a wholly-owned (99.55%) subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG)

since 1964. Volkswagen Group relaunched the Audi brand with the 1965 introduction of
the Audi 60/72/75/80/Super 90 range (sold in certain export markets simply as the "Audi")
shortly after the name was acquired as part of Volkswagen's purchase of the Auto Union assets
from former owner,Daimler-Benz. Their 2007 worldwide sales have been released as 964,151
vehicles sold while on the basis of product placement in films, yet another record for the brand.
In 2008, Audi has achieved the 13th record year in a row passing the 1 million unit mark with
1,003,400 sold units

Literature Review:-
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Advertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or

services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that
includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially
benefit the consumer. Advertising often attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or
to consume a particular brand of product or service. Modern advertising developed with the rise
of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, &
Wong, 1999)

Future prediction and interactive enquiry process that should be done by research and
development department of every organization because it is crucial for those organizations who
are delivering not only a product but also the values attached to it for their consumer. Action
research helps in observing simultaneous data driven collaborative analysis and impact of
observation for subsequent reflection and action that is necessary in decision making. (Reason &
Bradbury, 2001)

A brand is a promise of delivering value and satisfaction to its consumer and, if the brand is
unable to perform and is unable to capture market insight it doesn’t attracts any brand loyalty and
brand equity. Brand equity and brand loyalty are the two attributes associated with the brand
which is the reflection of product’s performance and attributes for satisfying need, wants and
expectation that are directly linked with Value system. (Kotler, 2009)

Build strong brands and molding the market offerings compelling customer experience, are the
two important aspect of marketing, has to develop as per the consumer tastes and preference.
Because holding an eye on the customer expectation is not an easy task and there is need to
strengthen value system attached with the product offering. So as to reach new dimensions a
company needs to develop advertisement and position them as a potential product that directs
your product to the top premium luxury brand market. (Luxury Beyond Excellence, 2009)

Methodology:
There is a requirement of standardized method and as well a framework in order to convey a
suitable, appropriate and convincing business research proposal backed by a lot of relevant
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

information of data collected. Methodology is a reflection of activities which are to be deployed

for progressive problem solving and it provides a platform for the analyzing and improving the
data based on the previous practices, knowledge and strategies of the environments. (Bryman &
Bell, 2003, p.32).

Deductive research methodology is deployed to carry forward the research discussion so that
deductive research study will be helpful understanding the theories and concepts written over in
different books so that prediction and inference can be coupled to understand the linkage of
research question with the exact prediction.

a) Data collection methods:

As far the retrieval of information is concerned which is imperative in understanding the

concepts, theories, views, ideas, opinion and feedbacks that has to done with the help of primary
and secondary data sources. Primary data collection facilitates researcher about the psychological
aspects of consumer behavior, has to be done by direct face to face interaction or by plotting a
questionnaire pertaining to the respective field of research subject. Hence the inferences can be
made in two ways likewise either qualitatively as well as quantitatively. However the secondary
data gives a clear understanding the concept and theories that can be applied for analyzing and
associating the research process with theories, concepts, learning done by several writers and
researchers et.al, secondary data is the data which is collected and published in articles or
archives, books, reports, journals and on internet. The data collected from these resources forms
the vary bases of the research methodology. (Saunders & L, 2008)

b) Sampling:
We have got a lot of sample which are featuring different attributes of car related
to a particular movie or films, sampling has been done on the basis of higher performance
and modification for the higher generation of brand loyalty as well as brand equity.

Car Color Year Driven by Condition/Fate in Film

 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Wrecked after colliding with the

front-end of a semi-truck after
Dodge Charger Dominic narrowly missing a train; racing with
Black 1970[4]
R/T Toretto.[5] Brian's Toyota Supra. Mostly repaired
by the fourth film by Letty and
finished by Dom.

Shown at the end of the credits when

Chevelle SS Red/Black 1970 Dominic Toretto
Dominic is in Mexico.

Shot at by Johnny Tran; destroyed

after ruptured nitrous tanks explode;
Mitsubishi
Brian equipped with a 420A motor with an
Eclipse RS 2G Neon Green 1995
O'Conner[6] upgrade to a T3 turbo and front mount
DSM
intercooler, standalone fuel
management and nitrous.

Honda Black (with

Sustains critical engine damage from
CivicCoupe 1.6 green 1995 Dominic Toretto
semi-trailer driver's shotgun blasts.
VTI Turbo underglow)

Honda Black (with Shown after Letty crashes in the

CivicCoupe 1.6 green 1995 Leon desert and Toretto tells Leon to get
VTI Turbo underglow) her out, while he saves Vince.

Honda Black (with Body is a write-off after being side-

CivicCoupe 1.6 green 1995 Letty swiped by a semi-trailer and suffering
VTI Turbo underglow) tworollovers.

Black (with
Mainly shown when Johnny races
Honda S2000 Asian 2000 Johnny Tran
Jesse for slips at Race Wars.
graphics)
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

Stashed away in a parking garage.

Mazda RX7 Dominic Last seen driven to Dominic's house
Red 1993
FD3S Toretto[7] to see the Dodge Charger in his
garage and at Race Wars.

Seen in the beginning of the movie

when they pull in and Vince asks
Jesse about the Supercharger. Seen
Nissan Maxima Blue 1999 Vince
performing glorious front wheel drive
burn-out before BBQ. Last seen
leaving Race Wars.

Light scene usage, when Leon tells

the pizza boy to "find another way
Nissan Skyline home." and at various other points in
Yellow 1995 Leon
GT-R R33 the movie. Last seen at the storage
tank Honda Civic hiding spot near the
movie's end.

Dom fled with it after crashing his

Brian's second Dodge Charger R/T, Brian handed his
car then Dom's car keys to him. In the movie Jesse
Toyota Supra Orange 1995 when Brian referred to spending $10,000-$15,000
owes him a ten on overnight parts from Japan. In
second car[8] reality there was over $150,000
dollars invested in the Supra.

Shot at by Johnny Tran and his

closest friend in a drive-by at
Volkswagen
White 1995 Jesse Toretto's home. Jesse is also shot
Jetta GLX
during the incident then Dominic kills
Johnny Tran after Jesse's death.

Acura Integra Turquoise 1994 Mia Toretto Seen when Mia and Brian leave the
restaurant, "Cha, Cha, Cha", as Mia
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

speeds off and makes a wide u-turn.

Seen when Brian and Toretto take the

Neal H. Moritz finished Supra for a test drive, and
Ferrari F355 Black 1999 (the film's pull up to the Ferrari at a stop light.
producer) The Supra and Ferrari race, with the
Supra coming out on top.

Seen when Toretto's team drives up to

the grocery store Brian is eating at.
Letty steps out of the car when she
Nissan Purple with pulls up. This car is likely to have a
1997 Letty
240SX (S-14) vinyls RB26 engine, judging by the smooth
inline-6 sound. It's also possible the
Skyline engine sound was the result
of audio dubbing.

Seen first in its entirety when Brian

pulls up to Harry's after the fist fight
Harry with Vince. Also seen bumping the
Ford SVT
Red 1999 (Company car— curb outside of Harry's performance
Lightning
driven by Brian) shop "The Racer's Edge". Also seen
when Brian was pulled over by Sgt.
Tanner and arrested.

Only seen when Edwin races Toretto,

Acura Integra Red/Yellow 1994 Edwin [9]
Brian and the un-named Asian driver
in the first race.

Introduced to Brian by Hector in the

parking area for all the street races.
Honda
Gold 1992 Hector Also seen when Hector pulls up to
CivicHatchback
Harry's to purchase the Honda Civic
parts. Seen a third and final time at
the Race Wars event near end of
 October 11, 2009 [BUSINESS RESEARCH]

movie.

Conclusion:
Brand placement offers marketers several advantages over other advertising media, especially
cost efficient communication. Over the life of a film, including its theatrical run, premium cable
appearances, other televised broadcasts and home video rental, cost-per-thousand exposures
continues to decrease, eventually declining to mere pennies on the dollar. Brands are also
featured in a clutter-free environment devoid of competitive messages. Films can be selected that
target consumers who may be difficult to reach with more conventional advertising methods.
Nearly three-fourths of the audience for theatrical films is 16-39 years old, a group highly prized
by advertisers. Associating brands with particular actors, films or contexts allows the marketer
to associate a brand with congruent lifestyle or usage situations.

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