The Aggie Code of Honor

“An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.”

Texas A&M University

Subhamitra Barman
Beta Cohort
MBA Class of 2016
Mays Business School
MKTG 613 MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Final Exam, October 2014
Sony Car Navigation Systems
Q1. Answer:
Various environmental factors, customer characteristics and marketing strategies of companies determine the demand for car navigation systems as below
Environmental factors:
1. Complexity of road systems, 2. Availability of street name, 3. Availability of road signs,
4. Traffic situation, 5. Road sizes, 6. Other available alternatives
Customer characteristics:
1. Reliability on maps, 2. Frequency of car travel, 4. Frequency of use of digital maps,
5. Use of the digital maps, 6. Interest in car accessories 5. Willingness to spend
Marketing Strategies:
1. Positioning strategy, 2. Compatibility for ease of use, 3. Availability of product,
4. Creating awareness, 5. Creating need for various use
The above factors contributed in different ways in creating the demand at various locations.
Japan Market:
Demand for car navigation system is high in Japan for various reasons.
First, Japan had a complicated road systems. Most of the streets were without names and road signs were few. Hence people heavily relied on maps to find ways.
Second, due to heavily congested arteries, people were always looking for a bypass. Also, due to high traffic jam, people did not use cars for normal day to day commuting. They utilized the well-developed train systems in week days. Cars were mainly used for weekend travel or joy riding. This also created demand for CNS to provide way to find destination around unfamiliar roads.
Third, Japanese young car drivers were highly sensitive to the car features and willing to spend heavily on car and accessories. As a result, there was high demand for CNS.
Finally, large number of competitors in Japan increased the awareness of CNS in Japan. The availability of various options with different features and upgrades increased the demand for CNS in Japan.
Europe Market:
The situation in Europe was different. Though the roads in Europe were also complex, most of them had street names and signage. Hence the road system did not create similar demand in Europe as it did in Japan.
On the other hand, demand was created by the customer characteristics. Europeans drove frequently cross borders. People needed to follow different rules and regulation from country to country. These travels created a need for CNS for multi lingual guidance.
In addition, Government developed technology to improve highway system and communication among cars. This resulted in improved technology such as route calculation and guidance. This created better demand in Europe.
US Market:
US also had well organized road systems with street names and proper traffic signals. Hence the demand and need for CNS system due to environmental factor was low.
Companies created need by providing additional features such as turn by turn guidance and other sophisticated functions which helped the customers to improve driving conditions.
Since practical utility as well as number of players in US was less, most of the people in US were unaware of CNS. However many people were seemed interested after providing a two day test drives. Customers felt relax, more confident, reduced need for asking directions, ability to replace maps. Hence by creating awareness and providing features, it was possible to create the need in US market.
Q2. Answer:
By using the given sales data of CNS product category in Japanese market and the solving the bass model (Appendix1) using p=0.025 & q=0.603(VCR 1980 to 1994) we have got the following values of N, p & q.

N
Market
122,364 p Innovation
0.00916887
q
Imitation
0.64603833

This shows that the total market potential of CNS category product in Japan is 122,364. In every year, 0.00916887 fraction of those in