Re: How realistic is Honda's view of the marketplace - true indicent
(Score: 1, Normal)
06-21-2012 23:11
WongKN wrote: I attended the Honda City MMC launch for Malaysia just two days ago (Thursday) and an incident happened which really made me question how accurate Honda's view of the marketplace is.
I was talking to the GM/CEO about the new 9G Civic as it is due to be launched here soon. One of his PR guys was with him. Throughout the conversation, they mentioned again and again how excited they are about the new Civic and kept emphasizing that it has been superbly successful and well received in the U.S. "It is the best seller in U.S", they kept telling me. When I brought up some of the less positive things, like how there were some comments about the interior quality and also about a few negative reviews of the car, they reacted as if they were totally unaware of them. In fact I also mentioned that AHM is going to launch an early MMC for the Civic, specifically to address some of the negative comments on the car, they seemed to be totally surprised/shocked. They claim they are totally unaware of this eventhough I told them it is more or less officially announced by AHM.
Later when I had another chat, this time with the COO, it was similar. He too was very confident about the new Civic and again kept emphasizing that it is a 'best seller in the US'.
So, really, what is really happening here ? I do know sales of the Civic has improved tremendously over the last couple of months or so, and if not mistaken that it is now the market segment leader. But surely one cannot just take this one single positive and ignore all the other things that has happened. Or is it really true that the only measure of model success is its sales and everything is no longer important.
Comments ?
I think it is more an issue of one division not talking to another. It is unlikely they know much about the Civic in the states, other than its sales status. They may also not realize how the rest of the world seems to be getting the nicer version of the interior, while we got a severely cheapened one.
I don't know that it would be a management disconnect as much as it would just be a lack of communication from one end to the other. It is also possible it was communicated, but they didn't really pay much attention because it didn't affect them directly.
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