Research On Automobile Brand Communication Strategy

With the improvement of living standards and rapid development of automobile industry, automobile is ubiquitous, thus making a fierce competitive market. At present, there is little difference on the feature, quality and price of different vehicle types at the same level. The competition in automobile involves not just in technique but in brand image.Chevrolet was brought into China since January,2005. Recent years, Chevrolet takes pains to improve its brand image through various ways and deepens its brand idea and competitiveness.The sales volume breaks 4 million since it was brought into China in 2005. How long does a brand need to stand firm in China’s fierce competitive market and win the customer’s confidence. The answer Chevrolet proves is less that ten years. It draws attention to think over how it wins during a short period.This thesis analyzes the brand communication of Chevrolet based on its strategy in Chinese market,aiming at offering a beneficial reference for brand builder and manager to improve brand value as well as a precedent for the communication of self-owned brand in China.In the first part, this thesis illustrates the related concept and theory of brand communication, including the concept of brand and brand communication, advertisement theory, theory on the dissemination of public relations and network communication as the theoretical framework.The second part elaborates the process of localization of Chevrolet, the problems it encounters, the brand image and brand positioning it sets included.In the third part, this paper emphasizes on the analysis of the current situation of its brand communication through advertisement and dissemination of public relations. In terms of advertisement communication, the thesis takes traditional advertisement like micro film and product placement as example. In the latter, this paper discusses four different communication strategy like Motor Show, Experience Marketing, Sponsorship Marketing and Commonweal Marketing.In the following part, it gives a comprehensive analysis on the failure cases and points the deficiency in its brand communication. In terms of brand positioning, Chevrolet loses customer’s confidence due to ambiguous brand positioning, incomplete product line in its early stage, inactive customer participant and unbalanced communication results between different areas. In addition, though it offers brand service, it still lacks popularity owing to inactive extension.In the fifth part, this thesis concludes that Chevrolet needs to have a better understanding of its customers, improve its product line, and push the applying of new media, experience marketing and sponsorship marketing in order to improve its brand image.This thesis,employing the methods of literature consultation and individual cases analysis,illustrates the development of Chevrolet in China from research on the related theory and personal working experience. Based on individual case, this paper analyzes Chevrolet’s communication strategy on both sides and illustrates its marketing strategy which employs both traditional media and new media in cross-cultural marketing.