Yesterday’s post profiled (mainly) Indian firms on the prowl for strategic assets in the international arena. The overnight news brings a further example from the other BIG emerging market – China.
Beating fellow vehicle manufacturer Chery to the punch (in terms of picking up some of the wreckage from the collapse of the US auto giants), privately owned Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery has scooped up that symbol of US extravagance – Hummer – from GM.
The world’s ugliest faux military SUVs will continue to be produced on US soil for now, but presumably this play is about accessing the underlying technology and production standards (and a recognised, if somewhat tarnished, brand) to fuel Chinese production in the future.
This certainly wont be the last acquisition by cashed up Chinese auto aspirants (Holden, anyone?). This is a buyer’s market for strategic assets.
You may remember my earlier posts on the Better Place electric car scheme (1, 2, & 3). Well, now that WordPress allow us bloggers to insert videos from TED easily, I thought I’d share an 18 min vid presentation from Better Place founder Shai Agassi:
He does a great job of outlining the economics of his model, and addresses some of the typical objections to this idea. He continues to highlight the linkages needed (between his firm, auto manufacturers, techologists, governments etc.). Let’s hope (for his sake, and perhaps ours) these cooperative endeavours continue.
The power of marketing is a hotly debated topic among strategic management scholars (and, of course, out there in the real world). It remains highly contentious whether efforts to persuade consumers of the newness and uniqueness of your offerings can overpower the reality of the underlying offering.
An interesting case in point is the current US campaign by Nissan for their Cube vehicle. As the New York Times article explores, the firm is going out on a limb and trying to present the car as a “mobile device”. They have built a campaign around a range of familiar jargon from the online world – “search engine, storage capacity” etc – in the hope that this will appeal to a different audience and differentiate this product in what might well be the harshest buying climate for cars in a century.
It strikes me that in the end this is just a slightly quirky and boxy car with no particularly innovative features. Surely consumers want more than an oh-so-cool tagline?
Beating fellow vehicle manufacturer Chery to the punch (in terms of picking up some of the wreckage from the collapse of the US auto giants), privately owned Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery has scooped up that symbol of US extravagance – Hummer – from GM.
