Market Planning Case Study: Formula 1 Autocentres

I’m very critical of the marketing I see, but then every now and again I see something that makes me feel that an organisation just gets it.
F1 Autocentres sent me an email this week that stood out. It offers me a car service. Nothing spectacular – it’s what they do. The marketing stood out because of the way they’d planned to add value using existing assets.
Market planning involves mapping the market situation with your assets (or capabilities) to deliver value to the customer. McDonald showed this in the marketing map contained in his brilliant book Marketing Plans: How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them:
The email led with information about the upcoming rise in petrol prices (the market situation). Empathy was then demonstrated … “running a car is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive during this time of recession”. Then came the service offering – the Fuel Saver Service. So not only will my car get a check over and service (the hygiene factor), it’s a service could save me fuel (the value).
They’ve not needed to develop new services, retrain staff or invest in expensive infrasructure. They’ve taken what they do (servicing), understood the market (dark economic times) and added the value that the customer will appreciate (fuel saving).
You can view F1 Autocentre’s email at http://www.f1autocentres.co.uk/email/november2011/index.html. Tell me what you think in the comments!
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