Japanese companies rarely have strategies. “ This is what Michael Porter wrote in his article for the Harvard Business Review. He says that most Japanese companies “imitate and emulate each other.” This made me think of Japanese car brands. Subaru, Honda, and Toyota are just a few examples of companies that have been brought to North America. The cars made by each of these Japanese brand share similarities. Subaru, Honda, and Toyota for example all have comparable compact crossover vehicles: Subaru with the forester, Honda with their CRV, and Toyota with their Rav4. If a potential car buyer is researching vehicles they will find a lot of websites comparing car models because many of them are virtually the same such as on Manchester Subaru. They are priced at around $25,000 for the base model and all include the same features. However, because all these cars are equivalent, customers have to look at other aspects of the brand before making a purchase. This is why offering analogous is a risky approach. My colleague Dina also recognizes the importance of not just having a good product, as she mentioned in her post about Apple (The Secret to Apple’s Success). They need to offer deals, customer service, a wide range of options and more if they want to overcome competitors.
Sources:
http://www.kansaigroup.jp/blog/japanese-cars-vs-american-cars-the-battle-continues/
http://www.manchestersubaru.com/subaru-forester-vs-honda-crv.htm
https://blogs.ubc.ca/dinakasiri/2014/09/22/the-secret-to-apples-success/
Photo source:
http://www.markmillersubaru.com/forester-vs–crv—rav4.htm