The Contribution of Marketing Research to Product Life-Cycle Management in the Automotive Industry. Jeep Grand Cherokee MCA 2014

Abstract

This thesis is devoted to the understanding of product life-cycle management in the automotive industry: as the process of new product development takes many years to be completed, automotive companies must be able to adjust their products over time, in order to keep in pace with changing customers’ needs, requirements and preferences even in the period preceding new product launch. Moreover, technological advance and changing regulations make it even harder for automotive companies to offer new products consistent with emerging trends. This work will focus on Marketing Research contribution to this process in particular, in order to understand which marketing functions and activities allow each company to gain valuable data about consumer trends and profiling, these data to be transformed into information key to strategic decisions, also in terms of product management. In fact, among all macroeconomic forces shaping the economy nowadays, a shift in consumer demand plays a crucial role in companies’ ability to stay competitive in the long run. And the automotive industry is no exception. This thesis is organised as follows: a first section will be devoted to the exploration of megatrends shaping the automotive industry nowadays; the second section will be focused on new product development in the automotive industry and to Mid-Cycle Actions (MCAs) as a possible solution to the shrink in sales firms experience in the “decline” phase of the Product life-cycle curve; the third section will explore the role of Marketing Research in the definition of restyled product features, based on economic and social trends as well as on changing customers’ needs and feedbacks, and on the analysis of the competitive arena. Finally, “Jeep Grand Cherokee MCA 2014” case study will be introduced, in order to provide readers with a real view from the inside.