Proton Marketing Strategy

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 HISTORY OF PROTON

Proton Holdings Berhad (stylised PROTON) is a Malaysian automobile manufacturer. It is headquartered in Shah Alam, Selangor and operates an additional manufacturing plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak. The company was established in 1983 as the sole national car company until the advent of Perodua in 1993. Proton is a Malay acronym for Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sendirian Berhad. (National Automobile Company Private Limited).

Proton was largely a manufacturer of badge engineered vehicles from Mitsubishi Motors between 1985 and the early 2000s. The company has since produced several indigenously designed models and operates in at least 26 countries today, the majority of which are in Asia. Proton

2.2 STRATEGIC RISK

• Strategy Statement

The strategy statement for this marketing plan is to introduce and position Proton Exora 2 with new enhancement features as the premier MPV car in Malaysia and international market by early of year 2011 by developing marketing strategies and plan. The marketing strategy approach will seek to create customer awareness on Proton Exora 2 offered and then develop the customer base. Hence, Proton will communicate the new concept car via its promotion activities such as Proton’s websites and advertisements placed in numerous industry magazines.

• Key Planning Assumptions

Based on the target market and strategy statement for Proton Exora 2, Proton needs to plan for designing and manufacturing cars that can meet the personality needs in terms of design, power and size for different age groups using marketing strategic formulation. Prior to the planning process, Proton need to learns from the past records on Proton Exora performance, evaluating the present condition and envisioning the future

Proton Edar Sdn Bhd (PESB), along with 19 of its sales outlets and 21 of its service outlets, are now certified to ISO 9001:2008 standards by VCA (UK) and Sirim QAS Berhad. The internationally-recognized certification will bring immediate benefits to the company as well as its customers. By implementing a more standardized business operation and eliminating variance, consistency can be achieved as these are vital ingredients for continuous improvement and process efficiency. Ultimately, PESB’s Customer Satisfaction Index and Sales Satisfaction Index should show improvements. Standardization in PESB business operations and processes is aimed at elevating customer’s confidence towards their product and services, strengthening the PROTON brand and customer retention in an effort increase the overall sales volume and improving the service quality level. Prior to receiving certification, an audit was carried out by VCA (UK) and SIRIM in 3 stages – in PESB headquarters in May 2009, and random audits at 10 selected sales and service outlets in September, and another six sales and service