PAGE 9 Running head: Microsoft’s Xbox One Marketing Failure in Japanese Gaming Industry An analysis on the Microsoft’s Xbox One Marketing Failure in Japanese Gaming Industry Eric Christopher Tingson Garcia Davenport University BUSN 520 March 29, 2015 Table of Content Synopsis about the marketing issue…………………………………………………........……….3 What makes this is a marketing issue?.............………………………………………...…..……..4 What macroenvironmental issues led to the current situation?………….………………………..7 Prediction of recovery (if a negative) or success?...........................................................................8 Is the organization handling this marketing issue appropriately?…………………………....……9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...………………...…...……10 References……………………………………………………………...………………………...11 Give us a synopsis about the marketing issue. When one thinks about Microsoft as a company, above all else, Windows Operating System usually comes to mind. It is and always will be what made Microsoft a multi-billion dollar company. With almost all PC being run by Microsoft Windows in the entire world, one would think Microsoft is pretty successful, especially its marketing considering its global gasp in computer software operating systems. A success in one sector or a specific product does entirely entail success in another sector. Like all huge tech companies, Microsoft has taken upon itself to branch out within the technological business and join the likes of Nintendo, Sony and Sega, into the gaming world. On the year 2000, Microsoft introduced its very own gaming console, the Xbox to the gaming community for the very first time. It’s success lead to the multiple evolutions of the Xbox, and Microsoft’s place and acceptance into the very finicky gaming industry (Rick, 2013). The Xbox and Xbox 360, the predecessors of Microsoft’s most current and advance game console, the Xbox One, were successful during their production period. The success of the previous console, pave the way for its new baby brother. The Xbox, through trial and error, have developed so many software accessories, in the form of Xbox live, which allowed players from the entire world to play against each other. No longer would one need to be physically present to play another player. Within the confines of one’s house, a gamer can play just about anyone in the entire world without having to lift oneself up from their chair. The latter, the Xbox 360 was then introduced and blew everyone’s minds away with intense hardware capability, rendering images with extreme realism. This hardware spec, combined with the world wide multiplayer capability, lead to a greater success for the Xbox 360, outselling its other competitions, such as the Wii U and the Sony’s Playstation 3 (Rick, 2013). The Xbox One introduced recently last year, brought forth, modern multimedia capabilities, a 1020p HD realistic rendering technology, and an extensive multiplayer server, capable of hosting any games .

1. PAGE
9
Running head: Microsoft’s Xbox One Marketing Failure in
Japanese Gaming Industry
An analysis on the Microsoft’s Xbox One Marketing Failure in
Japanese Gaming Industry
Eric Christopher Tingson Garcia
Davenport University
BUSN 520
March 29, 2015
Table of Content
Synopsis about the marketing
issue…………………………………………………........……….3
What makes this is a marketing
issue?.............………………………………………...…..……..4
What macroenvironmental issues led to the current
situation?………….………………………..7
Prediction of recovery (if a negative) or
success?...........................................................................8
Is the organization handling this marketing issue
appropriately?…………………………....……9
Conclusion…………………………………………………………...
………………...…...……10
References…………………………………………………………….
..………………………...11
Give us a synopsis about the marketing issue.

2. When one thinks about Microsoft as a company, above all else,
Windows Operating System usually comes to mind. It is and
always will be what made Microsoft a multi-billion dollar
company. With almost all PC being run by Microsoft Windows
in the entire world, one would think Microsoft is pretty
successful, especially its marketing considering its global gasp
in computer software operating systems. A success in one sector
or a specific product does entirely entail success in another
sector. Like all huge tech companies, Microsoft has taken upon
itself to branch out within the technological business and join
the likes of Nintendo, Sony and Sega, into the gaming world.
On the year 2000, Microsoft introduced its very own gaming
console, the Xbox to the gaming community for the very first
time. It’s success lead to the multiple evolutions of the Xbox,
and Microsoft’s place and acceptance into the very finicky
gaming industry (Rick, 2013).
The Xbox and Xbox 360, the predecessors of Microsoft’s most
current and advance game console, the Xbox One, were
successful during their production period. The success of the
previous console, pave the way for its new baby brother. The
Xbox, through trial and error, have developed so many software
accessories, in the form of Xbox live, which allowed players
from the entire world to play against each other. No longer
would one need to be physically present to play another player.
Within the confines of one’s house, a gamer can play just about
anyone in the entire world without having to lift oneself up
from their chair. The latter, the Xbox 360 was then introduced
and blew everyone’s minds away with intense hardware
capability, rendering images with extreme realism. This
hardware spec, combined with the world wide multiplayer
capability, lead to a greater success for the Xbox 360, outselling
its other competitions, such as the Wii U and the Sony’s
Playstation 3 (Rick, 2013).
The Xbox One introduced recently last year, brought forth,

3. modern multimedia capabilities, a 1020p HD realistic rendering
technology, and an extensive multiplayer server, capable of
hosting any games with multiplayer capability. It seems that
this new console will be a successful hit as its previous brothers
did. However, to much of Microsoft’s surprised as well as the
gaming community, the system has not fared well, especially in
the global gaming market industry. In Japan specifically,
Microsoft continuously tried to push the consoles to the gaming
population of Japan. Although pretty successful in North
American, the original Xbox and Xbox 360 saw lackluster sales
during their lifespan in Japan. In fact, Microsoft’s Xbox One
has sold on a cumulative global basis of only 3.4 million units
compared to its rivals which sold more than 5.4 million units so
far (Nelva, 2015). So the biggest question of all would be, why
does Microsoft continue to lose profit and keeps pushing its
product in Japan? It’s quite simple; Japan is a huge gaming
market and a haven for huge profits and potential gain.
However, and unfortunately, it is not a simple market to enter
into, especially with Microsoft’s marketing approach. What
marketing error could be the source of the problem then?
Everything…
What makes you sure this is a marketing issue? (Be specific
with your reasoning)
Sometimes a country often secedes to another country when it
knows going to war with them will yield only loss and
destruction. Unless of course, a weapon of great technological
advancement is within grasp, then even the smallest of countries
can compete and win against the largest ones. One hundred
soldiers yielding, sticks and stones can be easily defeated by
four people yielding guns and ammunition. In the business
industry, marketing techniques such as the concept of 4P of
marketing could be liken to that “weapon of great technological
advancement”. Failure to utilize these concepts is similar to
going to war, without weapons at all, and that’s what Microsoft

4. has been doing with its consoles and marketing strategies in the
Japanese gaming market.
For Microsoft, this is definitely a marketing issue, almost
borderline marketing failure to be exact. How come? Well, first
of all, statistically, Microsoft’s marketing strategy is already at
a disadvantage considering 75 percent of it is already a failure.
Where did I get this numerical percentage? To simply put, out
of the 4P’s of Marketing, Microsoft already failed with three
out of the four, way in the beginning during its initial release of
its console in Japan. The 4P’s are the product itself, the place it
is being sold into, the price and its promotion. Take note that,
marketing is the ability to make the population aware of the
product via promotion. It is also accompanied, with the ability
to create product value, thereby causing the need, or the desire
for the product, often determined, by the quality of the product
itself, the price, as well as its location and target population
(Bateman & Snell, 2013). Considering that Microsoft is a
business juggernaut, and with the huge financial backing,
promotion was pretty successful, and product awareness was
everywhere in Japan. From the day of its initial launch in Japan,
which was almost a full year after its launch in North American
and European release, everyone knew of the Xbox One
existence. From billboards, to mass media advertisements and
store promotions, there was no one in Japan that did not know
existence of the Xbox One (Tassi, 2014). Thus, the failure of
Microsoft’s marketing strategy did not fail in its promotion of
its product but because of its failure to create value and need
from the Japanese population. So how did it fail to create value?
Microsoft forcing their product down the throats of consumers
in Japan may have actually been more effective, strategically,
because if nothing else, it would at least showed that Microsoft
actually cared about the Japanese consumers purchasing their
console. However, with the direction in which they decided to

5. go, it is as if they decided to release console, out of spite and
determination to steal money from Sony and Nintendo.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, this is the home turf of these two
companies, and have total grasp on the mentality of its people.
Furthermore, Microsoft on the other hand, offered services
engraved into its console that does not fare well and have no
value to the Japanese consumer. Microsoft’s lineup of games are
widely perceived as being “FPS-heavy” (for those who are not
into gaming, FPS is a First Person Shooter game, which can be
seen with military games where the perspective is a person’s
hand with a gun and you take control of him; ie, Call of Duty)
and the console itself being known amongst many people as a
“Netflix gaming Machine” since it’s multimedia system
revolves around perfectly streaming Netflix. This product in all
its glory is centered and perfect for North American consumers.
However, this product completely fails in the Japanese market
considering the fact that Japanese gamers don’t care much for
first-person shooter games, and that Netflix is not even
officially available in Japan. Instead taking all of these factors
in consideration, in which they could have acted upon it, like
pushing games that Japanese population would love, they
instead further emphasize what they originally offered and mass
marketed the idea (Tassi, 2014). It was mentioned that,
“successful product and services are those that customers
perceive as valuable enough to buy” (Bateman & Snell, 2013).
This statement is quite true for without value or use, an item is
not worth a penny to any customer. In this case, Microsoft
ignored the wants of consumers and the cultural makeup of their
customer base. They push their own style and values to
consumers, who care less and did not want it in the first place.
Furthermore, at the price of 49,980 yen, equivalent to $490
dollars, who is going to spend that much money on a product
that you don’t even have any interest to? Microsoft’s failure to
incorporate the desires of other cultures other than the US
gaming consumer, during Xbox One initial creation lead to its
poor performance in the Japanese gaming community (Whitney,

6. 2014).
What macroenvironmental issues led to the current situation?
The fact that Microsoft did not really consider Japan during its
console creation phase, even though they planned on mass
marketing their console in the country, lead to its downfall.
Japan is quite an interesting country with a history of being
xenophobic. Although with modern Japan, this mentality has
began to dwindle down, a cultural adherence from any outside
company is still a must in order to be liked and accepted by the
community. Japanese people are extremely loyal to their
country, and for the most part, given an option between
domestic and imported product, they usually choose the ones
made in Japan most of the time. One can see it from the food
they eat, the cars they buy and the games they play. This is a
tough hurdle that can only be overcome with product
exclusivity, lower price and a product that caters to its people,
which sadly, the Xbox One fails in all aspects (Nelva, 2015).
Microsoft did not really consider its demographics in Japan.
This may be difficult to understand especially if one has not
been there physically, but during my visit in Japan, the culture
is obsessed with anything that is cute. It’s quite evident with
Nintendo’s success with Pokemon as well as other things like
anime. Cute characters, sell video games in Japan, which the
Xbox One simply just does not have. The system does not have
a Pikachu or a Mario that can appeal to the Japanese masses.
Furthermore, here lies the biggest macroenviromental issue that
will keep the Xbox One from being a marketing success; a lack
of nostalgic appeal.
Gamers around the world, and including myself, love nostalgic
gaming. (Pac man, Galactica, Pong, maybe rings a bell perhaps?
If born in the US and these games I mention does not bring out
fond memories of 2 bit gaming, then I will assume you are not a
previous gamer) Japanese gamers, take it to whole new level.
Japanese people are often made happy and satisfied, when they

7. are brought forth by an experience that induces nostalgia. Many
of the population in Japan, grew up with Sony and Nintendo.
That is what they grew up with, that what is they know, that is
what they like, and therefore, that is what they will keep paying
to continue playing. Even if the Xbox has been around since
2002, and has capabilities that may surpass Nintendo or Sony,
the system just has not made a large enough impact to bring
nostalgic value (Nelva, 2015).
Do you predict recovery (if a negative) or success (if a new
launch or revamping of a current product)?
Honestly, it can go both ways. Just like new models of phones
which are introduce every year, new consoles are introduced
every five to seven years. The success or failure of one console
does not dictate the outcome of its future generations. Of
course, there is no better way to start fixing the situation than in
the present itself. However, the fact that, Microsoft did not
even cater to the Japanese gaming consumer let alone
considered them during the products research and development,
will lead to marketing failure. No matter how much money a
company may have to spend on promotion and marketing
strategy, a failed product is already a failure to begin with. The
product itself is amazing, having played it myself, it’s visually
appealing and the hardware is simply superb. However, if the
product does not cater to the consumer of a certain
demographics, and or country, then regardless of how powerful
the product may be, there is still no value from the consumer
and it will not sell.
I am in the Philippines, and currently cannot access my Netflix,
and I am unable to watch and stream movies from said company
even though I am paying for it every month. Unless I go through
some unlawful means of making the program work in this
country, why bother spending money on a product that I cannot

8. use in the first place? Therefore why would anyone purchase a
multimedia gaming system that can’t utilize its main multimedia
function which Microsoft extensively marketed and advertise
(Whitney, 2014). Most Asian countries, does not have any
affiliation with Netflix, and streaming to those countries are
literally blocked. With fifty percent of Xbox One function,
incapable of working in Asian countries, there is no way; the
console will sell to any consumer but the most hardcore ones,
who only care for its video game capability. It looks grim for
Microsoft’s Asian market of Xbox One. This leads me to my
next case… Is Microsoft handling this situation properly?
Based on what you've learned, is the organization handling this
marketing issue appropriately?
Microsoft had its chance to learn from its mistakes during the
lifespan of the previous generation of console it marketed in
Japan. They already knew what worked and what did not worked
in Japan. Rather than changing their game plan during the
research and development of the Xbox One, they decided to
stick with their old strategy and shove their products into
everyone’s throat. They somehow believe that aggressive
marketing will some how influence the Japanese culture to tend
to their product. It has not worked before and will not work in
the future.
Slashing the prices by half which Microsoft recently has done
may increase the sale temporarily, but overall support will not
change. It’s quite sad, considering many of the stores will no
longer stock on Xbox One, ones all the units are sold (Whitney,
2014). Their hard line approach to stick to their “guns” left
them without ammunition, and marketing failure in all aspects.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s console is only a failure in the Asian gaming
industry, specifically in Japan. Their console is a success in the
United States, considering the whole product was geared

9. towards US gamers. I believe that the release of the Xbox One
console in Japan was not fully intended for the consumers, as it
is evident by the product’s capabilities and lack of Netflix and
multimedia support. It seems as if, it was release in Japan to
lessen the sale and take some profit from the other gaming
companies, Sony and Nintendo. Is the Xbox One a marketing
success in the Asian gaming industries? It is not, it is indeed an
utter failure, but on the other hand, it managed to steal 3.4
million worth of units off of the other two companies in their
home turf, so one may consider it a strategic success.
Reference
Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2013). M: Management. New
York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Marshall, Rick. (2013, May 12). The History of the Xbox.
Retrieved from http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/the-
history-of-the-xbox/
Nelva, Giuseppe. (2015, January 7). Xbox Sales Discontinued
by Japanese store; 50% Discounted Xbox One Sells Out in Just
One Morning. Retried from
http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/01/07/xbox-sales-
discontinued-by-japanese-store-50-dicounted-xbox-one-sells-
out-in-just-one-morning/
Tassi, Paul. (2014, November 29). Outrageously Bad Xbox One
Sales in Japan Result in Executive Casualty. Retrieved From
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/11/29/outrageously
-bad-xbox-one-sales-in-japan-result-in-executive-casualty/
Whitney, Lance. (2014, September 25). Xbox One Sales in
Japan sink even lower. Retrieved from
http://www.cnet.com/news/xbox-one-sales-in-japan-sink-even-
lower/
PAGE
2

10. Running Head: Honda Motor Corporation Target Market and
Segmentation
Honda Motor Corporation Target Market and Segmentation
Davenport University
Eric Christopher Tingson Garcia
BUSN 520
April 05, 2015
Contents
Overview…………………………………………………........……
………………………….….3
Primary Target
Market.............………………………………………...……………
……..….…..4
Secondary Target
Market………….……………………………………………………
……..…..6
Target
Group.....................................................................................
...............................................7
Market
Position………………………….................................................
..............................….…8
Conclusion…………………………………………………………...
………………...…...…..…9
References…………………………………………………………….
..………………………...10
Appendix……………………………………………………………...
……...…………………..11

11. Overview
Honda Motors Company being the third largest automaker in
Japan is perhaps known best as an automaker giant in the
industry. Although the company has had its roots in
motorcycles, and is even currently the world’s top motorcycle
manufacturer, Honda’s automobile product line still accounts
for approximately 90 percents of its sales, especially in the
United States where the majority of its sales are generated.
Honda has manufactured and sold many top-sellers, such as
Accord, Civic, Prelude as well as its luxury line within Acura.
Such popularity having positive effect on the success of the
company has also generated negative publicity, with the Civic
having rank first in the United States’ list of most stolen, and
thus “in demand”, vehicles. Other products within the Honda’s
vast divisions include other times that bolster annual sale, such
as agricultural and industrial use machinery, generators,
engines, and all terrain vehicles (Minami & Minato, 2009).
Within every business or even every product, requires the need
to have a target market. The target market is the group of
customers conceived toward which marketing, promoting and,
advertising efforts are broadly aimed. As such, it is essential to
direct products at a specific market in order to determine proper
price points, as well as distribution channels to which
promotion strategies of the company is applied. Determining
target markets encompass researching consumers in all various
aspect, including but not limited to, characteristics of the group,
such as age and gender, as well as social issues, religion,
socioeconomic background and spending power. Honda Motor
Company is well known for its use of geodemographic
segmentation, where they utilize the “combination of
geographic, demographic, and lifestyle characteristics to
classify consumers” (Bateman & Snell, 2013). Honda utilizes
marketing strategies that attract specific market and a multitude
of related marketing mix. Having full grasp and understanding
about its market demands, Honda is able to attain huge amounts

12. of profits by identifying the characteristics of its target market,
and a segment strategy which takes account of consumer
demand. In fact, Honda seems rather confident, especially as of
late, to break the market competition using advertising media,
not only to promote, but to influence its target markets’
perception. With such a huge determining factor, what exactly
is Honda’s target group?
Primary Target Group
Perhaps, Honda Motor Corporation is much more complicated
than just assigning one main primary target group. Since Honda
has multiple product types, their primary targets are usually of
greater criteria. Product Segmentation usually narrows the
target market based on the product type. This approach is rather
tough because of its inability to satisfy each customer due to
unique differences and exposure. In order to generate higher
sales record, Honda Motor utilizes target markets that have been
clustered precisely which groups customers that are similar on
their segmenting dimensions into a homogeneous segments.
Honda’s approach with their products, are usually geared
towards the economic standing of their customers and their age,
which both have the highest tendency for behavioral influences.
Geographic locations also place a part, but not as specific as the
other two groups aforementioned above (Minami & Minato,
2009).
First of all, geographic influence on Honda’s product, simply
defers on their products’ accessories, safety requirements, and
aesthetic looks, preferred by that area served. Certain countries
may have specific requirements for safety, as well cultural
preferences and or necessities. For example, cars sold in the US
are usually required to undergo a specific amount of crash
testing in order to be sold in the entire 50 states. As such, cars
sold in the US may be end up being bigger, heavier and a lot
less powerful than their Asian counterparts in order to meet the
demands for safety. Although important for advertising and
rapport, geographic criteria alone is not enough to determine its

13. target market since automobile market is too broad and
encompasses all population. However, this statement should not
take geographic location lightly as it has a huge determining
potential for profit, sales, and the direction of where the
company is heading (Bateman & Snell, 2013).
Honda as previously mentioned, manufactures a form of
transportation, whether it’s a car or a motorcycle, and as such,
age and economic standing is a huge determinant for its target
market. Age and socioeconomic level are both intertwined and
have linear relationships. The greater the age of the customer,
the higher spending power he or she may have and on the other
hand, the lesser the age, the weaker the spending power.
However, younger group tends to have higher spending
tendencies than that of their elder counterparts.
Honda Motor has dramatically changed its approach over the
years and is more evident with this era. Although the company
started with a much younger target group in the past, especially
since the company originally began as a motorcycle
manufacturer, they have gradually evolved and their vehicles
are a great example of that. During the 90’s era, Honda created
cars that were light, powerful, and fast which had tendency to
sell pretty well with the younger crowd. However, overtime,
also due to the increasing gas prices and safety concerns, Honda
become primarily focus on a more refined age group of around
30 to 50 years old. Factoring age as well as gender, Honda sells
vehicles that are more luxurious than before, providing
increased convenience, above average fuel efficiency, a good
and comfortable ride, and an image booster. It also provided
advance safety technologies at an affordable price, for that age
group. This primary target group has determined the recent line
up of all vehicles Honda is producing. Many of the population
within the age group, are considered financially stable, and are
looking for a vehicle that satisfies their needs to protect their
family. Even, if the price of Honda vehicles are a bit higher

14. than the other competitors, their vehicles are made specifically
for that age group, and with consideration of their
socioeconomic standing at the time of a person’s age,
affordability is never an issue. However, their secondary target
group, the younger crowd, have taken a slight hit considering,
they are beginning to deem Honda as a boring vehicle
manufacturer (Ibarra, 2010).
Secondary Target Group
Honda Motors decision to focus primarily on customers with the
age group of 30 years old and older has hurt the image of the
company, especially since the company advertises that they
manufacturer and sell vehicles for “respect for individuality and
the joy driving”. They are anything but their former glory,
considering many people have perceived their vehicles to be
boring and generic. They are no longer selling vehicles for joy,
but rather to satisfy a target group that would make the best
profit. It is understandable considering, this age group, is no
longer Honda’s primary customer base, and may have less
money and fewer demands for their product. Since it is a
business after all, the direction of the company is often
determined where their products will most likely sell. However,
secondary target audiences are still just as important (Honda
Worldwide, 2011).
With the abysmal global profits that Honda suffered in recent
years, the company has decided to shuffle and replace it’s head
executives to change its approach. In fact, in recent declaration
of lineups and concept cars during the 2015 auto conventions,
the company seems to have developed and financed, new
powerful vehicles, with exotic looks, worthy of gear heads, and
rich men suffering mid-life crisis. These new vehicles such as
the new Acura NSX, has capabilities, equivalent to the likes of
Ferraris, Lotus and Lamborghinis. Furthermore, new models of
their current line up were unmasked recently and featured, an
edgier style, faster engine, whilst retaining the previous quality,
safety and comfort of the older models. Honda also will also
introduce more model varieties to accommodate the levels of

15. different customer economic status. For example, Civic will be
sold in different trims, with the base model being the cheapest,
and the SI and Mugen, being more powerful and aggressive, at
the cost of an increased price. Honda Motors has taken steps to
accommodate both its primary target group and the secondary
target group, taking into perspective the customers age and
economic status in their product. This change of approach is
creating new opportunities by capitalizing, on a much younger
and growing secondary target group, whilst maintaining the
habitual decision making in the much older primary group. A
success that Honda has established where “consumers engage
little conscious effort” when deciding in the purchase of their
product (Bateman & Snell, 2013).
Target Group
Regardless of the change of direction for such company like
Honda, or any other company regarding this matter, one will
never let go of their most established and most profitable group
of customers. In this case, North American baby boomers, a
suitable name for a target group, are of the greatest profitable
group for Honda Motor Company. Although it is not limited to
North America alone, but with 90% Honda vehicular purchases
are transacted in this continent, it is no wonder that the
company has spent millions of dollars for advertisement and
development of vehicles, made for American specificity and of
that primary target age group.
Honda’s specific target group’s demographic, putting
geographic locations aside, are usually people of age 30 years
old to 50 years old, married or single, with no gender
preferences, and at a mid to high middle class status. Although
there has been a change in the pricing of their vehicles to
accommodate all levels of socioeconomic background, the main
bulk of their target are still of those of the middle class. To
further expand on these criteria, aside from the demographics
and location, customer lifestyle is also greatly considered.

16. Honda’s primarily targets working class population with
established work and buying power, fairly successful, desires
value for money and prestige in what they drive in.
Furthermore, within this target group Honda also aims for
behavior patterns of customers who has a habit of replacing cars
every 5 to 7 years, a monthly amortization of 15 to 20 thousand
and has a desire for a good ride and efficient fuel consumption.
Combined all this, Honda is able to influence their customer’s
behavior following the Maslow’s theory of needs to their own
advantage and thus gaining profit. The North American Baby
Boomers target group is at an age, when the physiologic, safety,
social, esteem, and self actualization needs are of greatest
importance, and combined with an ability to purchase vehicles,
establish a profitable target group for Honda Motor Company
(Thompson, 2009).
Marketing Position
How strong is Honda Motor Corporation compared to its
competitions? Based in Figure 1, out of the big five automobile
market company share in U.S., Honda is in deed last, with an
exception of around 2009 when it took the fourth spot from
Toyota, then lost it again ever since. Currently as of March
2015, shown in Figure 4, Honda’s share percentage is at
constant 8.4%. Although Honda is not the main leading
automobile manufacturer in the states, evident with the fact that
it is still a foreign company in a domestic US market, it can be
seen that the company has been stable and maintained it shares
steadily. Where as the other big companies, have huge
fluctuation in their share percentage, Honda Motor Corporation
has maintained a consistent percentage since 2005.
Possible reasons for this pattern can be seen in how Honda has
played it safe ever since. Since their target group has always
been stable as aforementioned above, Honda maintained its
strategy and is quite evident as shown with their consistency.
To further this idea, considering that Honda is not solely an
automobile manufacturer, it is safe to assume that, all of its

17. profits are not entirely from vehicle industries and therefore,
the company does not seek glory of being number 1, but being
stable and consistent. However, this approach has made Honda
boring and with change in demands, due to gas prices
decreasing as shown in figure 2, it will be interesting as to what
the company will do in response to this sudden change.
Furthermore, Honda’s grasp in the motorcycle industry has been
threatened, especially after the termination of the partnership
between HeroMotoCorp took place, which resulted in the lost of
almost 40% of sales for the company (Cain, 2015).
Conclusion
It is quite evident based on the charts and graphs that Honda
does not seem to aim for the number one spot in the global auto
industry. Base on their target group practices, they have
maintained stability by aiming for stable costumers and
avoiding drastic financial risk by venturing into new territories.
However, with the recent situations that’s been plaguing Honda
such as the recall, the company’s lost of self, and their lost of
the hold in the motorcycle industry, the company may very well
venture out of the comfort zone. With the upcoming new CEO
and refreshed administration, Honda is venturing back to its
root, to what made it once was.
References
Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2013). M: Management. New
York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Minami-Aoyama, & Minato, Ku (2000). Honda Motor Company
Limited. Retrieved from
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Honda_Motor_Company_Li
mited.aspx
Ibarra, Luis. (2010, February 23) 10 Step Marketing Plan Honda
Cars. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/luisangelo77/10-step-marketing-plan-
honda
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Appendix
Figure 1: U.S. Market Share The Big Five
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-
autosales.html#autosalesE
Figure 2: Auto Sale vs Gas Prices
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-
autosales.html#autosalesE
Figure 3: Motorcycle sales 2014 Domestic
http://bikeadvice.in/nov-2014-sales-report-2-wheelers-analysis/
Figure 4: Auto Manufacturer Market Share in America as of
march 2015
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/04/chart-day-auto-
brand-market-share-america-march-2015/