Student 1The company I am choosing to report to the Vice President of marketing for is Honda. The reason I am choosing this car company is because they have a good reputation for being an efficient internal combustion engine. Honda is the leading Japanese manufacturer of motorcycles and a major producer of automobiles for the world market (Britannica).Like all companies, Honda has strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Two strength I found for Honda are the competence in engine manufacturing, which is the company’s core product. The company’s first engines were built for motorcycles and power equipment. They were later produced for cars and marine vehicles. Honda produced over 27 million units of engines for automotive, marine, motorcycle, and power equipment products, which make it the world’s largest engine manufacturer (Jurevicius O., 2016). Another strength is the diversified product portfolio of the company. Honda operates four different divisions. These consist of a motorcycle business, automobile business, power product and other business, and financial services. Honda also offers many products to consumers.Weaknesses include dependence on North America to generate most of the revenue. This mainly includes the U.S. and Canada to generate 55.6% of the company’s total revenue. This will be hard for Honda to maintain the same level of growth in these markets, because U.S. and Canada are saturated markets (Jurevicius O., 2016). Another weakness is the low investments in research and development that lead to innovative products. These low investments made it harder to compete in the future.Opportunities include increasing the government regulations. Many governments around the world are committed to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and encourage fuel efficiency initiatives (Jurevicius O., 2016). Another opportunity is improving the U.S. economy. The strong increase in new vehicle sales are signs of an improving economy and rising consumer confidence (Jurevicius O., 2016).Threats include increased competition from traditional automotive companies who are the new players and saturation of its main markets. Another threat is the natural disasters that happen in manufacturing facilities in Japan, Thailand, China, and Indonesia. These natural disasters disrupt the manufacturing processes and lower the production volumes and profits (Jurevicius O., 2016).A competitive advantage that Honda is known for is their reliability and fuel efficiency. They have made a reputation for quality that builds practices and parts. Fuel efficiency really helped during the times of high gas prices. Today’s hybrids are equal to its gas mileage. Honda can keep up with its competitive advantage by making sure they keep their words and always aim for quality over quantity. There difference and impact will be noticed and appreciated in hard times like increased gas prices.Honda’s weaknesses can be turned into strengths, they can react smartly to threats, and pursue opportunities when given the chance. When increased competition occurs, Honda needs to remain calm and try to find ways to not rely on North America for most of its revenue. There has to be another option that they can look into without relying on other regions. They need to make themselves marketable in more than one region and there are ways to properly advertise depending on the area and its needs. There needs to be alternatives when threats occur so that they do not get pushed behind on schedule. When there is a sign of opportunity, Honda needs to take it and try its best to further it. References Encyclopedia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Honda motor company, ltd. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Honda-Motor-Company-Ltd.Jurevicius, O. (2016, November 5). Honda SWOT analysis. Strategic Management Insight. https://strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/honda-swot-analysis.html.Simpson, L. (2019, January 10). Competitive advantages of Honda. It Still Runs. https://itstillruns.com/competitive-advantages-honda-5916489.html.Student 2Good evening class,I chose the Kia automotive company as the unit of analysis. I decided to choose this specific unit of analysis since companies such as Kia have made tremendous gains with generating a competitive advantage. For instance, their sales went from 275,851 in 2005 to 484,202. Likewise, they boosted their US market share by 3.41% (Cain, 2021).Identify two items you consider to be the most important for each: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.Strengths: The most significant strengths of Kia are the warranties, and price of their products. Kia is one of top competitors in regards to the warranties they offer. The warranty is 100,000 miles on the powertrain, and 60,000 or 5 years for comprehensive coverage (Vincent, 2020). This type of warranty gives customers a sense of comfort when purchasing their automobile. They will have the confidence that all repair cost will be covered within the x number of miles or years. Also, the base model price of a Kia can be very competitive, especially when considering the price of a new automobile. For instance, Kia holds two places for the top 10 most affordable cars in 2021. Weaknesses: Reliability, and reputation are two weaknesses that Kia can improve on. Unfortunately, these aspects of Kia are hard to improve especially since Kia is a fairly young company when compared to other automobile manufacturers. In comparison, Ford has been building automobiles since the early 1900’s. This long heritage builds a certain level of trust with its customers. I hear this ideology with trucks most often. People will buy a Ford truck just because it’s a Ford. There is no data to back their claims other than they prefer that specific brand.Opportunities: Growth, and expansion into further global markets are two great opportunities that Kia can look into the future for ("Kia Motors SWOT Analysis, Competitors & USP | MBA Skool", 2021). Over the years, Kia has continued to grow in many aspects of their business model. The most prominent growth is found with their automobile development. The modern-day Kia has greatly developed into a cost effective, great looking vehicle. In comparison, 20 years ago I would not have looked twice at a Kia. Within the last few years, I have been shocked with the design improvements they have made. It really makes a customer re-examine their options when buying a car. Having mentioned the growing product design, this give Kia the continued opportunity to reach other global markets. Threats: Competitors, and technology are the threats to Kia. Kia has many competitors among the South-East region of the world to include: China, and Japan. Japan for instance, has been manufacturing cars since 1982. A dominant Japanese competitor would include Honda. They have had over a decade experience over Kia which ties into advances in technology for automobile manufacturing.One of the most significant competitive advantages for Kia is their dominant presence in South Korea. According to statista.com, Kia and their parent company Hyundai Motor Group have secured nearly 80% of the market share in the automobile manufacturing industry. Kia has made many great improvements when considering their weaknesses. For instance, a reputation takes many years to build. In their case, they have increased their global presence and increased their sales tenfold since the opening of the company. Furthermore, Kia must continue to improve their designs, and technology to attract a wider target market in the automobile customers.To combat threats, Kia should continue to effectively market their products to reach a broader global market. Likewise, they need to continue to explore diversification within their products (Ferrell & Hartline, 2017). For instance, they need to continue to explore electric technology, and also designs car that attract customers in the higher income brackets. In comparison, manufacturers should as Lexus, only offer expensive automobiles which greatly limits their market share. To seize opportunities, Kia must continue to explore an aggressive strategy to gain the attention of the global market. For instance, it is important they market and advertise in the appropriate manner when entering or expanding certain markets. An example would be advertising during major US sporting events if they wanted to expand their presence in the US.ReferencesCain, T. (2021). Kia Sales Figures – US Market. GCBC. Retrieved 9 September 2021, from https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/kia-us-sales-figures/#growth.Ferrell, O., & Hartline, M. (2017). Marketing strategy (7th ed.). South-Western/Cengage Learning.South Korea: car ownership rate 2019 | Statista. Statista. (2021). Retrieved 9 September 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/644525/south-korea-car-ownership-rate/Links to an external site..Vincent, J. (2020). Retrieved 9 September 2021, from https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/which-automaker-has-the-best-warrantyLinks to an external site..Kia Motors SWOT Analysis, Competitors & USP | MBA Skool. MBA Skool. (2021). Retrieved 9 September 2021, from https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/automobiles/4559-kia-motors.html.Initial PostYou are the lead analysis at a marketing strategy consulting company. You have been hired to conduct a SWOT analysis and develop recommendations for a SBU in the automotive industry. Your external analysis must include a reflection on competitive SBUs, including major competitive actions from current global competitors and future competitors, such as China.A basic principle of Michael Porter’s book Competitive Advantage of Nations is that nations, and the firms in those nations, gain competitive advantage in industries where the home demand gives their companies a clear early picture of emerging buyer needs and where demanding buyers pressure companies to innovate faster and achieve more sophisticated competitive advantages. These winning products can then be competitive in a global market. This was true for Japanese auto industry in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and it is true for China today. There are 1.4 billion customers in China. For background read the following:Lassa, T. (Feb 19, 2020). These Chinese Car Brands Are Racing to Get to the U.S. First. (Links to an external site.)For this assignment, you will need to determine your unit of analysis. This could be:The entire national (such as the U.S.) auto industry, in which case you are reporting the national automotive trade group.A specific company (such as Ford, Honda, Vantas, etc.), in which case you are reporting to the vice president of marketing for the company.A specific product category within a company (such as the consumer truck lines in Ford Motor Company, not a specific brand of trucks at Ford), in which case you are reporting the divisional head of marketing for the company.Discussion IssuesSpecify and justify why you chose your unit of analysis.Identify two items you consider to be the most important for each: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Justify in your statements why you consider these to be the most important considerations for each SWOT category.Back your statements with citations to relevant research.Identify current competitive advantages for your unit of analysis and how to protect those competitive advantagesMake and justify strategic recommendations on:How to turn the identified weaknesses into strengths,How to react to threats,How to pursue opportunities