Building brands - the Japanese way

Andrew Seth

Andrew Seth, in one of his occasional opinion pieces for Admap, takes a brief look at the U.S. car business and concludes that the Japanese companies have learnt the marketing lessons - and the U.S.

Building brands – the Japanese way

Andrew Seth

It is one year since I considered the car business ('Drucker passes on, will GM follow?', Admap Issue 470). Has anything changed? Well, not really. Some change of language, intentions have modified, and US problems are more widely shared, but fundamentally it remains unsteady as we go in Detroit. Toyota is the big winner, but Honda and even Nissan delivered record world wide sales in 2006.

GM pulled back from bankruptcy, its share price and results modestly improving. But it has lost market leadership, is closing plants and retiring workers...

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