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Marque
*** Shopping-Tip: Marque
:''For a
letter of marque, authorising a
privateer, see that article.''
:''For the town in France, see
Marques, Seine-Maritime.''
:''The Marque is a tributary of the
Deûle, a French river.''
A '''marque''' (
French language French for "brand" and pronounced as "mark") is a
brand name, most commonly used for
automobile brands. For example, ''
Chevrolet'' is the marque for the ''
Chevrolet Corvette Corvette''
sports car. A company may operate a single marque, or many—
General Motors Corporation General Motors has used more than a dozen in the American market alone.
Note that, although '''make''' is sometimes synonymous with marque, ''maker'' refers to the manufacturer of a vehicle, not the marked brand name. For example,
Dodge could be said to be the marque and make of a
Dodge Dart, but the maker was
Chrysler Corporation.
Differentiation
There are huge
economies of scale in the automobile industry. A larger company can develop and produce vehicles much more economically than a smaller concern. Product development, in particular, benefits from these economies; research and development costs can be spread out further and contribute less to the cost of a vehicle. These savings can be passed on to the purchaser, or increase the product margin of the manufacturer.
Because of these economies, the industry has a long history of consolidation. As a result, only a few companies worldwide produce cars in any great number. However, the number of marques has not reduced to anywhere near this degree. The reason is that automobiles are not purchased solely for utility; they are as much an article of fashion as clothing. Manufacturers therefore maintain marques (brands of automobile) even after consolidation to serve differing segments of the market. While individual car models come and go, and even model names change over time, the marque remains constant. Manufacturers try to give each marque a distinct image and message; success or failure depends on how successfully this is done and how well it corresponds to customer desires.
Marque differentiation does, however, fight against the manufacturer's desire for those economies of scale. A successful balance must be maintained between the desire for commonality with the economy it brings, and the differentiation necessary for customers to perceive difference between marques. At the extreme, the only difference between two marques from the same manufacturer is the name placed on it; marque differentiation in only surface cosmetic detail is known, somewhat pejoritively as
badge engineering. Sometimes, such practices erode
brand equity severely, while in other cases, the brands are strong enough that consumers do not distinguish a similarity.
Marques have also often developed
halo vehicles—specialized desirable vehicles which they hope will cast a positive image on the marque as a whole. The
Chevrolet Corvette is an excellent example. Occasionally, manufacturers have created
List of automobile model and marque oddities single vehicle marques for special vehicles.
Failure
One extreme case of this problem came with
Mazda's launch of three new marques in the
Japan market in the early
1990s (
Autozam,
Efini, and
Eunos). Mazda had hoped to capitalize on the Japanese car consumer's desire for differentiated vehicles, by selling the same few vehicles under five or more model and marque combinations. There were no fewer than 27 different versions of the
Mazda Capella alone. This caused consumer confusion, and it hurt the brand, because resources (and consumer attention) were spread too thin.
A marque will often fail when consumers do not understand the distinction of the specific marque.
Chrysler Corporation's
Plymouth (automobile) Plymouth division and
General Motors Corporation General Motors'
Oldsmobile are recent examples of marques that failed when they lost their central message with consumers.
Success
The American launch of the
Acura,
Lexus, and
Infiniti marques were more successful. In these cases, the Japanese parent companies felt that it would be difficult to move
upmarket (where vehicles are sold with higher
profit margins) under their original names (
Honda,
Toyota, and
Nissan respectively). All three luxury marques are now very successful and profitable.
Brand equity
Each year, ''
BusinessWeek'' publishes its
100 Best Global Brands study, ranking the
brand equity financial value of brands. Following are the automobile marques, ranked by this study for
2005.
See also
*
List of automobile manufacturers
*
List of automobile model and marque oddities
Category:Automobiles
Category:Branding
Category:Brands
Category:Marketing
*** Shopping-Tip: Marque
