The 4Ps of marketing are product, Price, Place, and Promotion (Volker, 1998). For Honda, the product is their new Ridgeline, their new pickup which goes on sale this Spring as a 2006 model (Healey, 2004). The truck debuted at the autoshow in Detroit in January, and the five-passenger, crew-cab, unibody pickup is Honda's first US pickup. The price is around $30,000, which places it in the same bracket as the high-end Honda Pilot SUV. Honda customers are typically buyers of compact cars and minivans, but the Ridgeline is designed for those looking for something beefier, although it only has a 3.5 liter V-6 powertrain used in the Pilot SUV and the Odyssey minivan, so can't tow big trailers, and shares some of the underpinnings of a minivan (Dawson and Welch, 2004)
The third P is place - Vladivostok - and Honda established a local subsidiary in Moscow, Russia, last year to strengthen its motorcycle, automobile and power product sales in the rapidly expanding Russian marketplace (Honda, 2004). Annual sales of imported automobiles rose to 190,000 from 2000 to 2003, and elimination of the consumption tax, a reduction of VAT from 20 percent to 18 percent last year, and the anticipated participation of Russia in the WTO within the next few years are expected to further expand the foreign automobile market.
The degree of promotion of the Ridgeline in Russia is unknown at this time, and since overall Honda sales in Russia, while considerable, do not represent Honda's major market, it is difficult to predict the success of the vehicle in Vladivostok. There are many who doubt its chances of success in the US, which will be its major market, so its chances of becoming a major seller in Russia are even more doubtful.
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