When a brand decides Throw a product to market You must think very well where you want to go with it. Before its design, many and varied market research to find out who your target audience will be, if it will be masculine or feminine, if it will be aimed at people with a medium-high purchasing power or if, on the contrary, it will be positioned in a lower part of the market.
With all this information, the design of the product begins., since it must meet a series of basic conditions so that it adjusts to the results of the study. These steps (commented in a very simplified way) are carried out by all brands without exception, but sometimes they can be extended when a product with a more special or minority profile is going to be launched on the market.
Opel, with the commercial launch of the Grandland X and Crossland X is played a lot, since its presence in the SUV segment is only covered by the Mokka X. This is so because despite the fact that they are still doing great they have to improve their position in this market segment, if they want to increase their global sales and improve their economic results.
According to Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO of Opel, the Crossland X is a car that likes especially to women. This information was provided based on the market studies that were carried out in the firm to propose the development of the model. With this guides us perfectly towards which part of the market it is directed and what are your claims when it arrives at the dealers.
These statements have been endorsed by Tina Mueller (responsible for marketing the model) as she added that "Women love [the Crossland X] because we like the elevated seating position and the 24-hour OnStar concierge service that lets you book a hotel while you're driving". With these words we can see how the German brand is following the same path that Fiat already did when launching the 500 range with its derivatives.
However, for a firm the size of Opel to make such statements could be counterproductive. Today the products (although they have to be directed towards a main audience) they must have a global vocation. The reason is simple since if a product is typecast in a market category and this for whatever reason suffers a setback, can be doomed to failure and then changing the market position of the product will become a daunting task.
It remains to be seen if the market and time agree with those responsible for the German firm.
Source – Opel