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large as Toyota, which has a volume strategy. Thus far, Honda has been quite successful in
elevating the brand value of its vehicles. But none of these measures would give a boost to
the brand if the product did not meet the tastes and needs of the customers in the first place.
Among the relevant aspects are styling, quality and performance. But product quality is by far
a winning criterion. Customers do not appreciate having to go to the service centres to
complain about problems. Given a choice, customers would prefer not to have to visit the
service centre at all after the purchase of their cars. In Malaysia, Honda and Toyota vehicles
are perceived to have the least number of defects per vehicle. In the 2008 JD Power Initial
Quality Study 3 , Honda City & Honda Civic both came out top of the list in the entry midsize
segment and midsize segments respectively. This is the kind of achievement that allows
Honda to command an even higher premium to its brand.
Strategies Employed by Perodua
Perodua has had phenomenal success with the Myvi model which was launched in 2005.
Since then nearly 300,000 units have been sold. And recently, the Viva has also enjoyed a
decent degree of success, albeit not as good as the Myvi. Unfortunately the Kenari and the
Nautica have not been as largely accepted. With the Myvi and Viva, Perodua‟s success was
hinged on the fact that Perodua knew exactly what the customer was looking for. The main
issues were size, fuel consumption and ease of ownership. It was here that Perodua
managed to get a grasp of the customer‟s wants, needs and desires. The Myvi has several
key unique selling propositions (USP), mainly space, ease of use and ease of maintenance.
The Viva‟s USP was primarily fuel consumption and since the price of fuel shot up from
RM1.92 to RM2.70 shortly after the Viva was launched, it literally clinched the deal to the
point where Perodua had to increase its plant capacity just to cater for the surge in demand.
Strategies Employed by Proton
Proton has not had significant success with some of its models especially since the Gen2,
Juara, Savvy and Satria Neo. At the time these models were launched, Proton was under the
impression that customers should be exposed to these futuristic models. In other words,
Proton was adopting a push-strategy. Unfortunately, for several years Proton was faced with
a dismal sales figure with these models. One of the fundamental errors was the fact that the
Malaysian market was not yet ready for the vehicles that Proton was trying to market in
Malaysia using the Proton brand name. These models were developed with European tastes.
For example, in the UK, hatchback cars are more popular than sedans by a large proportion.
However, in Malaysia this is the reverse. In the Malaysian market, sedan vehicles sell much
better than hatchbacks. This was clearly proven when the Proton Gen.2 was developed into a
sedan and introduced as the Proton Persona, sales began to show a remarkable
improvement.
Another model which has not been favourably accepted in the Malaysian market is the Proton
Savvy. Although most magazines both in Malaysia and overseas have given very good
reviews with a string of awards under its belt such as the Malaysian Guinness Book of
Records for most fuel efficient car in its segment, and the best Small Car of the Year 2006,
the car sales have still been less than satisfactory. Again, it boils down to the fact that Proton
has tried to offer to the discerning Malaysian market, a car that is not desired or wanted in the
first place. Among the reasons why the Proton Savvy has had dismal sales is due to the fact
3 The 2008 Malaysia Initial Quality Study (IQS) is based on evaluations from approximately 3,200
owners who purchased their new vehicle between September 2007 and May 2008. Vehicles evaluated
included 52 passenger car, pickup and utility vehicle models covering 15 different brands. The study
was fielded between March and July 2008.
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