Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC Company Profile:

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is a British multinational corporation that designs, develops, manufactures, promotes, and sells automobiles under the brand names of Jaguar and Land Rover, including Range Rover brand. Jaguar Land Rover is the United Kingdom's largest automobile corporation that took its roots from a couple of strongest automobile brands: Jaguar and Land Rover. Currently, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is a renowned subsidiary of India's most successful automobile group -- Tata Motors. It is headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, United Kingdom. Tata Motors acquired Jaguar Land Rover in 2008 from Ford Motor Company. The major subsidiaries of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC include: Jaguar Land Rover Holdings Limited, Jaguar Land Rover Limited, Jaguar Land Rover India, and Chery Jaguar Land Rover. Jaguar Land Rover was the result of a union between Jaguar Cars and Land Rover which Ford Motor Company did in 2002 (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

Out of the six major Research and Development, manufacturing, and assembly facilities of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, five exist in the United Kingdom while one is present in India. The most famous Jaguar cars include: Jaguar XJ (luxury car), Jaguar XF (executive car), Jaguar F-Type (sports car), and Jaguar XK (Grand Tourer) while Land Rover brand sells Land Rover Freelander, Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and Range Rover Evoque. Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC has currently employed more than 26,000 people from all over the Globe whereas it has created over 190,000 jobs in supply chain, dealership, and marketing field in different regions (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

VRIN Model Analysis for Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC

No company can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage if its products do not give 'value' to the customers' money; are easily substitutable and imitable by the competitors; or have nothing specific feature which is rare to be found in other competitors (Kotler, 2009). This criterion defines how stronger a brand is against its industry rivals. The analysis which helps the Management of a company and its key stakeholders in assessing the sustainability and competitive strength in the market is called VRIN Model (Panda, 2008). It stands for: value, rarity, inimitability, and non-substitutability. This section presents VRIN Model analysis for Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC:

i. Value:

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive has created value for its brand by manufacturing products that are state-to-the-art and totally meet the expectations of its customers. Due to their luxurious design and exceptionally remarkable performance on the road, Jaguar Land Rover Automobiles are now considered as the most competitive, reliable, and successful vehicles of the 21st Century. In order to create value for its brand and the Group as a whole, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC keeps an eye on its internal strengths and weaknesses and looks for attractive opportunities which are available in the market (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

By using its strengths along with the available opportunities, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive neutralizes, or at least weakens the external threats which are harmful for its business growth (Kotler, 2009). The 'value' which Jaguar Land Rover Automotive provides to its customers and other key stakeholders also serves as a competitive advantage which becomes a threat for its rivals; which include General Motors, Toyota, Honda, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, etc. (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

ii. Rarity:

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive has a number of rare characteristics and advantages which are either possessed by just few competitors or are highly unreachable for the whole industry. For example, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC was created as a union between two luxurious and top quality brands (Jaguar Cars and Land Rover Automobiles) which allowed it to combine the technologies and strengths of these strong brands (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014). Secondly, the huge investments required in each and every section of manufacturing and assembly processes cannot be borne by all automobiles corporations. Jaguar Land Rover Automotive also takes advantage from Tata Technologies Limited which is a successful entity of the Group (Tata Motors).

Although these strengths and advantages do not seem sustainable in the long run due to frequent mergers and acquisitions taking place in the Global automotive industry, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive can still strive to strengthen its current market position by using its distinctive competencies which are highly rare for the competitors (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

iii. Inimitability:

Inimitability refers to the strengths and advantages of a company which its competitors cannot imitate or obtain easily (Harrison & John, 2014). Unfortunately, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive does not have any strong feature...

Its competitive advantages like luxurious design, highly innovative gadgets, use of supreme technology, and remarkable on-the-road performance, etc. are rare to be found in a single brand except few top brands, but these can be easily imitated if small and low-quality brands can arrange sufficient financial and operational resources.
iv. Non-Substitutability:

There are numerous ways in which the products of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive can be substituted. Jaguar Land Rover is not only a premium priced brand, but also offers a number of cars with similar designs to other brands like (Land Rover vs. Toyota Land Cruiser, Jaguar executive cars vs. Mercedes executive cars, etc.). Therefore, it cannot be said that Jaguar Land Rover Automotive can ensure a sustainable competitive advantage with respect to the non-substitutability of its products. Similarly, the gadgets and features available in Jaguar Land Rover cars are also present in luxurious cars offered by other manufacturers.

The Value Chain Analysis for Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC

The Value Chain analysis helps the Management of a company and its stakeholders in analyzing all the minor and major processes through which the company passes to manufacture its products and finally distributes them to the ultimate consumers (Kotler, 2009). The basic purpose of this analysis is to figure out the role of each and every stakeholder (suppliers, distributors, designers, developers, engineers, and leadership) in the success of the company. The following section gives detailed value chain analysis for Jaguar Land Rover PLC:

i. Market Research and R&D (Research & Development):

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive expends a huge amount on the Research and Development section in order to make its vehicles look more stunning, give better performance on the road, and provide 'value' to the customers' money. The R&D activities lead to the designing and development of innovative, stylish, and more fuel-efficient vehicles which are superior to the competition and their own previous models as well (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

The R&D activities of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive are backed up by a fully-fledged market research which is undertaken at a huge scale. All the major members of the company's supply chain, e.g. suppliers, designers, distributors, marketing companies, etc. participate in the market research. This research helps Jaguar Land Rover Automotive in analyzing the changing market conditions and economic, political, technological, environmental, legal, sociocultural, and demographical patterns in the existing and future markets in all the regions of the world. Based on this research, the company designs its future product, pricing, promotion, and distribution strategies.

ii. The Purchase of Raw Material:

Since Jaguar Land Rover Automotive sells its products in all the corners of the world, it has set up manufacturing units and development centers in Asia (India) and Europe (UK) which are among the largest automobile markets. Jaguar Land Rover purchases the highest quality of raw material in order to produce the most valuable luxurious, sports, and executive cars for the entire world. Due to heavy expenditures on the purchase of top quality raw material, Jaguar has to charge high price for its final products in order to recover these costs and earn high profitability.

iii. Manufacturing of the Products:

The manufacturing units of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC are present in Asia and Europe while the designing and development is mainly done in Europe (United Kingdom). Jaguar Land Rover Automotive has implemented the most advanced plants and machineries to manufacture products which not only meet the requirements of the customers, but also exceed their expectations in terms of quality, performance, efficiency, design, and reliability (Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, 2014).

Like all other multinational automobile corporations, the manufacturing processes of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive take the highest part of its resources (including all financial, human, informational, and operational resources). While manufacturing the top quality luxurious, executive, and sports cars for different segments of consumers, Jaguar ensures that its each upcoming model brings something unique and better than the competition. This strategy further strengthens its competitive position unless the same feature in imitated or substituted by the competition.

iv. Distribution of the Products:

The distribution of Jaguar, Land Rover, and Range Rover cars is done around the Globe at a massive scale. The company has strong linkages with the world's most renowned and reliable distributors. It pays attractive commission to its distributors which not only make its products available to the worldwide consumers, but also play an important role in promoting them to the potential customers of the future. Moreover, the distribution companies also locate…