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Marketing-managing customer relationship, market positioning, target marketing, product strategy, distribution, retailing and supply chain management, integrated marketing communications.

Undergraduate and graduate students in international marketing; business administration; strategic decision making and general management courses.

The case study focuses on the current scenario within the Indian automotive lubricants industry, in order to provide an understanding of the marketing challenges, especially in retailing and distribution, faced by organisations within this highly competitive sector. The case examines the implementation of marketing strategies into practice and provides an insight into the importance of branding, market segmentation, market positioning, product and pricing strategies and customer relationship management (CRM).

The case study enables the students to understand and analyse: the current business environment and dynamics of emergence in the Indian automotive lubricants market; the critical success factors for doing business in the Indian automotive lubricants market and the associated opportunities and challenges; the importance of distribution and retailing strategies in the Indian context; Izo's growth and expansion strategy in India; and Izo's sales management and CRM systems and there importance to the success of the business.

Teaching note.

Independence, nowhere more assiduously nurtured than in America, runs strongly through that country's lubricants manufacturing and marketing business. A report and forecast (page 12) by market researchers Kline & Co, presents an overall picture of good prospects, in which the independent medium and small volume companies, frequently specialists, must claim a reasonable share. This sector of the American lubricants industry is largely represented by the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers' Association (ILMA) whose ex‐president is the author of this article. H. Prescott Bagley II writes from a position of strength, for he is also current president of the White & Bagley company, of Worcester, Massachusetts. This is a division of the Dryden Company which markets Drydene, Oilzum (automotive) and W&B (industrial) lubricant brands, Dryden's major business being in the automotive field. Prescott Bagley's ILMA is comparable in function with the British Lubricants Federation at whose annual dinner at Grosvenor House he is the most regular overseas visitor. And he has usually travelled the farthest to get there. He says that of about 190 independent oil companies trading in the US, some 125 are involved in the manufacture of lubricants and fluids. About respective volumes of business he is diplomatically reticent. But of the independent's corporate achievement he is proud — it adds up to about 30 per cent of the volume of all lubricants sold in America. “It's an impressive piece of business”, he concedes, with just a touch of ex‐presidential trumpet‐blowing on behalf of his obviously healthy and competent ILMA.

First, this paper explores the many varied, and often confusing, definitions of relationship marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) and customer management (CM). Then it reports the results of a survey that examined the CM performance of 34 companies in the consumer banking, credit card, insurance, oil (lubricants) and automotive industries in Malaysia. The research was conducted using the Customer Management Assessment Tool^TM (CMAT^TM) developed by QCi Ltd, a management consultancy that specialises in assessing and improving CM. CM performance was found to be especially poor in insurance and consumer banking. The best performing sector was the credit card industry.

Strategic Management and Organization Theory and Design.

Advanced undergraduate and MBA students taking courses in Strategic Management and Organization Theory and Design.

By the end of 2011, five years short of its centennial anniversary, UMW Holdings was one of the biggest corporations in Malaysia, registering revenues of RM13.5 billion (US$4.5 billion), and net profit after tax of RMI billion (US$0.33 billion). By that time, it had 110 subsidiaries, operating in four core businesses of automotive assembly and distribution of Toyota lines of products, automotive components and lubricants original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and replacement equipment manufacturing (REM), heavy equipment, and oil and gas drilling service. In September 2011, the company had targeted its Toyota automotive business to contribute to 50 percent of its revenues, while the other 50 percent would come from its other three businesses, by the year 2015. However, as of the first quarter of 2012, Datuk Syed Hisham Syed Wazir, the Group CEO and his management team realized that, at 72 percent, the automotive business was still the main contributor to the Group's revenues. As the company's Toyota assembly operation was limited exclusively to the Malaysian market, plus in the face of greater competition within the automotive industries, the company needed to set strategies to achieve its 50:50 plan. The case stimulates discussion on strategy formulation of a mature corporation, involved in diversified business portfolio.

Understanding the process of industry analysis, as well as the formulation and implementation of business-level and corporate strategies, enables case analysts to extend the concepts to many business situations.

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The Fourth four yearly CEC International Symposium on the performance evaluation of automotive fuels and lubricants was held at the Birmingham International Conference Centre on 5 to 7 May 1993. Among the 350 delegates from the 11 CEC national organizations in Europe were representatives from Croatia, India, South Africa, Japan, Canada and the USA. No one turned up to present the paper from the All‐Russian Scientific Research Institute of Oil Refining.

Illustrates the information provided by OATS for the automotive service industry on recommended lubricants for vehicles. Describes the computerized database of more than 70,000 items linking machine types and models with lubricant needs and relevant standards and specifications. Describes the OATS quarterly data service.