Overcoming Stagnation

Product Policy and Marketing in the German Automobile Industry of the 1970s

Bibliographic Data

ID9629255
AuthorsIngo Koehler (University of Göttingen, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume84
Issue1
Pages53-78
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Business History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-6805 • E-ISSN: 2044-768X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0007680500001240
OpenAlexW2167274598
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

The automobile industry was a leader in Germany's economic recovery after World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s, carmakers found a ready market for their products as mass motorization created a manufacturing backlog. But, by the 1970s, rapid changes in sales and the arrival of new competitors in the German market marked a transition from a seller's to a buyer's market. Additionally, the energy crisis intensified existing consumer reluctance to spend and altered buying preferences. German car manufacturers adjusted to the changing market conditions after 1973 by adopting different strategies. In order to generate economic success, they developed new marketing-management instruments that supported a fundamental change in the business paradigm, leading them to shift from their earlier emphasis on production to a stronger focus on consumers

Automotive industry · Business · Commerce · Competitor analysis · Economics · German · Industrial organization · Market economy · Market share · Order (exchange · Product (mathematics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Engineering · European history and politics · Finance · German Social Sciences and History · Marketing

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access