Bosch Case Study
Bosch – home appliance Case Study in International Segmentation and Brand Positioning Strategy1
Ing. Markéta Lhotáková Ph.D. PRAGUE UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
Faculty of International Relationships
Introduction Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte (BSHG) is an international company, which manages large portfolio of brands of home appliances. Majority of them are regional and national brands, but there are 4 major brands with international presence – Bosch, Siemens, Neff, and Gaggenau. BSHG belongs to the most successful producers on the market. Its long-termstrategy is based on technical and technological improvements and on multi-brand strategy, which targets different groups of consumers with different brands and through them different products. Two major traditional German producers Siemens AG and Robert Bosch GmbH have founded the company in 1967 as a joint venture, each of them owning 50% share in the company. At that time the company had three production locations in Germany, producing 3 brands of home appliances – Bosch, Siemens and Constructa. Majority of the business was focused on its home market with some export activities around Europe and total yearly turnover of 0,51 Billion Euro. Since then, the company has gone a long way in development, enlargement and internationalisation and it become one of the leading world manufacturers of home appliances. The international expansion of the company has started in 1976 with its entry into Greek home appliances company Pitsos, which included an acquisition of the production site in Greece. In 1982, BSH took over a German competition brand Neff. In 1988, BSH expanded to the Spanish market by acquiring a local producer Balay and gained three local brands Balay, LYNX and Superset at once. The last decade of the 20th century was the time of a major international expansion of the company. In 1990 BSH had 13 manufacturing sites in 3 countries in which home appliances of 5 brands were produced and yearly turnover of 3,3
Ing. Markéta Lhotáková Ph.D. PRAGUE UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
Faculty of International Relationships
Introduction Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte (BSHG) is an international company, which manages large portfolio of brands of home appliances. Majority of them are regional and national brands, but there are 4 major brands with international presence – Bosch, Siemens, Neff, and Gaggenau. BSHG belongs to the most successful producers on the market. Its long-termstrategy is based on technical and technological improvements and on multi-brand strategy, which targets different groups of consumers with different brands and through them different products. Two major traditional German producers Siemens AG and Robert Bosch GmbH have founded the company in 1967 as a joint venture, each of them owning 50% share in the company. At that time the company had three production locations in Germany, producing 3 brands of home appliances – Bosch, Siemens and Constructa. Majority of the business was focused on its home market with some export activities around Europe and total yearly turnover of 0,51 Billion Euro. Since then, the company has gone a long way in development, enlargement and internationalisation and it become one of the leading world manufacturers of home appliances. The international expansion of the company has started in 1976 with its entry into Greek home appliances company Pitsos, which included an acquisition of the production site in Greece. In 1982, BSH took over a German competition brand Neff. In 1988, BSH expanded to the Spanish market by acquiring a local producer Balay and gained three local brands Balay, LYNX and Superset at once. The last decade of the 20th century was the time of a major international expansion of the company. In 1990 BSH had 13 manufacturing sites in 3 countries in which home appliances of 5 brands were produced and yearly turnover of 3,3