The once-proud British car industry has all but vanished.
However, there is one famous producer left in the UK: the Morgan Motor Company.
The company was founded in 1909 by H.F.S. Morgan and was run by him until 1959. Peter Morgan, the son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003. The company was then run until 2013 by his son, Charles Morgan.
Morgan is based in Malvern Link, in Worcestershire, and in 2019 employed 210 people. All the cars are assembled by hand and the waiting list is one to two years, although it has been as high as 10 years in the past.
Business is strong, despite the economic slowdown.
In 1997, Morgan made 480 cars; 14 years later, in 2011, the figure was 700. Morgan hopes that one day it will make as many as 900–1,000 cars a year, but only if that can be done the Morgan way – and what a totally unique and utterly inimitable way to make sports cars that is!
In 2019, the estimated revenue was around £33 million. The net profit was £3.2 million in 2019, compared with £665,000 in 2009. The company employs 210 people, of whom 140 are production floor employees.
Morgan history The first Morgan design was, of course, the famous Threewheeler. H.F.S. Morgan designed a fun car, the Morgan Runabout, for people with little money but

with a sense of adventure. The car was a great success and in the 1920s the Morgan factory in Malvern was making 2,500–3,000 cars a year, with a smaller number being built under licensee in France under the Darmont Morgan brand. Nevertheless, each year production always sold out in advance, as customers were desperate for small cars at this time.
Morgan Threewheeler sales declined and by 1935 there were only 300 new orders. The reason for this was the arrival of mass-produced popular cars from Ford, Morris and Austin at a similar price but offering more features for the money.
H.F.S. Morgan had to come up with a new design.
He did this in 1936 and announced the Morgan Four Four, a light sports car with four wheels and a four-cylinder Coventry Climax engine. From the start, the Morgan Four Four made its name in competition and finished well at Le Mans in 1938 and 1939.
In 1962, Morgan won the two-litre class at Le Mans. A production Morgan beat the specially modified Porsche and Lotus racing cars and then drove home: the car averaged 98 mph for the 24-hour race. Following the race, the Morgan Plus Four Supersports was launched as a factory model so that customers could buy a Le Mans class winner.
Morgan’s cars became regular winners in production sports car races across the US.
At this time the Morgan Motor Company was one of the first companies to benefit from celebrity endorsement – Ralph Lauren, Brigitte Bardot and David Bailey all drove Morgans in the 1960s.
In 1989, a visit was made by businessman Sir John Harvey Jones and makers of the BBC programme Troubleshooter. Sir John criticized the company’s strategy of having a long waiting list and making everything by hand in such a labour-intensive way.
Morgan is probably the only car company that still makes cars the way they were made in the early 1900s – building them on a wooden frame and crafting them mainly by hand.

Sir John did not really understand Morgan’s market.
Coachbuilding (by wood) and a waiting list are strengths, not weaknesses, of the business. Coachbuilding the cockpit area produces a light, strong cabin that is durable and the waiting list maintains second-hand prices. There was much humour over the ‘Sir John Hardly Knows’ T-shirts that subsequently appeared at Morgan Sports Car Club meetings.
There were, however, some very beneficial commercial effects of Sir John’s visit. Morgan experienced a big increase in orders and the long waiting list encouraged a price increase, which led to the company making significant profits that could be reinvested.
In April 2009, Princess Anne officially opened the brand new Morgan Visitor Centre, a modern museum bedecked with memorabilia, photos, films and the inevitable gift shop, housing a remarkable range of merchandise for ‘Moggie’ enthusiasts, young and old.

The Morgan philosophy and product
range

The company’s whole business model is based on longevity and brand reinforcement. This is not a get-rich-quick business. Among the many other distinctions Morgan enjoys is that of being one of just a few family dynasties left in the car industry.
The traditional family influence has engendered a long-time dedication to craft, as well as a determination not to grow the company too large for fear of increasing costs and jeopardizing quality. The sense of family ties isn’t lost on customers, either.
Eager buyers often visit their unborn vehicles in the company’s factory as the cars are being built. It is a kind of Build-a-Bear transferred to the car industry.
All Morgan cars have a customer’s name on them before they begin production. Customers can choose from myriad variants of body, engine size, paint colour, dashboard and leather trim. However, component supply and storage have been complicated by the Morgan customization model, but this has been simplified where possible to make it easier for the business to deliver product.
Morgan’s speedy roadsters are entirely handcrafted, which is perhaps fitting for the oldest privately held sports car manufacturer in the world. As a result, each car takes 130 hours to build and the waiting list is at least 12 months. By comparison, the average US-made Nissan takes just over 28 hours to build and can be had pretty much when you want it. Unlike commonplace vehicles, Morgans feature ash wood frames, hand-moulded body panels and hand-stitched leather.
Such craftsmanship doesn’t come cheap. For the US market, a basic two-seat roadster starts at nearly US$50,000 and the top-of-the-line Aero 8 two-seat road rocket starts at around US$140,000 – before adding custom cosmetic, luxury or performance upgrades. Aero 8 (launched in 2000) was the first completely new Morgan for 30 years and customers wanting to buy one must wait nine months. The twodoor Morgan roadsters may look old-fashioned, but they perform as well as the best of today’s technologically advanced sports cars.
The Aero 8 is Europe’s first AIV (aluminium-intensive vehicle) and is 20 per cent lighter than comparable vehicles. It is equipped with a BMWsourced 4.4-litre V8 engine that gets the car from 0 to 60 in just 4.5 seconds.....

Questions

1. How is Morgan’s international communication strategy different from mainstream mass-produced cars?
2. How can Morgan use celebrities in the communication strategy?
3. How can Morgan make use of social media?
4. Which of the four new ideas would you recommend to use most resources on? Make a ranking from 1 to 4.
5. Prepare a global communication plan for the highest rank (from question 4.)

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MORGAN