Abstract
One of the most important requirements, on a maker’s side, for maintaining and strengthening the competitiveness of their product in emerging markets is that the maker should be able to make a wide range of satisfactory responses to their users’ diversifying needs. For finely satisfying their users’ diversifying needs, the customizability of their product is really important. Such customizability of a product complements its own ability to meet the users’ needs. On the other hand, in good response to users’ needs for being able to use a durable consumer product in a long term, after-sales service （such as repairs） by a maker and/or its affiliate as well as the quality and durability of their product itself are also essential requirements.
Such customization and after-sales repairing are supposedly performed by product makers, but many cases of them in emerging markets are uniquely performed by other enterprises than such makers. This system is defined as After-Market. Its role is thought to help a product remain competitive and become more competitive in emerging markets.
This paper examines an actual case of the abovementioned requirements. The author made researches on, for analytical purpose, country-tailored models of Honda’s Super Cub sold and used in Vietnam and Cambodia, both of which are emerging economies.
As a result, it has been found out that Super Cub is well-designed and structured for easy customization and repairs. Also it has been found that the existence of After Market associated with such customization and repairs of Super Cub models is one of the essential factors contributing to the strong competitiveness of Super Cub in such emerging countries.
