Expanding Product Offerings and Quality

A major producer of passenger tires has launched an advertising campaign in which it is trying to market windshield wipers to the public under its brand name, which has been highly successful in the passenger tire market. Perform the following elements of this assignment:

• Explain why the passenger tire company might choose a product line like windshield wipers to expand its product offerings (as opposed to making steering wheels, opening a bank, or starting a clothing line).
• Perform a SWOT analysis of the company’s decision to offer windshield wipers, being in the passenger tire business.
• Analyze and describe what impact this attempt to expand the product line will have on quality (answer both in terms of the company’s existing product line, which is passenger tires, and its new product line, which is windshield wipers).
• Explain how quality can be measured in an environment such as the one in which the company currently operates (the passenger tire market). In other words, what constitutes quality and how can we quantitatively determine whether the company has it?