Introduction
The General Motors is a vehicle manufacturing company, which has its headquarters based in Detroit, Michigan. The company designs vehicles and their body parts, manufacturing different models, going ahead to do the marketing and distribution various parts of the global market. According to General Motors Corporation, Princeton Institute for Historic Research (1983), the company laid its foundation in the early 1900’s. However, the company has achieved success in the global market because of the successful marketing strategies in place. General Motors collaborates with various local companies in around 140 countries and the company boasts of a greater workforce of over 245,000 employees across the world.
Marketing Plan
The company has been able to come up with a greater marketing strategy that has elevated it to a higher pedestal in the market of vehicles and it has proved to be very effective. This marketing strategy is used by the General Motors Company to improve on its market share and boost its sales hence enhancing on its profits. The marketing strategy of this company generally uses segmentation and greater positioning in its chain of distribution. It has distributed its vehicles to many parts of the world, especially in developed countries, which are considered to have a bigger market share for vehicles. The company has gone a step further to launch several new brands of vehicles that are on demand thereby taking up a bigger share of the current vehicle market. Its delivery system has been made effective as possible to meet the demand from its customers all over the world (Bunkley, 2011).
Place
General Motors has made establishments in many parts of the world by coming up with great franchises and subsidiaries in these areas and in turn, this has helped in the continued provision of its services. They have subsidiaries all over Europe and Asia, (especially China) where its net income margins have been maintaining a 9% increase in every financial year (Bunkley, 2011). The company has been producing various brands of vehicles with different values as a strategy to target the different markets that exists worldwide. It has been able to target the middle-class consumers by making brands such as Chevrolet in the United States, the Holden in Australia, and the Opel in the wider Europe. Older buyers in the market are often targeted by brands of elegance such as the Buick. The Cadillac brand is often intended to target the rich and wealthy people. The company has been able to make sense of the many brands that it produces by differentiating every car according to its purpose. The brands are often produced on a regular basis with a slight modification in every production they come up.
General Motors has often pitched its sights on the rural areas for its greater market share, distribution, and improvement of its strength in the motor vehicle industry. It has made several divisions coming up with segments such as General Motors North America, General Motors South America, General Motors Europe and others so as to improve on reaching towards its customers and boost on its service delivery. To improve on its provision of informative services to its customer, they have prepared online commercials, used auto shows in its market bases, produced the General Motors magazine and even actively participated on the social media platforms. This has helped the company to excel in all fronts as its market share continues to grow tremendously in all parts of the world. It has managed to nurture a very healthy relationship with its customers by such platforms and this has really helped it improve on their sales (Bunkley, 2011).
Competitive Advantage
General Motors is a very huge company and for that matter, it continues to grow through the various strategies that it has set forth. There are other huge names in the market like ford, Toyota and Volkswagen which gives the General Motors a run for their money but the company has managed to put up a competitive advantage that is very cooperate (General Motors Corporation, Princeton Institute for Historic Research, 1983). They have managed to put into proper use their enormous motor vehicle production unit and continue to produce units that are more efficient compared to the other brands around them. Ford has continued to compete with the General Motors in terms of production, giving the customers a different range of vehicles at various competitive prices, but the General Motors has managed to overcome all the challenges faced. They have come up with many brands to suit the pockets of its customer base at different levels in the world with a range of passenger luxury cars or even trucks. This has really helped them emerge and maintain its competitive advantage over the other manufacturers.
Conclusion
Given the fact that general Motors continues to produce efficient brands, it will continue to have a greater competitive advantage over other vehicle manufacturing companies in the world. In my own opinion, the General Motors have to follow some of the greater strategies it has put into place for it to maintain its competitive advantage. Some of these strategies include restructuring, continuing on its product development and broadening its market share. If they undertake these strategies properly, they will be able to sustain themselves in the highly competitive and rivaled market for a longer period. They should also reevaluate their market globally, having in mind that the market is very dynamic and often changes with time. Therefore, their continued production should mainly focus on coming up with ultra-modern units in the vehicle industry.
References
General Motors Corporation, Princeton Institute for Historic Research. (1983). General Motors,
the First 75 Years. New York: Crown Publishers.
Bunkley, Nick (May 25, 2011). “Automotive Industry Crisis.” The New York Times. Retrieved
February 4, 2017 from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/auto_industry/index.html