Marketing Audit and Business Lifecycle of General Motors Company - Assignment Example

?The Marketing Challenge Lecturer: Executive summary This report mainly focuses on some of the strategies to be implemented by any marketing manager of General Motors Company. GM is a multinational automobile manufacturing company based in Detroit and is one of the largest public traded companies around the globe. It employs over 200, 000 people all over the world and manufactures different models of tracks and cars. Any effective implementation of a strategy will determine the results of marketing planning. Proper management of the planning process increases the effective implementation by building ownership and commitment and execution of the plan. Carrying out marketing planning and operations strategies assist the marketing managers of GM to be innovative, challenge, authenticate their decisions and benchmark their organization so as to create operational marketing activities and compete effectively with other competitors in the market. Strategic marketing operations equip the marketing managers with operational intelligence that assist in making tactical and strategic decisions. The report comprises of marketing audit, marketing planning and marketing mix that should be adopted by any marketing executive. Contents Executive summary 2 Marketing Audit 5 Marketing plan 7 P.E.S.TE.L ANALYSIS 11 Marketing mix- The 4Ps 11 Business lifecycle 13 B.C.G Matrix 13 Conclusion 13 Reference list 15 Introduction The increase in gas and oil prices, continuous decline of mortgage/housing/credit sectors and the reduced consumer confidence for the last few years have greatly reduced the volume of sales of the automobile industry. This has left the strategic planners of several leading companies in dilemma on how to increase the sales and win the customer confidence. In today’s complex marketing environment, true strategic marketing managers should be equipped with expertise to capture critical messages that are sent by very essential yet mostly non-controllable external factors in the market and continuously using information as a way of changing the essential controllable internal factors of the business to effectively and strategically position the company towards achieving its objective (Solis, 2012). Furthermore, identifying external threats and opportunities by firms could put managers in a position of controlling these factors. Careful analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will enable managers to position their organization for future success. In order to meet the change in market, shift in liestyles, shift in customer loyalty of GM, I recommend the following strategies to be implemented by the newly appointed manager in the GM company. Identify what competitive position GM MOTORS  Before doing anything as a newly appointed marketing manager, he should identify what kind of competitive advantages that the company has. For instance how competitive is the company as compared to other competitors in the same market? Is it a market leader or price setter? The manager has to come up with competitive strategies to outdo other companies like Toyota which have designed gas electric vehicle. Marketing Audit This is the process of analyzing and evaluating marketing activities, approach, aims and results of a firm. The process help GM marketing manager to determine new neglected or unknown markets focus their right messages to intended customers and to refine their plans and strategies to assist in increasing market share. In order to carryout effective market audit, the following processes should be adopted by the manager. 1. Assemble of the overall overview of GM company The newly appointed manager has to understand the overall overview of the company may include the location of the company, sales history, date of establishment, key personnel, number of employees, and company’s chronology of events like divestitures, mergers and acquisitions. He should also know the history of the company since its inception 2. Describe the marketing goals and objectives to be achieved As a newly appointed manager, the marketing manager should list the goals and objectives as being short term that can be achieved within the next 1-2 months and also long term goals that can be attained in the next two years. Some of the objectives to be designed by the manager may be concepts like increasing size of the audience, increasing the visibility of the company, differentiation, maintaining or increasing market share or increasing usage among the current consumers. The objectives to be designed satisfy customers basing on the quality, design and technology (Solis, 2012). 3. Describe the existing customers When designing the existing customers, the manager should include such information like size of the existing customers, their job titles, company size, geographic location and other demographic, behavioral or ethnic descriptions. This will assist when segmenting the market and designing marketing strategies. 4. Describe targeted customers Include such information like size of the existing customers, their job titles, company size, geographic location and other demographic, behavioral or ethnic descriptions. Also include geography or size of the current customers if at all the customers are outside your industry. 5. Describe your company’s products or services Give a description in terms of its purpose, benefits, features, sizing, pricing and channels of distribution. Also include market share or sales history any changes over certain period, weaknesses or strengths as compared to the competitors. Furthermore, ensure that any legal, economic, technical, seasonal, social or governmental factors that may affect your product or service 6. Describe your marketing encounters or past Business Provide a description on what assisted you advance your business as well as what has hindered your success, describe what your competitors has been doing to grow their business and also describe what has never been tried before which could have also helped. 7. Identify your competitors The manager has to know who are the competitors of the company and also include their location as well as the company names e.g. Toyota, Ford and Honda. Also include sales or market share history for the last few years, describe the type of vehicles being manufactured in terms of their benefits, features, sizing, pricing and methods of distribution. 8. Outline communication plan List present and future sources of media and also new sources of funds for advertising vehicles like, print, broadcast, online and out-of-home advertising After all this information has been put on paper, all the marketing goals and objectives for both the current and the coming years will be attained and will remind the management in looking at the bigger picture of the organization. Should there be any changes in sales, product development or customer retention, minor adjustments can be made on the way (Borden, 2009). Marketing plan It is a written document that contains guidelines for the marketing programs and allocations of an organization over certain planning period. The newly appointed manager should include the previous success or failures of the organization into the marketing plan i.e. effective he should learn from the previous mistakes. An effective marketing plan needs constant communication across various functional areas of an organization such as sales, human resource and administration. Like any other goal, an effective marketing plan should be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound) Strategic marketing management Accomplishments which are reality-based are dictated by the ability of the managers to understand external factors beyond their control and internal forces under their control. The manager has to use the knowledge of both internal and external factors results in the formulation of more efficient and effective marketing (Needham, 2006). In order to design a successful marketing planning, the manager should adopt the following model marketing plan model. This model is divided into three levels: market planning, strategic posture, and external/self-analysis Marketing model . Components of external analysis External analysis involves an analysis of external elements of your organization. This external analysis is purposeful, with its main focus on identifying opportunities, threats, and strategic choices and questions. External analysis comprises of the following components: Industry analysis- the newly appointed manager should discover main success factors, major market trends, and should also identify threats and opportunities through competitive analysis and change forces. It assists in understanding the dynamics of the market so as to identify threats and opportunities. It includes major market trends, key success factors, competitive forces and change forces (Naisbitt, 2008). Competitor analysis- he should identifying strategic groups and their image, performance, culture and also analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the competitor. It also assist in identify who are your competitors, what does each competitor does, their weaknesses and what can be learned from them Customer analysis- the manager should identify the market segments, as well as identification of motivation and unsatisfied needs of the customers. Customer characteristics and buying behavior provide enough information to a firm in gaining competitive advantage and also during marketing segmentation Self-Analysis-after the completion of external analysis, the manger should consider looking inwards. It seeks at offering a deeper understanding of internal aspects of an organization. Self-analysis entails assessing ones internal weaknesses and strengths and also identifying organizational capabilities, strategic problems, and limitations during the marketing processes. SWOT ANALYSIS This is done so as to determine the competitive advantages of the company and also to set priority on the threats and opportunities of the firm. Strengths of the company-the manger should consider company’s strengths like large market share and also the variety of brands that the company offers to its customers Weaknesses-he should know some of the company weaknesses so as to develop strategic measures to reduce the weaknesses. I.e. some of the company’s challenges include: poor organizational structure, poor credit status, depending too much on its financing program and stagnant profitability. Opportunities-despite of the challenges facing the company, there exists some Opportunities. The manager should focus on opportunities such as alternative energy, global expansion of the company and opportunity to design new models and vehicle styles Threats-the newly appointed manager should be aware of threats facing the company for instance increase in competition, increase in pension payouts and increase in fuel prices together with supply costs. In concluding the strategic marketing planning, those in managerial position should form an effective marketing plan by undertaking prior analysis of the firm and putting the overall situation of the company into perspective. P.E.S.TE.L ANALYSIS Since the company is surrounded with different types of external sources, the manager should analyze factors that affect the performance of the company. Some of these factors include: Political factors-these are government laws and regulations for safer environment Economic factors-automobile industry has a great impact on the economy through job creation and also the secondary industries created using by-products of the company Socio-cultural factors-the manager should understand how the society judges people on the way the live so as to design vehicles targeting different social classes Technology-growth of internet technology has affected the way people get information before making a purchase. Mastering the customer’s need assists in designing ads to be placed in the internet. Marketing mix- The 4Ps Any successful manager must come up with products that are a reflection of his/her business goals and objectives while also offering solutions for their customers. Any marketing manager who is thinking of coming up of a new business, starting or expanding the business or selling any product has to consider the following elements The product- marketing managers should define in exact terms what kind of product to be offered in the market and what it does to the customers. He should define the product in terms of how it will assist the customer to achieve, preserve or avoid something. The marketing manager should clearly define the benefits that the customer will get when he purchases the product and also do product differentiation so as to segment the market(Borden, 2009) The price- the manager should indicate type of prices to be charged at different segments and also shows what price will be charged in retail, wholesale and the amount of discounts to be offered. The place-indicates where the product is going to be sold at a certain price i.e. direct deliver form the company, through whole sellers, retailers or through the internet. The manager should major its distribution in rural areas which the company’s competitive strength. Promotion- he should design promotional strategies that will assist the company market its products e.g. use of auto shows. In order to retain and satisfy the customers, the marketing manager should devices other promotional tools including the following: Customer loyalty programs-these are programs designed to retain the customers. One of the ways is passing business card to the customers and also coming up with rewards to loyal customers Designing direct mail marketing-it is marketing tool that mails offers to frequent customers. For instance, the manager can get 1000 names of customers who buy the company’s vehicles and write sales letter to them describing the benefits and experience they get when they use company’s products Classified advertisements-its effective tools for generating leads and can direct potential customers to the company’s website. The marketing manager can identify right publications to post the company’s ads Surveys-it is a tool used to get feedback from the customers i.e. the company asking customers to rate the experience after using certain model of a car. Questionnaires or phone survey may be used to garner feedback from the customers. Business lifecycle Since several businesses are in a dynamic and changing world, it undergoes different stages of the business lifecycle. The business has to undergo seven stages i.e. the seed, startup, growth, established, expansion, mature and exit stages. A good marketing manager has to understand the kind of sage that his company is. In the case of GM motors, the company is at mature stage it is faced with a challenge of decrease in sales due to competition one should understand this stage so as to develop marketing strategies to increase sales volume (Borden, 2009). B.C.G Matrix It assesses the product from the general level of growth in the market and also from the perspective of product market share in the market. The manager should classify the product into four groups for instance the products that have large market share and high growth. He should also understand products with high share in the market but has low growth. Furthermore, the manager has to be knowledgeable of products that have low share in the market and also that have low growth. Products with low share but high growth should also be considered. The matrix assists the manager in designing and developing the marketing mix of the company’s product Conclusion The absence of a good link between organizational strategy and the marketing strategy may be a major challenge towards strategy implementation. For effective implementation of strategies, organizational stretch should be considered for instance, the degree to which capabilities, structures, processes, systems and resource may need adjustments so as to deliver the strategies. Marketing strategies must be taken into consideration in the context as stimulated in the overall corporate strategy of an organization. Lack of compatibility among various strategies in an organization may create a lot of problems (Kotler, 2006). Reference list Borden, N.H., 2009. The Concept of the Marketing Mix. Science in marketing., p. p. 286. Kotler, P.a.K.K., 2006. Marketing and Management. , Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Pearson Prentice Hall. McCarthy, E.J., 2005. Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. NY: Richard D. Irwin. Naisbitt, J., 2008. Analysis for Marketing Planning. New York, NY: Warner Books. Needham, D., 2006. Business for Higher Awards. Heinemann.: Oxford, England. Solis, B., 2012. The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web. London: John Wiley & Sons. Read More