Annual marketing plan of general motors

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

An annual marketing plan is a powerful management tool for business organizations targeting to strengthen their market positions. The plan provides a guide on all marketing activities for an entire financial year. A good marketing plan is obtained from a strategic marketing study and research based on a particular organization. In this essay, we focus on General Motors Company's annual marketing plan which contains its situation analysis, marketing objectives, strategies, tactics, financial considerations and a timetable for implementation.

A situation analysis provides a general understanding of General Motor's internal and external business environments (Brown Ph D & Brown, 2008). This is the analysis of the company, customers, collaborators, competitors and the climate (NetMBA.com, 2010). The company is one of the world's largest automaker with several years of experience and operating in over 157 countries in the world and has its headquarters in Detroit. It sells and services vehicles through several known brands such as Chevrolet and FAW among others. The company is well known brand name in the competitive automotive industry and uses the latest technology in managing its entire marketing network all over the world. The company's culture is to produce and sell high quality vehicles and services to the entire world. Moreover, greatest goal is to retain all its customers for the future service provision. In addition, the company has a diverse supplier base which provides quality raw materials for its production process. The supplier diversity ensures that the company gets the best for its investments which go a long way in customer satisfaction (General Motors, 2010).

The company has a very huge world market with broad customer base which is being targeted by its marketing plan. These customers are provided with timely discounts on vehicle sales as well as services which motivate them thus increasing purchases. Also, the company is in a very competitive automotive industry facing actual threat from existing players such as Toyota and other potential new entrants. Currently, the World's political and regulatory environment is stable and favors the company good performance. On the other hand, the economic environment is still recovering from recession which decreased customers' purchasing power. However, the new technology and the social environment are good for the company's marketing strategies (General Motors, 2010).

The marketing objectives of General Motors include the recovering the lost market share by the end of the year. This is because recently the company lost United States market share to Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. The second company objective is to increase its annual sales revenue by over 30 %. This is to recover from its fall of light-vehicle sales by 5.7 % and also to counter Ford and Toyota sales which have soared over 30 % respectively (Bloomberg, 2010). Another marketing strategy is to position itself in the market for easy and quick introduction of new innovative products and services throughout the year. This is because the company uses its innovative strategies to meet dynamic customer demands for automotives which require appropriate marketing plan. Moreover, the company aims to improve its corporate image throughout the year as well as raise public awareness of all its automotive models and services (Berry & Wilson, 2000).

The company marketing strategies will include; advertising, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing. The advertisements will entail the paid spaces and airtime on the broadcast and print media. Moreover, the outdoor advertisements with huge pictures of the model vehicles could attract new and existing customers. The sales promotion involves the use of incentives and offers that encourage the population to purchase its products and services at specific times. The publicity is that awareness created by the information and opinion carried by third parties about the company's automotives and services. The direct marketing involves the personal presentation to customers or prospective buyers on the vehicle performances and services offered. This direct marketing can be done through any convenient mode of correspondence between the company employees and the target customers (Mullin & Cummins, 2008).

The tactics to be employed by the company are aimed at maximizing the achievement of specific marketing objectives through particular strategies. The major tactic is for the company to engage integrated marketing which utilizes the four strategic marketing tools in a balanced way to achieve its objectives. For instance, General Motors is an industrial company and as such most emphasis should be put on direct marketing. In addition, the company will select specific periods within the year to carry out sales promotion aimed at acquiring short term sales targets. Moreover, the advertisement strategy is worth monitoring so as to use the most appropriate advertisement media such as the internet, newspaper or broadcast. Furthermore, the publicity tool will constantly be in use when the company offers good products and services to third parties who in turn speak about the company thus achieving indirect marketing (Mullin & Cummins, 2008).

The financial consideration for the company's marketing plan is to ensure that the benefits value exceed the marketing expenses. The marketing expenses will be monitored throughout the entire year to avoid any budget variances. The marketing plan affects the sales, cost of sales and the marketing expenses all of which directly affects profitability and cash flow. Therefore financial consideration is very important for any effective marketing plan (Berry & Wilson, 2000). The timetable of implementation of this marketing plan begins immediately and will run through the entire financial year. The various marketing strategies and tools will be used appropriately at different times and sometimes blended to achieve maximum objectives. The final marketing report will be prepared at the end of the year for the appraisal purposes. This final report will be used further in the preparation of the next annual marketing plan. In conclusion, an annual marketing plan is a crucial management tool that is used by General Motors to achieve their management objectives.