Introduction
Based in Detroit, General Motors Corporation was founded in the early 90’s, with Durant W. C. being the company’s controller. Operating under automobile industry, General Motors produces several magnificent brands such as GMC, Chevrolet, Vauxhall, and many more others. Denoted as GM, the company suffered severely following the economic crunch that hit US and the world as a whole.
1. GM distributors transport body parts and automobiles from the company’s production division to several customers around the globe. It is also the duty of GM distributors notify the company about their encounters and observations.
2. Distribution strategy is the designing of channels that ensure the free flow of commodities from manufacturers to consumers (Gitman & McDaniel, 2007). The strategy entails giving a concise description on how the company will meet its distribution objectives such as swift penetration, timing, and geographical coverage.
3. There are several other potential ways that GM can use to distribute its products. It can either distribute its products via dealers who will later on sell them to consumers, or expand its outlets and distribute their product via those outlets.
4. & 5. GM has several websites and email accounts that act as avenues for communications between the company and its customers. Additionally, the company provides information to its customers’ via media and customer care units. As a way of advancing its communications, the company can increase its face to face communication with its customers. Furthermore, Faxing and mailing can also act as a way of communicating to consumers.
Advertisements are used as avenues for introducing and informing consumers about new products. However, the costs behind advertisements are often exceptionally high. Apart from creating rapport with customers, employing personal selling develops a remarkable consumer-producer relationship. Furthermore, personal selling provides adequate room for clarifying any misunderstanding. Personal selling can be practically impossible especially when consumers are numerous.
Sales promotion such as free gifts provides an opportunity for consumers to test certain commodities. However, this approach requires massive investment for its impacts to be realized. Public relation develops consumer and societal trust thus placing a company at a better position of winning several commercial contracts. Public relation is a sovereign department thus the danger of delivering inaccurate information to the public.
7, 8 & 9The amount allocation for the company’s communication is determined during budgetary allocations period; however, the communication department settles on how the amount is going to be spent. Price is the cost or worth of a commodity; however, other sees it as a way of communicating a product’s quality. Upper limit price is the uppermost possible price that a product can be valued in a market; whereas, lower limit is the lowest probable market cost of a product.
10 11 & 12. Pricing objectives are the targets that a company intends to attain through pricing (Pride & Ferrell, 2007). It is essential for the objectives to be measurable, realistic and attainable. Companies’ price their product by taking many factors into account.
Such factors may include: competition, current market prices, profits, production cost, market forces, and many more factors. There are several other pricing strategies such as customary pricing, premium pricing, valuable pricing, flexible pricing, leader pricing, and bundle pricing (Avis, 2009).
13 & 14 Different tactics are often employed in pricing commodities; some of them include: discounting, skimming, loss leader, penetration, Odd value pricing and many more others. The final decision on pricing commodities is based on the amount consumers are willing to give. Additionally, the price should be able to attract other new customers.
Conclusion
General Motors is a well established organization that employs different marketing strategies. However, there are a number of different marketing approaches that the company has not employed. There are several strategies and tactics that companies employ in order to achieve a favorable price.
References
Gitman, J. L. & McDaniel, C. (2007). The future of business: the essentials. Florence: Cengage learning
Pride, W. M. & Ferrell O. C. (2007). Foundations of marketing. Florence: cengage learning.
Avis, J. (2009). P2 – Performance Management, Managerial Level, Page 2. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann