Mktg441 interim 3.docx



Target Market While any age driver, about 16-65 year of age, can benefit from our new product, our specific age range is 25-40 years of age; specifically women. The reason we are choosing this particular demographic is because several studies have shown that males are more likely than females to throw safety out of the window when they are driving. Females are definitely more cautious and concerned with safety and safety features. Our U-turn blinker is not unreasonably priced, but people purchasing the cars with our product in it will be middle to upper class with a graduate degree or higher and makes over $50,000/year.Social/cultural/lifestyle In social segmentation, subgroups are intended to have similar interests and needs. For the U-turn blinker, the social subgroup would consist of 25-40 year old women. These women are particularly interested in safety and therefore are interested in our vehicle safety feature. Our product is not geared towards a specific culture. However, if our product ends up expanding overseas, along with the Ford European market expansion, then we will need to alter our marketing strategy and consider cultural differences. Geographic General Motors thrives in Middle America, such as the Great Lakes and the Plains states. The reason for this is because consumers in those areas prefer trucks and SUV’s (Langfitt, 2009). Obviously we want our product to be sold in areas where our company has high revenues. Our market segment lives in the suburbs in rural areas.Psychographics Women are almost always concerned with safety. Women who have children are especially concerned with safety, so their buying motive for cars is often the safety features that is added or can be added. Women’s purchase motives for a car almost always consist of car safety. Their usage style would be daily; for many multiple times a day. Women who have a family are typically the ones doing all the driving and carting around. Consumer Needs and Perceptions Our consumers are extremely interested in safety, decreased insurance costs, and a declining number of rear end and front end collisions caused by U-turns. Our consumers purchase motives consist of car features and safety on the top of the list. Customers want a safety product that is reliable, high quality, yet affordable. Although many believe you cannot put a price on safety, theoretically you want consumers to be able to afford your product.Purchase Behavior Our chosen segment would have unique purchasing behavior. Vehicles are investments, meaning they are meant to last for many years. Due to our segment having a strong emphasis on safety and driving the most reliable car, their purchasing frequency would be around every five years or so. Typically, most financing plans are 60 months, or 5 years. When the end of the term is up, they trade in their vehicle for the newest in safety, style and fuel economy. Frequent car buyers always need a reliable product because they are often traveling a lot from home to work and their personal lifestyles. Vehicles are physically bought at dealerships, not online. However, our target market is often on the go dealing with children, or putting in many hard hours at work. However, they often check out deals online for vehicles in the area, as well as pricing, financing and leasing information. They ultimately do not have much time and need to go directly to a store with the end in mind. Often, many of our target markets have been purchasing General Motors vehicles for years. They are very loyal to the brand, specific stores and specific salesman. This often makes their shopping experience much more valuable to them. Sometimes they could even be getting a better deal somewhere else, but the constant value a specific dealership and salesman give to them, makes it a very comforting, fast and easy transaction to begin returning years after years. General Motors biggest competitors are Chrysler Group, Ford Motors, and Toyota Motors. In the market, General Motors sustains a market cap of around 51.14 billion, comparing to Ford with 67.99 billion. Toyota has the with a leading market cap of 208.59 billion (Yahoo! Finance, 2013). Like discussed above, many of our target are returning customers to a specific brand. In the end, a customers purchasing behavior for a new, safety-first customer, is a huge financial decision. It is not an item that someone would buy with little thought. Therefore, competitors often try to show ads for our segment on the internet, television and radio because those are the most popular ways to acquire these vehicles buyers. In order for us to market our newest safety future, the importance of learning purchasing behaviors of motors vehicles is very important. This feature is not one that every car-buyer will think is important, however for a upper, middle class, woman driver, it will be very important. Competition The automobile industry is a globally competitive industry with major players in numerous different continents and countries. General Motor’s main competitors include Toyota Motor Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and Volkswagen Motor Company.Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese automobile manufacturer ranked third in largest size worldwide. Toyota is ranked just under General Motors and then Volkswagen.("U.s. news rankings," 2013) Toyota highlights the idea of positive experiences and quality with owning a Toyota vehicle. The corporation uses slogans in North American countries such as “You asked for it! You got it!” and “Could you ask for anything more?” These marketing slogans give off the sense that Toyota is really taking into consideration consumer wants and needs when designing new vehicles for global consumption. Ford Motor Company is an American automaker that manufactures and sells automobiles, commercial vehicles, and luxury cars. Ford is a major seller in most countries globally, but specifically dominating automobile markets in North America and the Middle East. Ford has a multitude of different products and services in addition to automobiles. Ford has mastered the art of manufacturing trucks, buses, tractors, and motor-sport cars. The innovative American automobile company has taken steps to introduce environmentally friendly vehicles using compressed gas, flexible fuel, electric, and hybrid technology. Volkswagen Motor Company is headquartered in Germany and is ranked in the top ten on the Fortune Global 500 list. Volkswagen is ranked in the top three along with General Motors and Toyota of the largest automobile manufacturers worldwide.("U.s. news rankings," 2013) The Volkswagen Group manufacturers vehicles of practicality such as the Jetta, as well as selling vehicles of pure luxury like the Lamborghini. Volkswagen invests in sports sponsorships such as the 2014 Winter Olympics and the David Beckham Soccer Academy. The competitive landscape for General Motors is both online and offline markets. Online markets include websites such as and , while offline markets consist of any car dealership that sells competitors vehicles. The strengths of GM’s competitors involve innovation, global popularity, and environmental awareness.(Rooth, B. 2013). However, even though GM has a firm grasp on all of the previously stated characteristics, these companies still pose a threat to the General Motors vehicle sales. General Motor’s innovative idea of adding a U-turn blinker to it’s vehicles is creating not only a want, but a need for all drivers worldwide. Consumer Product Preferences The U-Turn blinker is an added safety feature to the traditional turn signal. It is located in the same nob as the turn signal. All four panels of the car will alert the other drivers of the direction that the car is going. The U-Turn blinker promotes safety and hopes to add value to the safety reputation of General Motors. The blinker will prevent accidents from happening while simply notifying the other drivers of a destination. General Motors U-Turn blinker is unique to the automotive market. General Motors is the first manufacturer to implement this feature. The positioning strategy General Motors wishes to occupy is being the safest car on the market. As stated in the vision statement, “quality and safety are at the top of the agenda of GM.” (General Motors, 2013) General Motors hopes to differentiate themselves from other manufacturers in the market by offering more safety features that come standard on the vehicles. The U-Turn blinker will not be an option, but it will be standard like on-star. Therefore, there will not be an added cost to the car. The U-Turn blinker will be added into the total value of the car to assess the cost of the car as a whole. Our team will advertise to the family segment; especially the women in the family. While performing secondary research, our team has found that women are most concerned with safety. Most families that are shopping for a new car have a main focus of safety for their children; whether it is their children riding in the back seat, or their teenagers looking for a first car. Our team feels that this segment of potential buyers will find the U-Turn blinker as an essential feature in a car. While General Motors will advertise to the whole market, they will target families and women. Our team plans to make use of billboards, commercials, and sponsorships. One main advertising goal of 2014 is to acquire a commercial spot in the SuperBowl and other highly publicized programs.Customer Satisfaction/ Customer Loyalty In 2008, General Motors had to have a government bailout to stay alive in the automotive industry. In the beginning of the bailout, many american citizens were not fond of using federal money to do so. Since then, “the jobs were saved, the economy was helped, and the government gets repaid ahead of schedule. GM too is earning healthy profits again, allowing the government to divest itself of its GM stock.” (The American Prospect, 2012) General Motors have been rapidly gaining customer acceptance for the difficult bailout.As of 2012, “General Motors is posting it’s strongest quality performance ever based on outside surveys and studies, but the company is aggressively moving to improve further while providing the best customer service possible.” (General Motors, 2012) The customer expectations are being met and sales are continuing to increase. Referring to 2012s fourth quarter research, “GM’s [customer] loyalty rate was 47.7%, followed by Toyota at 46.9%.” (Trudell, 2013)This translates to almost half of their buyers returning to purchase another General Motors automobile. This also means the General Motors is generating strong word of mouth and these loyal customers will refer other loyal customers.SAMPLING PLANThere are a lot of risks when creating a survey instrument for this research study. Like discussed, our target segment is women, aged 16-65 years old. However, we need to survey both men and women for the benefit of this new product and its entire vehicle market. We believe that we will see the biggest successful for our new product in the female population.We want to sample 1000 people- 500 women and 500 men. Within this survey size, we want to have different demographics. Some of these demographics are income level, highest education level, etc.Please see the following sample survey that will be administered: Driving Survey: Please allow 10-12 minutes to take survey. 1.) What is your age? _______2.) Sex?- male- female3.) What is your ethnicity?- American Indian or Alaska Native- Asian- Black or African American-Hispanic or Latino- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific- Islander- White- Other4.) What is personal income level? Please circle.less than $40,000$40,000 to $49,999$50,000 to $59,999$60,000 to $69,999$70,000 to $79,999$80,000 to $89,999$90,000 to $99,999$100,000 to $150,000$150,000 +Do you have any dependent children? -yes-no If so, how many12345 +Have you purchased a new car in the last five years?- Yes- NoIf No, when was the last time you bought a new car?______________________On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being extremely important, how important is safety to you when purchasing a new car?1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Have you ever been in an accident?yesnoHave you ever been in an accident because of a vehicle making a u-turn?yesnoHave you ever seen an accident because of a vehicle making a u-turn?yesnoWhat is the current year, make and model of your vehicle?__________________________________________________________________Which type of area do you do majority of your driving? urbansuburbancityDo you drive a General Motors vehicle?yesnoIf no, why not?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Did you know GM has the newest safety features in all vehicles global?Would you be interested in finding out about the new u-turn blinker?Would you be interested in buying a new vehicle?Do you know a General Motors dealership close to you?References:Competitors. (2013, September 25). Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved September 25, 2013, from Motors. (2012) GM Ushers in New Customer Experience and Quality Era. Retrieved from Motors. (2013) Innovation:Quality & safety. Retrieved from , F. (2009, June 11). Gm seeks to overcome perceptions on the coasts. Retrieved from U.s. news rankings & reviews. (2013). Retrieved from Rooth, B. (2013). The road ahead. Director (00123242), 66(7), 55.The American Prospect. (2012) The Unpopular Successful Auto Bailout. Retrieved from , Craig (March, 2013) Ford, GM Trump Toyota in Customer Loyalty. Retrieved from ................
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