|
|
|
International Marketing Study Program 2006
Shanghai General Motors Corporation Limited
9th January 2006
The first company visit of the MIMSP was General Motors Corporation located in Shanghai China (GM). It was an excellent experience and we got a chance to meet and speak with Mr Vinay Dixit, the Regional Marketing Manager and Mr. Dale Sullivan, Chevrolet Brand Director Marketing & Distribution. We received an excellent presentation about the auto industry and especially the industry in the Asia Pacific Region. Part of our visit took the group on a tour of new South Manufacturing Plant and we ended our visit with a great question and answer session.
Mr Vinay provided great insight into the auto industry. He divided his presentation into three sections. The first being an economic overview of the Asia Pacific market, the second was an overview of the auto industry and the final part was an overview of the Shanghai GM operation. Economic Overview of Asia Pacific mentioned the reasons of GM having their operation in China. Mr. Dixit discussed the potential development of both China and India as markets for automobiles. He explained that China was a fast expanding market and its growth rate overtook any other country in the world. Furthermore, oil consumption in China was ranked second highest globally. In another words, China was a huge and market with unlimited potential. Whilst China is booming India is developing somewhat more slowly. The Industry overview section explained that competition in China was growing, there were only a small number of competitors about 5 years ago nowadays there were about 147 car brands in the market. Currently, on average, it takes 8 years of income for an average Chinese citizen to buy a car though this figure has been reducing rapidly as the Chinese market continues it strong development and incomes and standards of living rise. The operation overview of Shanghai GM was about their marketing strategy, brand positioning and general development of the GM brand. There was an active question section after the presentations and plant visit. The students were actively involved in the questioning section and enjoyed it immensely.
After the presentation, the students were taken to the South Manufacturing Plant. The plant was huge. The tour took about one hour. When the students were looking at the magnificent producing process, suddenly, there was a weird music announcement. The students were told later that the music indicated there was some error on the line and the worker pulled the string near their station to get the technician to check and maintain the quality of the car. It was surprising to find out that it only took the plant 4 minutes to manufacture a car. While the students were walking around the factory, they noticed some banner with “Customers in heart, Quality at hands.” printed on it, were hanging everywhere. It demonstrates GM’s focus on their customers. The group went to the car show room after the tour. And there, the students took a lot of pictures and had an informal conversation with Vinay Dixit. At 1 pm, the group of MIMSP travel back to the hotel by bus.
This was absolutely an excellent opportunity to hear and learn from our hosts and their knowledge, expertise and experience of the auto industry in the Asia Pacific area. It was also interesting to learn that GM has the largest market share of the world’s auto industry. The group enjoyed the discussion about that the advantages and disadvantages of having and managing a range of brands at the same time. Both Mr. Vinay and Mr. Sullivan gave useful examples about positioning and marketing of their brands. Mr. Sullivan discussed the introduction of the Chevrolet brand in China, which had excellent recognition and acceptance in China. Both Mr. Vinay and Mr. Sullivan provided insight about marketing and the auto industry and GM’s strategy to enter the Chinese market using joint ventures such as the one with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Cooperation (SAIC). A great visit.
|
