Chevrolet Silverado also known as GMC Sierra is a product of General Motors. It is a full-size and heavy-duty pickup truck. The series of heavy-duty trucks of General Motors from which Chevrolet Silverado belongs was first introduced in 1999. Since its confinement in the General Motors till today, it passed through different innovative and more efficient advancements (Chevrolet.Ca, 2017). The variations in the engine and other equipment of the vehicle made it more successful and the prime choice for its buyers. It also managed to make its place in the market due to its holding company, General Motors that has a strong business position in its markets. The time of development of Chevrolet Silverado from the time of its launch till present is divided into three categories. The company refers to these categories as the three generations of this car model.
Part 1
Creating Value for Customers
The products of General Motors including Chevrolet Silverado are sold in all states of the United States. General Motors also exports Chevrolet to several other countries due to its demand and popularity. The product’s attributes and other services that General Motor offers including long warranty periods attract customers. The price of Chevrolet Silverado is almost the same as of its competitors including Ford F-150 and Ram 1500. However, services and features of the competitors’ products are not attractive enough as that of Chevrolet Silverado. These services and the effective price of Chevrolet Silverado create value to its customers and make it appealing to buy.
Role of Customers in the Company's Strategic Plan
The mission statement of General Motors states that it is an international organization that is involved in operating with great social responsibility worldwide. It believes in offering products and services that create superior value for its customers. The company also believes in sharing its success with its business partners and shares a high return on investment with its shareholders (Jon & Mike, 2015). The mission statement of General Motors seems effective as it talks about customers, shareholders and also business partners. The company declared clearly in the mission statement that it tends to provide its customers with superior quality products and services. The company needs to keep adding to the customers’ value part in the future mission statements to keep it effective.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
The biggest strength of Chevrolet Silverado is its strong brand name that has captured the market of heavy-duty pickups. The distinctive features of the vehicles and its pricing strategy make it the prime choice of buyers and strengthen its position in the automobile market.
Weaknesses
The area where the company often faces issues is its weak after sales service of Chevrolet Silverado. Many cases reported on social media platforms where customers shared their experiences with the product and also complained that the company does not offer proper after sales services. General Motors need to look into these weak areas for avoiding the declining market situation.
Opportunities
General Motors always seek opportunities to modify its existing products and does continuous market research to come up with better vehicles. Chevrolet Silverado also needs sustainable modifications for maintaining its market share and position. General Motors needs to avail the new opportunities in the automobile industry and vehicle development for growth in future.
Threats
A common threat that the automobile industry faces is the threat of substitute products. The biggest threat to Chevrolet Silverado is from truck and heavy pickup models of other companies. The toughest competitor of Chevrolet Silverado is the heavy pickup vehicle of Ford Motors. Keeping all the threats under consideration can help the product in taking prompt measures for avoiding any problematic situation.
Competitive Analysis
The two major competitors of General Motor’s Chevrolet Silverado are Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 (Chevrolet, 2013). Each of these vehicles is designed for the same purpose. The customers of these cars also have identical demands. On the other hand, it is also noticeable that customers identify three basic criteria including pricing, special features, and warranty.while buying a vehicle. These are used for comparing Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 in the table provided below.
1= lowest
5 =highest
The table presented above illustrates that General Motor’s Chevrolet Silverado is the highest ranked vehicle as it has special features and exclusive warranty of two years whereas other companies are only offering one-year warranty (GM fleet, 2016). The pricing of these vehicles is almost the same. In this regard, each of the vehicles is ranked in the same way. However, Chevrolet Silverado comes above other two models with special features such as better fuel efficiency and exterior which makes this vehicle far better than the other two competitive brands. The competitive environment of Chevrolet Silverado is extremely dynamic, therefore, it is considered as the leader in this category of vehicles. The evaluation classifies Ram Ford F-150 as the follower, challenger, and niche as the company is trying to bring its pricing strategy closer to Chevrolet Silverado. Moreover, Ford is also bringing in new unique features to compete with Chevrolet Silverado.
Part 2
Customer Empowerment
General Motors use various modes for marketing of its products. The attributes and features of the vehicles that General Motors offer need extensive promotion and marketing. Smart marketing of products through different promotional ways are great tools that are widely used to create awareness of products and services. One of the significant and indirect ways of promoting products and services is the word of mouth marketing. The users of certain products and services influence others for buying or not buying the products and services by sharing their experiences. The buying decision of customers related to Chevrolet Silverado also gets highly influenced by word of mouth marketing. The company also uses social networking websites extensively for its marketing. People these days spend hours on connecting socially with their relatives and friends through social networking websites. Social media is considered as the buzzing mode of marketing. General Motor’s for its products such as Chevrolet Silverado uses social media buzz marketing.
Customer satisfaction
There are certain design features of Chevrolet Silverado and other factors such as oil consumption and engine noise affect its buyers. The satisfaction level of customers of Chevrolet Silverado is noted to be affected by these issues. The worries of customers increase when they feel that the company does not stand by their side in the case of such issues experienced by them while driving. When customers do not get an optimum response from the company then they find others ways to vent out their frustration that could affect the company’s reputation and future sales. Usually, the customers share their bad experiences on social networking websites and automobile information and sale websites. The automobile company can take measures to decrease these issues by improving the quality of its product. The best practice that an automobile company can implement is to provide a platform where the customer complaints can be received and addressed. It has been noted that General Motors has set up such a platform to communicate with its customers and received their complaints to address them in the most efficient manner.
Customer Relationship Management
General Motors put great efforts in improving its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) processes. It uses various tools including the dominion dealer solutions to maintain a sound relationship with its customers. General Motors offers dealership cards and incentive programs to its dealers to ensure that they stay with the company and make effort to make more sales of its products. Such programs offered by the company play a vital role in customer relationship management. However, some weak areas need to be addressed by General Motors. On the social media platform, the customers of General Motors claim that the company does not stand by their side when they face issues with the products they purchase from the company. Specifically, Chevrolet Silverado caused issues for the customers regarding the loud engine and assemblies of the vehicle. The company needs to sustainably improve and develop further its Customer Relationship Management Department to maintain its position in the market.
Customer Privacy
General Motors believes in providing superior quality products and services to the customers and takes great care of customers’ privacy. The company also offers online platforms for transactions and other dealings by putting the customers’ privacy under consideration. The company provides each customer a secured account for dealing to ensure the privacy. Also, it is clearly written in the policy of the company that the information it receives and shares with customers is secured. The privacy concerns should be informed to the customers clearly by mentioning them on the warranty card and the company’s website. General Motors indicates all such concerns on its website and warranties issued to its customers (General Motors, 2017).
References
Chevrolet. (2013). Competitive Comparison. Retrieved from http://www.chevrolet.com/silverado-1500-pickup-truck/compare-vehicles.html
Chevrolet.Ca. (2017). 2017 silverado 1500. Retrieved from http://www.chevrolet.ca/silverado-1500-pickup-truck.html
General Motors. (2017). General Motors is a global automotive company. Retrieved from http://www.gm.com/company/about-gm.html
GM fleet. (2016). 2016 Chevrolet & GMC new-vehicle limited warranty. Retrieved from http://www.gmfleet.com/2016-warranty.html
