How To Access This

Kevin Stewart, GM’s marketing director for new ventures, has called you in for a consultation. He’s been put under substantial pressure to increase the sales of GM’s hybrid fleet but feels that, despite his best efforts, sales seem to keep falling further and further behind Toyota’s Prius.  By next week, he has been charged with making a recommendation to the CEO on exactly what GM should do next to make their vehicles more competitive against the Prius.

Last week in a brainstorming meeting he made the statement:

“If you want to get a lot of hybrids on the road, you put them in vehicles that people are buying now.”

Where this seems to make perfect sense to him, the statement received a fair number of quizzical looks – far too many to be a coincidence. Knowing the need to produce real results, Mr. Stewart has asked for your help in first analyzing Toyota’s success and then secondly generating a concrete recommendation he can take to the CEO.

He has asked you to investigate and report back to him on the following:

• Evaluate Toyota’s marketing strategy so far – what have they done well and how has their knowledge of the major macro environmental and micro environmental factors contributed to this success?
• Given these findings, what is the biggest challenge facing GM in the hybrid market?
• What factors macro and micro environmental factors contribute to this challenge?
• What are 2-3 tactics GM could use to address this challenge?
  • Evaluate the pros/cons of each approach for Mr. Stewart and determine – in your professional opinion – which is the better course of action and the one you think he should propose to the CEO
  • State your proposed recommendation to Mr. Stewart
    • Support your recommendation by stating the short-term or intended outcome of this plan (who is the target market, how they can be targeted/served)
    • Consider any possible unintended or long-term consequences – since you know that if you recommend that GM go after a group in Toyota’s target market they won’t just sit back and let that happen.

Prepare an answer to Mr. Stewart’s questions above. Be sure to research (at least 2 high quality resources are required) your answers, and then cite the sources appropriately.