The purpose of this report is three fold. The multifaceted purpose is as follows:
1. Analyze the marketing environment affecting the Chevrolet Corvette
2. Assess the current General Motors marketing strategy for the Chevrolet Corvette
3. Develop a future marketing strategy for the Chevorlet corvette
Aaker (2007) stated that strategic marketing management is valuable for several reasons. With respect to the strategy applied to the Chevorlet Corvette by General Motors, the most salient of these reasons are (a) to cause the company to consider strategic choices and (b) to "force a long-term view" (p. 15). In February 2008, General Motors reported an annual loss for 2007 of almost $39 billion. As a part of the plan to stabilize and ultimately reverse the situation, management announced simultaneously an initiative designed to lower future payroll costs by offering buyouts to 74,000 employees (Popely, 2008). The record annual financial loss, together with the massive buyout initiative, should have been sufficient to cause the company to consider its strategic choices. Just one month earlier, however, General Motors had announced that sales of the Chevrolet Corvette sports care were declining, but that production levels for the model had not been curtailed (Cetawayo, 2008). Obviously, top management at General Motors was not yet ready to apply a long-term view to the strategy for the Chevrolet Corvette.
Patterson (2006) stated in relation to strategic marketing management that companies need to (a) identify the business that they are pursuing, (b) consider their ethical and social responsibilities, and (c) adopt an appropriate vision and accompanying goals. The existing strategy for the Chevrolet Corvette of maintaining a prominent position for the model in the product portfolio is faulty. The Chevrolet Corvette lends some prestige to the company, but its contribution to pro...