The research explores the integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategies applied by General Motors (GM) in the introduction of the Cadillac automobile name plate in the China market. IMC strategies are highly complex and were created primarily from a perspective that focused on conditions in developed economies. While IMC strategies have a role in marketing in China, these strategies are not as relevant to the marketing of luxury automobiles in a market where the mean annual income is less that US$3,000 as they are relevant to markets in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and other highly developed Western economies.
Marketing Cadillac in the China Market
An IMC strategy envisions the use of media advertising, direct marketing, interactive/Internet marketing, sales promotion, and publicity/public relations (Belch & Belch, 2004). While this set of integrated marketing communications channels is available in the China market, the mix of the proportional application of the elements of the IMC channel set is influence to a great extent by more traditional considerations of market segmentation and target market definition for specific products in the China market.
The increasingly outward focus of GM reflects a corporate strategy based on the company's recognition of shifts in the loci of opportunities for the company from the domestic sphere to the global domain. GM has established an operational division for China that markets (a) automobiles manufactured in the United Stares and (b) automobiles manufactured by joint-venture partners in China. All automobiles marketed in China by GM carry the GM product label.
At the present time, GM segments the consumer market for passenger automobiles in China by (a) income and (b) job status. With respect to income, the market is segmented by those consumers earning (a) more than the equivalent of US$30,000 annually, (b) earning in the equivalent range of US$3,000-...