Mktg - GM logs on to Facebook

General Motors (GM) plans to get up close and personal with its customers with the launch of its online Facebook community in the next few days.

"To start with GM will launch the community in India and thereafter spread to our other geographies around the world," Gaurav Gupta, director marketing, GM India told DNA Money.
The Facebook initiative is part of GM India's emphasis on increasing customer interactivity, which the digital medium offers. "We are already active in blogs, in the mobile and web advertising space and have a very user friendly and interactive website," said Gupta.
GM India is on course to further increase its marketing spends on digital media which currently stands at around 10% of the entire marketing budget.
This is up by nearly three times the amount allocated for digital marketing at the same time last year. The company has also formed a team exclusively dedicated on its digital marketing initiatives.
Gupta added that digital medium is cost effective as the company has reduced its expenses on research and development by as much 20% this year owing to the customer feedback GM receives using tools like blogs and its website. Marketing through the internet and mobile is also more focused and economical as compared to traditional media such as print and broadcast advertisements, he said.
According to industry experts the digital marketing industry in India is worth around Rs 500 crore today growing at around 40%.
The company has sold over 2,500 units of its premium sports utility vehicle, Chevrolet Captiva, since its launch in January. Captiva relied totally on the digital medium to do its marketing except for two outdoor hoardings outside the Mumbai and Delhi airports.
GM uses digital marketing selectively depending on the nature of the vehicle it's selling.
"The users for the premium segment models are more tech savvy and hence we use the digital medium more aggressively for these models and variants. All our new launches going ahead will have digital marketing as an integral part of its marketing campaign," said Gupta.
The company has a slew of launches lined up later for the next 30 months with seven new models expected to be launched. GM India in the coming months will also launch newer variants of its premium mid-size car Optra and will add LPG variants to its current line of vehicles.