General Motors and Big Data

Many companies are using big data to leverage their business performance and drive revenue. General Motors (a fortune 500 corporation that manufactures, markets and distributes vehicles, and their parts, as well as sells financial services) is a prime example of a large company that utilizes big data in a variety of ways.  Some examples in which GM utilized big data include gathering and analyzing rich data sets to generate additional sales, determine strategic price alignment strategies, improve car safety and design, create vehicles with sophisticated navigation systems and safety radars systems, and much more.

General Motors is using geographic information systems and data analytics to better allocate their marketing budget and improve their dealer’s performance. Location services help the company to determine the best place for new dealerships and find which locations they should let go. Having information about their customers’ location and other demographics including income, age, sex and car type preference allows the company to better segment their targeted audience for future marketing campaigns. General Motor’s advanced analytics manager said: “We can chase those households that buy new cars, rather than spending money on households that hold on to older models or only buy used vehicles. The result is lower spending and higher sales. We can bring all the data in to it to make better decisions, understand customers and provide better service.”¹

Sources:

1. https://blog.dell.com/en-us/how-gm-uses-big-data-to-generate-sales/