Under the leadership of CEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt, GE transformed from an American manufacturer into a global conglomerate with diverse business units including energy, aviation, healthcare, and media. Welch grew earnings from $12 billion to $280 billion from 1981 to 2001. Immelt launched marketing campaigns like "Imagination at Work", "Ecomagination", and "Healthymagination" to communicate GE's focus on innovation and technology. As a predominantly B2B company, GE's success relies on establishing itself as an innovative brand through effective B2B marketing.
3. Jack Welch, CEO(1981 – 2001)
In 1981, Jack Welch was made CEO and in the 2
decades under his leadership, GE has been
transformed from an American Manufacturer into a
Global Services Giant.
In 1981, The company’s earnings were $12 Billion
In 2001, The company’s earnings were an
astounding $280 Billion, which
is a phenomenal change in just
20 years.
5. GE Energy
GE Oil and Gas is present in all segments of the oil and
gas value chain, including drilling, subsea and offshore, onshore,
LNG, distributed
gas, pipeline and storage, refinery and petrochemicals.
6. GE Technology Infrastructure - Aviation
The division operated under the name of General
Electric Aircraft Engines (GEAE) until September
2005. Ge also introduced Power by the Hour (more
detail later in the presentation)
7. GE Technology Infrastructure – Healthcare
The company provides
medical imaging and
information technologies,
medical diagnostics,
patient monitoring
systems, drug discovery,
bio pharmaceutical
manufacturing
technologies and
performance solutions
services.
8. GE Technology Infrastructure - Transportation
The organization manufactures equipment for the
railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation
industries. GE Transportation is the largest producer
of diesel-electric locomotives for both freight and
passenger applications in North
America, believed to hold up to a
70% market share. It also produces
related products, such as railroad
signaling equipment, & parts for
locomotives and railroad cars, as
well as providing repair services for other locomotives.
9. GE NBC (Network)
In 2003, Universal
Studios' parent
company, Vivendi
Universal
Entertainment,
decided to sell an
80% stake to NBC's
parent company,
General Electric.
The sale and
resulting merger
formed NBC
Universal.
10. GE Consumer Products
GE also markets to
consumers directly
via appliances like
refrigerators,
microwaves,
dishwashers,
washers, water
heaters, air
conditioners, etc.
GE sells Lighting
products as well.
12. It provides commercial lending and leasing, as well
as a range of financial services for health
care, media, communications, entertainment,
consumers, real estate, and aviation. It has a
number of divisions, including GE Capital Aviation
Services, GE Energy Financial Services and GE
Healthcare Equipment Finance.
13. Various Campaigns
Have “Imagination at Work”, “Ecomagination”, and
“Healthymagination” successfully communicated
GE’s focus on it’s newer endeavours? Why or why
not?
Past Campaign: “We Bring Good Things to Life”
Screenshot of an old
GE dishwashing advertisement
14. Various Campaigns
Under Jeff Immelt, GE has introduced many
campaigns such as
1. “Imagination at Work” (2003):
This campaign focused
on Innovation and New
Technology.
16. Various Campaigns
3. “Healthymagination” (2009):
Focused on the aim to deliver high quality, low cost
healthcare to more people around the world.
Vscan: A battery-powered ultrasound scanner
17. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO (2001 – present)
Under Jeff Immelt, GE has introduced many
innovative marketing campaigns, which have
successfully brought the many business units of GE
under one brand.
Under his leadership, GE also
survived the recession of
2008 – 09, by selling off
certain businesses such as
NBC-Universal, and GE Real
Estate.
18. Surviving the Recession of 2008 - 09
GE took very extreme steps during and following the
recession:
After selling off majority control (51%) of NBC-
Universal to Comcast in 2009, until 2013, since
when NBC-Universal is now owned 100% by
Comcast.
GE also decided to sell a bulk of GE Capital Real
Estate assets, and further decided to scale back
finance units.
19. GE’s B2B Marketing
Discuss the importance of B2B marketing and a strong
B2B brand to General Electric.
While General Electric has consumer products, it is
predominantly a B2B company with almost all of it’s other
business units marketing to other businesses. It’s
success comes as a result of many successful marketing
campaigns as mentioned before. It is established as an
innovative brand in the minds of the people, with it’s 124
years of experience.
An example of GE’s successful marketing can be seen in
how they price their aircraft engines: GE introduced
“Power by The Hour” in 1999, seeing how an aircraft
engines are a multimillion expenditure, and how much
service is required, to meet FAA guidelines, a fixed fee is
paid every time the engine is turned on, and GE takes
care of the maintenance.
20. In Summary
Topics covered in the presentation:
o BCEOs Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt.
o Various Business Units of GE.
o GE’s B2B Marketing.
o GE’s recent Marketing Campaigns.
o 2B and B2C Marketing Comparison.