Marketing Strategy For A Recession: Develop Products For A New Customer Base

A bright spot for General Electric in these gloomy economic times, as a producer of a wide range of goods, is GE Aviation... which contributed Q4 2008 profits of $1.16 billion for the Technology and Infrastructure segment, a 21 percent increase over 2007. Revenues of $5.2 billion were up 2 percent over the same period in 2007.

General Electric's Aviation division, the world's largest producer of jet engines, has long dominated the commercial jet segment of the engine market. But even GE has been forced to trim its workforce by 1,000 jobs in the wake of the global recession.

In a strategy to broaden its base and gain a firm foothold in general aviation, GE is developing smaller engines designed specifically to power light- and mid-sized jets.

Cincinnati's Business Courier reports that despite recent harsh criticism of the use of business jets, GE company officials are optimistic about carving an important niche into a market forecast to improve, but dominated by rival engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and systems designers Honeywell International and Goodrich Corp.

Chet Fuller, GE Aviation's general manager of marketing, said, "In undoubtedly the worst economic crisis since World War II, it's still a tremendous space. There are two things fueling business aviation, and they aren't going to change."

FMI: www.geae.com