Adopting Promarket Strategies to Accommodate Changing Environmental Forces - Assignment Example

1. How does the concept of organization's mission and environment opportunities come together to create strategic fit? Having the right concept of an organization’s mission and environment opportunities would help build strategic fit. Strategic fit or the approach between “what the environment wants and what the firm has to offer” [Hofstrand, D.] may said to be taking place when an organization is able to project future directions, identifies internal and external hurdles to face, and being able to capitalize on its environment opportunities through sound and clear marketing management. Today, organizations and industries such as financial services, retail, technology, transportation and financial services, among others are seeing the vast potential of utilizing technological advances and other trends in economy and politics in fulfilling its overarching goals or mission to generate profits. A fit is also attained when a firm is able to gain insight and analyze the company’s mission and how it is linked to the environmental opportunities at hand. This information then would be very helpful in determining the target market and strategies to implement market activities. Finally, without communicating or relaying the message or the identified likely scenario, recommendations for action and future undertakings, strategic fit is unlikely achieved. Hofstrand, Don. Strategic Planning Terms. AG Decision Maker. Iowa State University. Retrieved April 25, 2007 from http://www.extension.iastate.edu/AGDM/wholefarm/pdf/c6-40.pdf. 2. Using SWOT as the analysis, describe a market development strategy into the international market by direct investment. To come up with a feasible market development strategy into the international market by direct investment, there is a need to have a SWOT analysis of the same. The strengths and weaknesses of an economy must be explored and determined such as for example policies for direct investments, socio-cultural, economic and political conditions, market fluctuations, and many others. Through these factors, the potentials and opportunities for growth for a direct investment would need to be identified too such as: how direct investment would propel growth and increases in competition, thus spur restructuring if there would ever be. Another major considerations in coming up with a market development study for direct investments are the threats for such endeavors. Direct investors must also consider the threats of global competition and external, uncontrolled forces such as market fluctuations, economic conditions such as recessions and the domestic or international investment policies. Legal issues must also be identified as one of the issues to be addressed if such undertaking would greatly enhance the prospect for market penetration and dominance in the long run. ____________. SWOT Analysis: Discover new opportunities. Manage and eliminate threats. Retrieved April 30, 2007 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm 3. A marketing manager will adopt their pro-market strategies to accommodate changing environmental forces. Cite examples how social change, political action, demographic trends, economic fluctuations, and/or attitudes have influenced strategic marketing plans. External environmental factors such as social change, economic, social and political actions and attitudes can influence strategic marketing plans in many different levels. As an example, we will cite a market development strategy for the adoption of bio-products such as bio-fuels, bio-mass derived heat, etc.). Socio-demographic changes and trends would greatly affect in the formulation of a market development strategy for our subject given the potential environmental and economic gains that the adopters would and the targeted market would enjoy. In line with this, series of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) case studies pointed to the following environmental benefits of adopting bio-products: a) energy savings of 15–80 per cent; b) water savings of 10–50 per cent; c) toxic waste reductions of 30–50 per cent; and d) use of chemical solvents reduced or eliminated. Another recent study, the one conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, it revealed that with increased use of bio-fuel in over six years period, OECD countries would help increase net gains by Canadian farmers [Taylor, A., et. al]. Taylor, Amy, et. al. Bio-Product Market Development Strategy: A Scoping Study on Federal Policies for Creating Market Demand for Bio-products in Canada. Retrieved on April 28, 2007 from www.pembina.org/pdf/publications/Bioproducts_Mkt_Dev.pdf. 4. The marketing manager should be careful not to answer the question first and then attempt to justify their answer by crafting the question to fit the preconceived answer. Assumptions should be logically developed. How should the manager examine their performance in answering the marketing question? The marketing manager is constantly faced with questions about the marketing performance of the company because of an age-old notion that for any company, market activity is geared to achieve the penultimate purpose: profit generation for the company’s business and achieving the objectives set forth in the business plan in line with strategy and mission statements. Given the task to examine performance in answering the marketing questions, the marketing manager should be able to measure the same through the results. The marketing manager should rely not more on assumptions, which happens in most cases, but rather on actual facts. To have better understanding of performance, a marketing manager must be adept and educated about the terms to be used in measuring performance which he so needs to answer marketing-related questions. He should be also learned and knowledgeable about how to use metrics and understanding of return-on-investments (ROI) so he could be able to quantify marketing’s contribution with certainty in his or her company. In view of this, the job of a marketing manager, more than anything, to be successful and respected in this field is for him to be equipped with the proper understanding of the marketing activities which are involved in doing and maintaining business. He is also expected to ask difficult and probing questions and must always be on constant search for quantifiable or measurable performance proofs. 5. A "segment of one." Do you believe that an organization can craft a marketing strategy designed to meet the demands of a single buyer and combine the efficiencies of production to achieve "economies of scale?" How would you design the marketing strategies for a "segment of one?" While it may seem look like troublesome for many organizations that may have spent resources applying strategies to marketing efforts, the same can still take advantage of the “segment of one selling” through a well-designed marketing strategies. One way to do a well-designed marketing strategy is by redefining what your company’s core competencies are with your customers [Mechlin, 1999]. Since it is a given fact that the core competency in this regard is your relationship with customer, then the marketing strategy should emphasize establishing, maintaining and growing that relationship, instead of spending time on the product or service you deliver. Another is to reframe your “segment of one selling” and make it your way to generate selling opportunities cost-effectively and quickly. This is to shy away from former notions that segment of one selling strayed sellers to do best and what they know. In fact, this selling approach would help expand vision for growth than dilutes it. It would also help to rethink what your company’s core competency directions are headed. Moreover, if you will in fact focus on how to establish customer relationship, then you can be assured of a better and profitable engagement. Mechlin, Stu. Segment One Selling. Progressive Distributor. Retrieved on April 28, 2007 From http://www.progressivedistributor.com/progressive/archives/Sales%20training/segment%20one.htm 6. Forecasting sales is not an easy task but it is central to opportunity evaluation. What can a marketing manager do to increase the accuracy of a sales forecast? Sales forecasting, which is one of the very vital activities in developing marketing strategy, would be better developed accurately if we are to adopt the combination of sociological and technological resources. For one, it would involve a marketing manager conducting focus group meetings with one or more company executives and the sales force to gather their future sales projections or opinions. With informed and sound opinion based on valid measures, the judgment by these executives is useful and desirable, especially when combined with the gathered and completed information from sales people and intermediaries or middlemen. These sales people would very well be asked about estimates they are likely to achieve in their respective areas during a particular future period. It cannot also be denied that surveys among the consumers would be helpful in projecting the sales or profitability of the company in the future. Then another method that I can adopt for this endeavor is through test marketing, which allows for actual sales to be measured. Finally, to come up with accurate and solid information, technology could help such as the acquisition of softwares that caters to the needs of marketing managers to consolidate and effectively create forecasts. With softwares in the market today, it would be more efficient and effective to gather historical information that would be essential in reviewing prior year’s sales; effective collaboration between operations and sales; and, aggregate demand from multiple sources, and more. Microsoft Dynamics. Forecasting. Retrieved on April 28, 2007 from http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/2/5/2252558a-fc6e-4b77-a71c-c56b685c928b/GP_MfgSalesForecasting.pdf 7. How is brand equity achieved? What is the building process toward achieving brand equity? Brand equity, defined roughly as the totality of the brand name’s qualities or attributes that has a stirring impact on how customer make a choice, is said to have been achieved when market demand of the product shifted from another. In light of this, brand equity is achieved when a company is able to cash in or able to translate in profitability this brand power. Building brand equity would always require from a company aside from capitalization, unceasing vigilance, commitment and even creativity. The company must have a clear understanding and consistent effort about just how complicated a task it is to tackle brand matters. Generally, it was accepted that there is no single rule to follow in building brand equity that can work for everyone. On the other hand, through analytical models, brand equity may be built, such as the propriety model Strategic Choice Analysis® which would enable a company to formulate the basis for its strategic market directions and future goals. Accordingly, the Strategic Choice Analysis model identifies the three (3) levels as: a) valuation; b) equity element identification; and, c) subgroup impacts [Roberts, K.J., 2007]. Another way to build brand equity is to identify through way of maximizing the brand [Almquist and Turvill], which now concerns itself into diminishing its competitor brand’s equity. It is then achieved through the following: a) protecting core equity elements; b) fixing negative equity elements; c) attacking competitor’s positive equity elements; and, d) leveraging competitor’s negative equity elements. Roberts, Kenneth J. Building Powerful Strategies that Strengthen Brand Equity. Creating the Preeminent Global Brand. http://www.lippincottmercer.com/pdfs/s95_creating.pdf 8. You may need someday to advise management that an offering has reached the end stage of its life cycle. Management decisions could include modifying the offering, harvesting the offering, or eliminating the offering. If you felt the best option was to eliminate the offering, what questions would you expect to answer from management and how would you answer then to convince management that the time to abandon the offering was at hand? Since it is highly necessary now to abandon the offering as there are no real, big improvements and innovation on the company’s offering, it is high time to report this to management. My report with management about the abandonment of offering would include reasons why this is called for, such as big decline in customer loyalty, bottleneck competitions, low profit and sales. But reports would include asking management that we do not necessarily need to eliminate totally or eradicate the product in the market but a need to review the marketing mix as there are other ways through which we can seize opportunity. Eradicating the product does not mean, completely backing out of the market. There must still be window for opportunity, As expected, management would have to challenge me and ask questions such as: What is the plan? What comes next? What would be your alternative course of action? In line with these questions, I would tell them that I already conducted research on innovating or re-branding the line of products or services and that this research yielded results that our management need to agree on my recommendation that we need to remove the current, original product because new innovations must be introduced. 9. Can a superior tangible product fail in the market place because the "offering" failed in some area? Describe a scenario where the superior product had a poorly conceived offering. Definitely, marketing history is replete with examples when a superior, tangible product fails in the market place because its “offering” failed in some area. Take for example a product or brand which was already ingrained or have become part of a consumer’s mind to be their number one brand. In this case, the other product or brand, no matter how superior, would really face tough challenge of taking over the said brand which consumers already placed in their minds as number one. Except if the company would really push or come up with a very feasible marketing plan, there is no way it could be able to topple the other brand that is already positioned as the brand leader. In some respect too, and given the situation above, it would be of no help for the said superior product to gain bigger slice of the market even if it tries to scale down its prices just to beat the other product in competition. Some brands or products already did tried this approach of lowering the cost or the price of its product, but it still wasn’t able to capture the consumer’s positive reception. 10. Imagine being hired as the VP of Marketing for an organization whose product, you quickly realized, was both overpriced and of inferior quality to the competition. Yet you believe in your ability to create sales opportunities. What are some of the positioning strategies you might employ to distinguish your offering? The sales opportunities that may be created by a company are vast especially if one is to consider different positioning strategies. Given is the fact that the company where I am hired as VP for Marketing is offering products which are overpriced and of inferior quality to the competition, it would be suitable to adopt a repositioning strategy [Ries and Trout, 1981]. The low or inferior quality that the products have has a stirring effect or influence why our products are faring poorly in the competition, not to mention the high price. With repositioning strategy, the company would very well establish an entirely new position in a market where there is unique position is not present to begin with. For this strategy to work for the benefit of the firm, our company would follow what Ries and Trout [1981] enthused that in order for brand repositioning to flourish, consumers must be shifted, through different approaches, to view competition in a different light. And in so agreeing with Ries and Trout, our company would not fall into the trap of bringing back a brand which already lose its image of poor quality but instead to introduce a new brand, something entirely new which can recapture some old and new customer base. QuickMBA Marketing: Product Life Cycle. Internet Center for Management and Business Administration. Retrieved on April 24, 2007 from http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/ . 11. The objectives set for communication programs will depend on the overall offering-market strategy of the organization and the life-cycle stage of the product. How would the communications strategy differ if the marketing strategy were market penetration versus market development? Communication approaches in marketing strategies for market penetration and market development may be similar and different in some ways. One leading marketing expert, H. Igor Ansoff has suggested that market penetration is the most appropriate strategy to use when the focus is on existing products and services. While market development strategy is more appropriate, according to Ansoff, if the firm is gearing toward the targeting of the non-buying consumers in the now targeted segments. In this case too, new consumers are also being viewed as likely customer. The difference in the communication strategy may come through the transition of the communication. From this standpoint, we can say that in market penetration strategy, the transition may come from customer service to customer relations. But for market development strategy, the transition may be from customer relations to customer service. Another difference in the approaches in marketing communication for market penetration is that, the central or focus in this case would be strategies geared toward service or product positioning while in market development, the strategy is concerned with demand generation. Ansoff Matrix. Planning Skills: a Web-based knowledge repository. Retrieved on April 30, 2007 from http://planningskills.com/glossary/122.php. 12. "Eliminate the middleman!" is a commonly heard expression but may not be the best strategy. Explain the functions of the intermediaries and why the organization should or should not take on these functions. In a corporate office, the role intermediaries serve in marketing development strategy cannot be undermined. This is more evident in today’s landscape when firms recognize the power of intermediaries in channel distribution, particularly in managing the channels more efficiently and effectively. The intermediaries have a role in maintaining the integrated activities of marketing, buying and distribution activities, basically something that is geared toward the building of relationship. The intermediaries can also become the link that would supply the executive level information on customers, especially so with their proximity to the consumers. This information is important in building or creating a market development strategy. Apart from this, intermediaries are also investors in brand building, customer relationship management and technology. This role is particularly evident in online industry, such as internet marketing whereas examples here are search engine optimization, pay-per-click, etc. In these identified concerns, the organization should still consider getting intermediaries and forge partnership with them, committed and long term relationship, especially the must always be a “complex exchange of value” that should be realized. 13. If you were an intermediary, and you were approached by an organization to offer their line of products, what requirements or support might you be looking for in order to become part of their distribution channel? Should I become an intermediary and were approached by an organization to offer their line of products, to become part of their distribution channel, I would have to request first for the comprehensive marketing strategy plan of place for distributing the line of products. This way, it would help me develop sound and logical assessment as to how the products or services would be distributed strategically. If the business of the company is fresh market growing and is already considering in its place of distribution a consignment through a packer-shipper, then there must be need for me to have the contact information of their avid or current client base so I could work on to establish and reconnect with them to offer them new products. I would then also establish new contacts and new client base to grow through different means of distribution such as via a) field-run sales, growers’ own packing-shipping facilities, c) organized wholesale markets or terminal markets, d) marketing cooperatives, and e) individual distributor marketer. Aside from those already mentioned, as intermediary, I would also ask for the constraints and limitations that I would be facing so I would have the idea how I would be able to grapple with limited resources or factors. 14. In an organization that has multiple products, some of the products are substitutes for the other products. In a pricing strategy, you can apply the concept of price elasticity simultaneously to more than one product or service. Explain the implication of cross-elasticity in product line pricing. In this market situation, the principle of marketing mix would enter inevitably. It would be gleaned that cross elasticity in product line pricing comes in because their product lines have common ingredients or materials used. How? That is because if the organization won’t be able to rake in the profit he is expecting from one product line, the firm can still struggle or profit from another product line or service It is almost always true for a company with several product lines that the profitability for each would also vary or would be different. Pricing for each product introduced by a company may vary surely in view of the different factors such as preferences of customers or consumers, materials used, value and others. And which ever product is saleable, that is what you can bank on or expect to adjust prices, just to take advantage of its marketability an crowd loyalty. Somehow, we can apply here or use as an example the Apple Computer strategy in pricing its Mac computers. The company owned by Steve Jobs scaled down prices of its hardware in particular so it could beat PC in the race for hardware industry. But on the other side of the coin, Apple is a bit pricey when it comes to VAS or Value Added Services, especially in their personalize stuffs. Shugan, S. M., and Desiraju, Ramaro. Retail Product-Line Pricing Strategy When Costs and Products Change. Retrieved on April 29, 2007 from http://www3.babson.edu/Publications/JR/PastIssues/Volume77Issue1/productlinepricing.cfm 15. Competitors are going to react to changes in your pricing strategy. How would you, as a marketing manager, arrange your thoughts and strategies before you take pricing actions to mitigate competitor's future retaliatory moves? In this scenario, our organization may either be a market leader or newly-formed which is in a very good position to capture bigger market share in its field. With this in the sideline, this makes our organization take the offensive side and the competitor, which may be on the defensive. Should the competitor organization react about our pricing, then it would be our recourse to be on a wait-and-see stance, anticipating and waiting what would be their future moves Our management would agree on unleashing our attacks through the introduction of new product substitute and/or increasing our product mix. This then assumes too that our organization may still not hike the prices of our product or increase it slightly or just above the competitor’s price. In our strategic move to introduce more products, it would be more to our advantage given the fact that we still have much product that our consumers would have better choice of buying or shifting demands for. QuickMBA Marketing: Marketing Warfare. Internet Center for Management and Business Administration. Retrieved on April 24, 2007 from http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/marketing-warfare/ 16. An organization plans to incorporate "value" into its offering. What might the marketing manager do to establish value to a brand/product? While it is widely held that the term value has a very complex meaning, establishing value for a brand or a product may depend on the marketing manager’s strategy, marketing and operations efforts, among others. For one, value cannot be sold in literal terms because it is intangible. In this regard, value for brand or product must be replicated. Before a product may have its value replicated, as marketing manager, I should also take the weigh of doing market study and research so as to determine which would be the best solution or approach to undertake. In this study or researches, it would also need to be compared and argued for or against same line of product or services vis-à-vis its value. Then only after coming up with a thorough study on this would there ever be real way to start convincing the management that placing value to a particular product or service would be the best next option to push forward to. Second, the concept of adding value means we must demonstrate, or literally do something more than we are now capable of or are actually doing. In some instances, there is room for distributors to do less, do it more consistently and price accordingly. In other words, less value may be more for certain customers. 17. The marketing manager must be aware of causal relationships between occurrences. The identification of subtle underlying causes could lead to a new strategic direction that would place your organization well ahead of the competition (seize opportunity). How would you go about the forward thinking process of identifying market trends early? In marketing parlance, as marketing manager, it would be necessary that I review the principles of “3Cs”, namely: customer, company and competition, in order to go about the forward thinking process to identify market trends early on. These trends may be only become virtually visible if I am adept with the 3Cs. To learn about the company, learn our product and core competencies, it would then also require me to do a SWOT analysis for the internal side of the company. The customer or target market, both old and non-customers must also be learned, their behavior and psychology must be learned to. The competitors, particularly the old and existing, and the new ones, they must also be analyzed using SWOT. Then if all of these were undertaken, it would now be easier and far better to predict the future and then project market trends. We will put here as an example, again the Apple Computer Co. by Steve Jobs. Previously we know that Apple’s target markets are the pricey crowd or the rich and elite sector. And who are their competitors? And what is Apple’s core business. But now, Apple Computer has done something different lately, they now have cheaper computers. They have also adopted Intel-based computers and laptops which over the past several years they do not adopt in their range of products. Their computers can now handle softwares formerly only available to PC. Also in recent months, Apple unveiled a mobile phone unit called iPhone, following its other products which are non-computers like iPod. So this time, they no longer are confined only to their market for Macs but have widen already because they know their core competencies. 18. In developing a comprehensive marketing program, the first thing a manager must do is to consider the issues of fit with the market, the organization, and the competition. What will you look for in determining fit? Big companies today are facing tough competition in the global market activity and must hurdle challenges to succeed. Sometimes an organization does not meet its full potential because it tries to fit in its structure in its own corporate culture. Sometimes, companies maximize efforts in fitting in a structure into a distorted corporate culture. What an organization needs is to continuously analyze what changes can be implemented to improve C-I-S. Strategic success will only be attained if true understanding where true success springs will be explored, such as—understanding first the organization’s culture, infrastructure and structure. Each organization has its own organizational culture which comprises of unique attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and customs. This so-called organizational culture is intangible and more difficult to measure. Culture may differ from one organization to another based on their vision and mission. An organizational structure shows how the interrelated groups of an organization are organized or constructed based on hierarchy. It is important to define the organization’s structure because it helps in providing effective communication and coordination among the members of an organization. The word infrastructure refers to basic facilities, services and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society. In an organization, an infrastructure plays an important role in gearing toward success. Structure may be determined by identifying organizational infrastructure. These three (culture, structure and infrastructure) – are a vital functions that need to be analyzed to achieve success. Strategy formulation may vary depending to an organizations’ C- S – I. 19. If your sales volume and market share are down 50% from a year ago, maybe it is time for some market strategy reformulation. Explain the reformulation process that an organization might go through in shifting its emphasis in the product market where its competitors have clearly outflanked it. This is real challenge: recouping old glory days and bringing back the company from red to black because to be “in:” is to be competitor-oriented according to Ries and Trout [1981]. And in order to successfully do so, the company should adopt a reformulation marketing strategy which would entail comprehensive research and development (R&D), value and capital investments, entering into partnerships and marketing and product launches. In this process, it may be considered that the market formula then implemented is no longer effective considering the sudden changes in the market situation such as prevailing trends and market price fluctuations or change in consumer habits or behaviors. In the process of reformulation, it would start with research. Research on the market trends, competition and the product. Thus, there would have to be investments research and development for the brand to be introduced. If we are to reintroduce the same product but with new innovations or to introduce a new product or brand that would most likely appeal to new and loyal customers, that has to be decided on in this phase. After coming up with research, then the marketing strategy would have to be developed such as identifying which market the new brand or the product would be introduced to, how would the distribution channel be used, the market launch and promotions, and many others. The market positioning would also have to be considered, and must properly be dealt with, assuming how the brand would better gain bigger share or would be able to penetrate the market, go to the top and lastly, the real challenge of it all: to remain there. QuickMBA Marketing: Positioning: As Popularized by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Internet Center for Management and Business Administration. Retrieved on April 24, 2007 from http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/ . 20. If you fail to execute a marketing program, the window of opportunity might close. Some factors in the ever-changing environment are beyond your control. How would you synchronize the marketing mix to assure successful implementation of the marketing program? Synchronizing the marketing mix with some factors in the ever-changing environment, in order to implement a successful marketing program necessitate that all the elements in the mix are unified so that sending mixed up or confused messages won’t come in the way. Another key to ensure the success of any marketing program is to effectively carry out and work out shaping the marketing mixes that meet the nature and needs of your specified target market. Among other things to consider in implementing your marketing mix are a) to always gear the price of your product or services in line within budget by your consumers, distribution of products or service strategically; and, b) to make sure always that your price is within budget by the market. Works Cited Ansoff Matrix. Planning Skills: a Web-based knowledge repository. Retrieved on April 30, 2007 from http://planningskills.com/glossary/122.php. Hofstrand, Don. Strategic Planning Terms. AG Decision Maker. Iowa State University. Retrieved April 25, 2007 from http://www.extension.iastate.edu/AGDM/wholefarm/pdf/c6-40.pdf. Mechlin, Stu. Segment One Selling. Progressive Distributor. Retrieved on April 28, 2007 From http://www.progressivedistributor.com/progressive/archives/Sales%20training/segment%20one.htm Microsoft Dynamics. Forecasting. Retrieved on April 28, 2007 from http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/2/5/2252558a-fc6e-4b77-a71c- c56b685c928b/GP_MfgSalesForecasting.pdf QuickMBA Marketing: Product Life Cycle. Internet Center for Management and Business Administration. Retrieved on April 24, 2007 from http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/ . Roberts, Kenneth J. Building Powerful Strategies that Strengthen Brand Equity. Creating the Preeminent Global Brand. http://www.lippincottmercer.com/pdfs/s95_creating.pdf Shugan, S. M., and Desiraju, Ramaro. Retail Product-Line Pricing Strategy When Costs and Products Change. Retrieved on April 29, 2007 from http://www3.babson.edu/Publications/JR/PastIssues/Volume77Issue1/productlinepricing.cfm Taylor, Amy, et. al. Bio-Product Market Development Strategy: A Scoping Study on Federal Policies for Creating Market Demand for Bio-products in Canada. Retrieved on April 28, 2007 from www.pembina.org/pdf/publications/Bioproducts_Mkt_Dev.pdf. Watkis, Nicholas C. Marketing performance should be measured by results. Business Zone. Retrieved on April 30, 2007 from http://www.businesszone.co.uk/cgi bin/item.cgi?id=155231&d=1009&h=1008&f=1010&dateformat=%25o-%25B-%25Y Read More