Reconciling Diverse Measures of Performance - Case Study Example

Name Course name Name of Institution Instructor’s name Date Contents Abstract. 4 Introduction. 5 Grow-market strategies for the market leaders and share growth plans for members. 6 The relevance of pioneer and follower strategies. 7 Basic strategic planning. 9 Table 1: Average Performance of Pioneers and Followers 9 Table 2: Average Expenditure on Strategies by Pioneers and Followers 10 Relevance of grow-market for market leaders and share-growth strategies for followers. 10 Key strategies and their relevance. 11 Strategic choices for maintaining a competitive advantage in mature and declining markets. 13 Evaluating cost leadership opportunities. 13 Evaluating speed as a competitive advantage. 13 Strategies in the Transition to Industry Maturity 13 Strategies for mature and declining industries. 14 Marketing strategies to serve new economy markets. 15 The Connection between Strategy and Structure. 15 The strategy is the Structure. 16 Implementing Change As Important As Strategy Itself. 16 Marketing performance metrics. 17 The marketing metric audit. 17 Characteristics of a sound metric. 18 Product Life Cycle (PLC). 18 Conclusion. 18 References. 19 Abstract. UNE Life is one company that is doing all ways and means to ensure life in campus is a little more comfortable. As the saying goes, 'work without play makes Jack a dull boy', there is a need for extracurricular activities, and that is where UNE Life comes in handy. The society has significantly changed, and individuals need a lot of knowledge in other sectors besides education. For instance, one could intend to be a musician and UNE Life provides all that is necessary to develop such talents. It is through facilities such as the nightclub and a bar famously known as the ‘Stro’ and a sports and fitness center that is the SportUNE. These facilities and others have only one goal, that is, to make campus life enjoyable and memorable. UNE life is a collaboration between SportUNE and UNE, which happened in 2014. This collaboration has resulted in improved services and facilities for students and staff at an economical price. UNE ensures that the personnel and the students are not distracted from their normal learning by their daily duties such as bringing up of children. The YarmGwanga facility offers care for the young ones on behalf of the students and the staff, helping them concentrate and feel relaxed while in class. They also have special services that they offer to the students in preparation for their graduation. Graduation is the best day of a student’s life, and it should be made memorable. Students do not need to bother about it anymore; they know exactly the right guys for the job; UNE Life. Keywords: Marketing metrics, share market, pioneers, customers, marketing strategies, competition, competitors. Introduction. UNE Life knows that the market is dynamic as competition becomes stiff day by day. It has to innovate and seek new ways of conducting their business to attract more customers to themselves and be at an edge to their clients (Kotler, 2003). Research on customer preferences should be conducted now and then. It will help UNE Life distinguish what their target group prefer from another. Market research will also enable UNE Life identify some ways and means of improving their facilities and services as it will also point out their weaknesses and areas that require immediate attention (Merchant,1998). A target group is crucial to UNE Life. They determine whether a company will make any sales, or they will close their premises. UNE Life focuses on the campus students and the staff. This target group has the majority of them being young. That is why setting a sports and fitness facility will bring profit to them. Again the majority of those who will prefer going to the fitness facility will be male students. Therefore, they decided to set up a salon for the ladies, by so doing everyone was accommodated. It was one bright move that they made. Most of these students might not be financially stable, and likely they are bargain conscious and are ready to accept fewer bells and whistles on the products. It indicates that UNE Life has to offer services at a lower price that is pocket-friendly to most of the students on campus. It will help them to attract a large number of students and still make a good profit due to the high numbers. This knowledge is very helpful; it prevents the competitors from prying on their customers reducing their numbers. Maintaining and attracting more and more customers is the secret behind the success of any business (Shaw, 1997). UNE Life has been of great benefit to the staff and the students, things have now been made very easy for them and at a very affordable price. The campus is full of fun, all they need has been made available. This paper will discuss several things in details that can affect UNE Life. There are several pioneer and follower strategies for business and also have their relevance. The paper will focus on these strategies will change UNE life and its customers. Grow-market strategies for the market leaders and share growth plans for members. The grow-market strategies for the market leaders and share growth strategies for members are of great concern to the UNE Life. These strategies cannot be overlooked at all means .any business requires strategies that will trigger an upward mobility in the increase of sales and services to be rendered to its clients. Strategies will enable UNE Life to come up with new ideas and better ways of operation. Without them, they can easily be outdone by their competitors, and they will start incurring losses (Bhargava, 1994). Maintaining competitive advantage will greatly help UNE Life. It is what will make them different from other companies that offer similar services. It can be achieved by employing some strategies such as reducing the cost of services rendered, improving the standards of the services and products or being innovative and coming up with new and better services and products than their competitors. Having a variety of choices for the customers attracts them a lot and easily helps a company maintain them (Shaw, 1997). All this information will get discussed in details in this paper. A successful business is one that has well set out plans for its operations. Such creates sufficient room for specialisation and development of skills for its stuff. Strategies also help a UNE Life to carry out a comprehensive market research for its products and the services offered to the clients. It creates room for improvement and allows the company to develop a cohesive relationship with its customers and also the staff of the enterprise. Although most of the times it is an expensive exercise it is worth any a company that is ready to reap significant benefits (Bonoma, 1988). The relevance of pioneer and follower strategies. UNE Life needs relevant and suitable strategic programs for them to beat their competitors. They can quickly lose it in a blink of an eye, over pricing, lagging technology or service. Innovative competitors have a vast array of weapons to take them down and ensure they are no more, areas that need advanced technology include, the fitness and gym facilities, cinema and the nightclub. Smart strategic planners of the current times have riveted a lot of efforts to help their organisations, corporate bodies and businesses do well and withstand the growing stiff competition. One thing that is imperative for UNE Life is adding value or coming up with new products and services while still at the same time reducing the cost of the fitness and gym facilities, cinema and the nightclub. Crucially, it is a way to lay the foundation for establishing a firm basis for the domestic market (Simmonds, 1986). Is it beneficial for a company to be the first to introduce a product or a service to the market? Is it worth the risk or should they come up with follower strategies. These and many more are the questions that companies have always asked themselves over and over when formulating their marketing strategy. At times, it is better for UNE Life to wait and learn from the results of the first entrant to the market. It is because the risks are more compared to the benefits to reap, or they are recovering from losses incurred when they were the pioneer introducers of an individual product or services. UNE Life reaped enormous profits by introducing the baby-care. It helps the company learn from its mistakes and also get to find out the strategies employed by other companies to succeed under similar circumstances; it also helps the company to come up with strategies to prevent share erosion when a new player enters the market. If UNE Life is a late entrant, it develops ways to ensure its entrance into the market is successful. UNE Life can come up with ideas of beating other companies that had started nightclubs in the campus by learning their mistakes and manipulating their weaknesses. Studies have shown that being the pioneer in most cases provides a sustained market –share and significant advantage over late entrants. Therefore, it makes it worth the risk. Pioneers in most cases when they achieved the incumbent status becomes very powerful and hard to beat in the market. Once in a while, UNE Life finds itself in a situation where it is overwhelmed by demand for their services. The shifting requirements of the marketplace become hard for them to handle (Slater, 1995). It is evident when UNE Life introduced the gym and fitness centre they were not easy to beat, and other companies tried and failed. Pioneer strategies aim at attracting and creation of awareness of the products and services offered by a business while the follower strategies aim at taking advantage of the gaps created by the pioneer companies to find ways to exploit their weakness in service delivery to attract more customers to themselves. This information is useful in the marketing strategies of UNE Life when they have the idea of expanding their premises. Pioneers strategies can create a distinctive presence of UNE Life in the marketplace. It also allow UNE Life to be in a position to react and also anticipate potential entrants, it can create or increase barriers to the companies to protect its marketplace. A pioneer company can decrease the value of the business for a new entrant to a market by just lowering the prices of the commodity while still increasing the quality. There are significant benefits to reap for a pioneer company in a marketplace. UNE Life can reduce the costs for fitness practices and also improve on technology. It does not matter whether a pioneer or a follower seeking to foil newcomers, it is critical to have a comprehensive and a thorough understanding of the defensive and the entry strategies that have been put in place and readily available, a perfect game plan for sound decision-making and a good sense of timing. Basic strategic planning. There are some critical factors for UNE Life to determine when establishing a competitive strategy; they include, a portfolio of existing companies offering similar products or services and market environment and positioning. A new business will have no choice but to reduce the prices of goods or services to compete with the pioneers. It is a good way to attract customers, and also they should of improving the standards and their technology .this will expand their market quickly. This strategy will result in reduced margins for the new entrants. Therefore, they have to ensure that their cost of production has to be low because if it is high they will face many challenges trying to market their products and services, targeting new markets can be very beneficial both to the pioneer and the followers. It can prove to be less risky, a business should again look outside to more lucrative services through advertisement and marketing (Chakravarthy, 1986) Table 1: Average Performance of Pioneers and Followers Order of Entry Average Market Average Sales Average Profit before Tax Average Return on 1993 Share (%)* 1997 2001 (Rs billion)* 1993 1997 2001 (Rs billion)* 1993 1997 2001 Investment (%)** 1993 1997 2001 Pioneers 11.2 10.50 9.28 8.89 17.04 27.66 0.46 1.08 1.72 25.35 15.72 17.46 Followers 7.50 6.85 6.96 2.97 5.63 10.63 0.12 0.39 0.40 21.40 20.28 15.18 *sample sizes are as follows 2001, 1997, and 1993 were 394 (Pioneers – 198, Followers – 196), 366 (Pioneers – 190, Followers – 176), and 337 (Pioneers – 184, Followers – 153), respectively. **Sample sizes as follows; 2001, 1997, and 1993 were 373 (Pioneers – 190, Followers – 183), 346 (Pioneers – 183, Followers – 163), and 307 (Pioneers – 176, Followers – 131), respectively. Table 2: Average Expenditure on Strategies by Pioneers and Followers Order of Entry Average R&D Average Advertising Average Promotion Average Distribution 1993 (Rs million)* 1997 2001 (Rs million)* 1993 1997 2001 (Rs million)* 1993 1997 2001 (Rs million)* 1993 1997 2001 Pioneers 18.0 50.40 60.30 31.20 90.70 156.00 436.80 728.50 224.90 240.00 403.80 763.70 Followers 2.80 30.20 28.80 18.80 47.50 83.40 36.40 68.10 150.00 62.30 100.70 194.90 *Sample sizes are as follows; 2001, 1997, and 1993 were 394 (Pioneers – 198, Followers 196), 366 (Pioneers – 190, Followers – 176), and 337 (Pioneers – 184, Followers – 153), respectively. Relevance of grow-market for market leaders and share-growth strategies for followers. Market share can be said to be the percentage of a market accounted for by a particular entity. It is defined in terms of either revenue or units. Marketing personnel at UNE Life should have the skills to incorporate and translate sales targets into market shares. It plays a crucial role in demonstrating whether forecasts are to be attained by capturing shares from the competitors or by growing with the market (Day, 1988). The most significant and primary objectives for UNE Life is increasing the market share. There are many advantages of using the market share as a measure of business performance; these include the fact that it does not heavily upon macro environmental variables such as a change in tax policy or economy. The indicator of market competitiveness is the market share. It is an indication of how well a UNE Life is doing against its competitors. UNE Life has to observe the current trend in their customer preferences; they have to identify which premises is doing better compared to the others, if the cafeteria is not attracting customers like it used to do, they have to find out the reason behind it and improve the situation. The metrics will help the UNE Life managers to be in a position to evaluate both selective and primary demand in their markets. Key strategies and their relevance. There are some key strategies that UNE Life should employ to snatch more market share. They include; Staying relevant through innovation; this can be achieved by spotting new trends ahead of the competitors present in the market. UNE Life can achieve this by listening to the engaging the customers in discussions, watching the news and even listening to the students on the campus as they discuss their products and the services they are offering. UNE Life should think about how new and advanced technology can significantly benefit their business, especially in the sport and fitness centre. Responding to customers fast; this is where some company miss the mark. They do not respond to their clients in real time, and this greatly irritates the customers a lot.in this type of target that UNE Life has, they remain loyal to people who are always there to serve them whenever they need them. If they need to book seats early enough for a movie, there should be someone to do that. UNE life should try to figure out how fast their competitors respond and try to be faster than them and for sure the customers will notice and remain loyal to them. Use of customer’s ideas; this is giving the customers the opportunity to point out to some of the things that they think should be improved. It makes the customers feel part of the business and creates a lot of trusts, confidence and loyalty between the company and its customer’s .they feel recognised and identified as some of the people making the business successful. Acquisition of competitors; sometimes the easiest way to acquire more customers is by quickly buying them. UNE Life should be very keen on what their close competitors are offering. They can them come up with measures such as sales promotions to lure the customers to visit frequently their premises. They should take advantage of the mistakes their competitors are making and use them to attract more customers to themselves. It is another way of broadening their market and reaching out to more customers. Being more flexible; UNE Life should be more flexible in their ways of operations and even how their routines take place. They should try to adjust with the aim to favour their customers and also their workers as well. Being flexible helps a company to cope up with the changes that are taking place in the business. Flexibility is usually to the benefit of the enterprise and, therefore, should be adopted as soon as possible if need be (Scott, 2007). Strategic choices for maintaining a competitive advantage in mature and declining markets. UNE Life managers choose marketing strategies that will maximise the profits that the business will make and be able to outdo the competitors in the same field. They try to create an advantage over their competitors. Evaluating cost leadership opportunities. UNE Life is built on cost leadership; this demands the business to raise the quality of its product while at the concurrently lowering the prices than those of its competitors a good example is at the hair studio to attract more ladies. It will create a sustainable advantage over the competitors. The keys risks that the cost leaders must be concerned with include the; There is a duplication of many cost saving activities. There can be a trap in exclusive cost leadership. There is a possible likelihood of obsessive cost cutting shrinking other competitive advantages that involve critical product attributes. There is a difference cost decline over time. Evaluating speed as a competitive advantage. Speed in responding to customer requests and technological improvement is of great benefit to UNE Life and will significantly improve its operations, speed is needed at the restaurant so that students will not miss classes. There are various sectors in a business that need speed and these are; product development process, quick decision making and adjusting the production process (Shaw, 1997). Strategies in the Transition to Industry Maturity There are strategies necessary as UNE Life develops to maturity. These strategies are very crucial since they determine the future and the success of the company. Pruning of the production line; this is mainly done to suit the changing demand of the business to deliver as expected by the customers. Putting a lot of emphasis in the process innovation; this makes the company creatively and always introduce new products in the market .This helps to widen the market and attract more customers. Emphasizing on cost reductions; this is another critical factor to determine when approaching new markets to win the customers. International expansion; this comes about when the business seeks to go global .this is the best way to maximise profits especially when the local market gets saturated .UNE Life can approach more campuses in Australia and introduce their services and premises. Strategies for mature and declining industries. As UNE Life approaches maturity, there is a tendency for its goods to slow down in the market such the cinema and the baby care. Therefore a business should come up with brilliant ideas to save themselves for a declining market .there are some key strategies that they can use as outlined below. Focusing on the key segments; this helps the business to rivet a lot of efforts in what is bringing more revenue to them and make it even stronger. It contributes to keeping the company still in operation even when there is stiff competition and also when there is a likelihood of a market to decline. Emphasizing on quality improvement and product innovation; when the market is falling the only way to win customers to your business is by improving the quality of goods and services that you offer especially at the restaurant, hair studio and the. Quality improvement is vital, this is what makes customers prefer a particular to others that offer similar services. Being innovative in the production field is also a key thing to consider. The introduction of new products, facilities and services in the market attracts very many customers due to curiosity before the competitors come to realise of it, it becomes too late. Product promotions and advertisement; this can be achieved through the social media, televisions, internet and even magazines and newspapers. This helps to create awareness to the customers that a particular product, services or facility exist. It contributes to reaching out to more people quickly. Most businesses have gone online thanks to the internet. Creation of company websites where customers can log into and shop for whatever they desire has proved to be very efficient in curbing the menace of declining markets for most of the companies. Marketing strategies to serve new economy markets. Marketing strategies are highly linked and connected to each other if one changes the others are affected and demand also to be adjusted. Revising the marketing structures has always been seen as a way of increasing efficiency promote synergy or reduce cost and create good teamwork. This is the best way to serve new economy markets (Homburg, 1999). The Connection between Strategy and Structure. Many mistake business structure to be the company chart. Structure refers to all the people procedures, positions, processes, technology and related elements .It defines how all the parts, pieces and processes work together. If an organisation decides to change strategy it must also change the structure to hold the new policies .if this does not happen the structure will hinder the efficiency of the strategies and the business will reduce its pace of operation .Changing of policies demands change in all the activities carried out in the organisation, and everyone has to adapt to the change soonest possible for efficiency to be achieved. Many are times that business managers wonder what might happen if they change their strategies and not structure. What happens is that the plans will quickly change to fit the existing structures. Strategies have the tendency to follow the structures. In business the structures are a very powerful force .one cannot direct it to do something for a particular period, it can only be possible if the structure is capable of supporting that strategy. The strategy is the Structure. Structure and strategy are highly linked to each other. The only way to create lasting progress is to ensure a high interrelation between the set plans and structure. There has to have the right structures for strategies to succeed .This will enhance the creation of cohesion in the business and facilitate its upward mobility (Bhargava, 1994). Implementing Change As Important As Strategy Itself. UNE Life has worked very hard for a long time to be successful. All this efforts have been with the aim of finding more ways to increase sales, market share and growth rates. Improving the existing strategies and being able to create new ones that are likely to spur exceptional has been the central mission of the UNE Life. For UNE life to implement new strategic shift they need to have a complete change within the organisation itself. Leadership and the issues that affect everyone in the organisation have to be considered. UNE life to enhance the performance of a sales force they has to address the structural, measurement, communication, people, culture and the leadership aspects of the organisation, or at least the part of the structure to be changed. Strategy and structure are seen to be highly connected to each other. They can also be said to be married to each other. A decision to change one call for efforts to be made so as to change the other. In combination, they ensure balance in the organisation. The strategy usually comes first then the purpose of a structure. Strategies play a crucial role in defining what customers need and also markets a group. What they are offering in the market and what makes them different from their competitors. Marketing performance metrics. Marketing metrics provides frameworks that marketing directors, brand managers public relation specialists can use to determine marketing performance of an organisation. It helps the public relations experts back up their marketing strategies and plans. It is usually done when the company has an urge to run leaner and more efficient business than it used to do earlier. The numeric data gives the UNE Life marketers an opportunity not only to justify their efforts but also portray the direct relationship larger organisational goals and also the marketing (Amber, 2000). Marketing metrics comes with different elements of measure that UNE Life needs to take into consideration. They include, through marketing metrics brands can be able to build their marking performance in the following ways. Increasing the competitive intelligence and also anticipating the reactions of the competitors to new market strategies. Assessing the company’s marketing assets more accurately such as the equity of the brand among its target audience. Build knowledge of the marketing metrics. The marketing metric audit. The marketing metric review of UNE Life is the marketing accountability standards board. It is the formal process for connecting activities that involve marketing to the financial performance of the business or an organisation. It gives detailed information on the financial performance of UNE Life. The process involves the conceptual linking of all the activities of the enterprise that requires marketing to the intermediate marketing outcome metrics to the main cash flow drivers of the business. Characteristics of a sound metric. A sound and effective metric for UNE Life should involve the fooling. It should be relevant, and address also inform of the pending specific actions. Predictive: - it should be in a position to accurately predict the results of pending work. Objective: - it should not be subject to personal interpretation. Reliable: - that is being secure and stable. Product Life Cycle (PLC). UNE Life requires concepts that are valuable and significant in their strategic marketing programs .It helps to look into the days to come and anticipate changes that are very critical to be made. PLC plays a vital role in looking and concentrating on the sales of the history of a product and its class. Products usually undergo the first stage, often, the introduction whereby the consumers are not aware of a particular product in the market. The second stage is usually the growth, the sales of products increase due to awareness of the product in the market. The third phase is the shakeout, and there is usually a decrease in the growth rate. This is followed by mature and declining stages after the consumers are fully aware of the existence of the products. Conclusion. Some factors lead to the success or failure of a business. Every company has to acknowledge the fact that customers are the key factor contributing to their success. Business managers should try all ways and means to ensure that the customers contented and grateful for the services they receive from the company. The competition will keep on being stiff, and only the companies that have proper strategies will reap the benefits. References. Ambler, T. (2000), Marketing and the Bottom Line: The New Metrics of Corporate Wealth, London, Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Bhargava, M. (1994), "Reconciling Diverse Measures of Performance: A Conceptual Framework and Test of a Methodology”, Journal of Business Research. Bonoma, (1988), Marketing Performance Assessment, Boston, Harvard Business School Press. Chakravarthy, Balaji S. (1986), "Measuring Strategic Performance”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol.7. Day, George S. and Fahey, Liam (1988), “Valuing Market Strategies”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.52 Day, George S. and Wensley, Robin (1988), "Assessing Advantage: A Framework for Diagnosing Competitive Superiority”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.52. Farris, P. (2010). Marketing Metrics Homburg, C. (1999), "Marketing’s Influence within the Firm”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.63, No.2 Kotler, P. (2003), Marketing Management, (11th edition), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Merchant, Kenneth A. (1998), Modern Management Control Systems, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Scott, A. (1996). "Competitor Orientation: Effects of Objectives and Information on Managerial Decisions and Profitability" (PDF). Journal of Marketing Research (American Marketing Association) Simmonds, K. (1986a), "Marketing as Innovation. The Eighth Paradigm”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol.23, No.3. Slater, Stanley F. and Narver, John C. (1995), "Market Orientation and the Learning Organization”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.59. Read More