Reasons for Being Competitive: of Twitter - Case Study Example

Executive Summary Development of a new product and designing a prototype for the product is important as it helps to understand the features, the attributes and the augmented benefit that the product provides. This paper presents the manner in which Twitter which is alsready functioning in the market needs to develop its services so that it is able to match the competitors and ensure strategy for the future. Twitter on this front has been able to ensure that they are able to provide a service which is different from the competitors as they pioneered a concept of sending messages upto 140 characters. The competitors matche dwith addition of new services which requires that such new services is added to the already exisiting services. The necessity of the product was identfied on the backdrop of a market research which was carried out in the same direction which highlighted the need of developing a product which helps to enhance customer experience and makes them use Twitter in comparison to other services. This will require that Twitter looks at improving the brand image and developing new products which provide the customer the same experience and make them use the same services again and again. Table of Contents Introduction 3 Working of Twitter 3 Reasons for being competitive 5 Sustainibilty & copetitive advantage of business model 6 Leadership approach towards challenges 7 Area of Concern 9 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction Service quality is a very important aspect for business especially those working in the service sector as the perception of people differs and is situation based and changes as per the group the person has. The importance of this magnifies as services are intangible and measuring it becomes difficult. This makes it important that the business looks towards developing strategies to maximize customer satisfaction so that they are better contented. The purpose of this report is to find out the manner in which Twitter has developed their business and to find out the strategy that the company has used to grow their business. This has been followed by identifying the reasons for competitive advantage and their sustainable advantage which has been possible due to the leadership skills. This shows the areas that Twitter needs to work and has helepd to find out the strategy which will help them to grow thwir business. This will thereby ensure that Twitter is able to improve their business and get an opportunity to grow their business. Working of Twitter Twitter has been able to ensure that the market grows and providing a service which is different from others in the market has ensured that they differentiate themselves from the competitors. Providing services where they are able to ensure that messages can be send for 140 characters has ensured that it is used by all people of all classes. This has ensured that Twitter looks at developing a mechanism through which the business will be able to ensure maximum opportunity for improving their business. Twitter while looking to ensure that their financial performance improves has laid special emphasis on ensuring that resources are used in the most efficient manner. Twitter looking to achieving their goals has ensured that they look towards managing their resources in such a manner that the business is able to ensure proper mix of the resources and develop policies where the management is able to use the resources in the most effective manner. Twitter has taken care of different resources which includes capital, human and financials (Bangs, 2002). On the capital front Twitter has looked towards ensuring that the infrastructure to support the business is developed so that their capital investments can be used in the most positive manner and will help the organization to ensure positivity within the organization. This makes it imperative that Twitter manages their capital requirements so that the employees are able to provide quality services to its customers (Robin & Susan, 2003). While managing the human resource the management has to look towards hiring the correct talent. Efforts have been laid to ensure that the people hired are able to justify their jobs. This thereby increases the importance of hiring the correct people at the same time. Efforts have also be laid to ensure that all type of people like skilled, unskilled, casual, full time and part time employees are employed depending on the requirements of the business. For example Twitter has ensured that there are computer operators, marketing personnel, after sales personnel and other who are skilled, unskilled, casual, full time and part time employees so that the business is able to provide proper services (Cateora, Mary & Graham, 2009). On the financial front the management has to look towards maintaining the financials in such a manner that the business doesn’t face a liquidity crunch. On this front the management has ensured that they manage their financial resources in such a manner that the business is able to recover its money from the daily business and also finance the business requirements (Ireland, Hoskisson and Hitt, 2007). This is an aspect of business which is of prime importance and the business has to look towards ensuring that the business is able to manage the resources in such a manner that the business is able to yield effective results. Thus, looking towards managing the human, financial and capital requirements will help Twitter to develop strategies that help them to grow and ensure proper growth of the business. This will also help the business in ensuring that better policies can be formulated for growth. Reasons for being competitive Twitter looked towards developing strategies so that the company was able to work on the different aspect of the business and improve the manner in which decisions are taken so that the business is able to ensure better accuracy and match with the changing business scenario. This strategies were derived by different factors and made the management look into different directions so that the business is able to sustain the changes in a better way. Twitter looks towards following a strategy of a differentiator where they looked towards ensuring that the business is able to provide different services where the user is able to send messages to people upto 140 characters. This has ensured that Twitter differentiates its services in comparison to another by providing services based on customer requirements so that the company is able to provide better services to its customers. Tweeter also looked towards increased autonomy and decision making power to the marketing executives. This was based on the premise that allowing them the liberty will helped Twitter to ensure that they are able to understand the customer requirements better and based on it takes decisions. This will ensure that the decisions are as per the changing business environment and Twitter will be able to provide better services to its customers. Twitter also looked towards a complete change over by ensuring that the company was more consumer oriented and looked towards making major changes at fast pace so that customers wants were satisfied. This will help the business to identify the wants and requirements of the customers and will thereby help to change their outlook towards the brand. Thus, the manner in which the business looked towards major changes will ensure that Twitter is able to react positively to the market changes and create a brand which is bigger than it was before. Sustainibilty & copetitive advantage of business model Twitter presently has looked towards penetration and differentiation by providing the services to different section of the customers across the globe so that better connection among the people can be developed and will help to pass on important message to the customers. The company has looked towards a policy where they are able to penetrate the market and reach even to the far off customers. This strategy of the company has been their main weapon based on which the services have been provided. In addition to it Twitter has further looked towards ensuring that they provide the customers’ with a bouquet of offerings at the most competitive rates. This has ensured that the service packages include different features like bulk message, confrencing and other services to attract customers. Twitter has looked towards a policy of increasing their penetration level as the company looks to offer various services to the customers across the globe. The strategy of the company has been to offer services to customers and looks towards eliminating the middle man as message can be communicated directly to the customers (Coughlan, Stern & Ansary, 2006). In this regard the company has looked towards adopting a policy where they look towards improved training facilities to the employees, build brand awareness, and look towards transparency while dealing with customers. The company has looked towards following the same strategy and based on this fundamentals has spread their business so that more and more customers at the different area can be tapped and provided valuable information Leadership approach towards challenges The leadership approach towards dealing with different challenges shows that Twitter needs to concentrate on the different aspect of the business as their brand image has been affected and they need to ensure that the new CEO that has been apointed looks towards transforming their business. Some of the identified marketing objectives are as Strategy to renew the brand name of Twitter: This is one of the most important activities that the management needs to realize and develop steps because other players like Google have started to offer better services in comparison to Twitter. This has made people doubt whether Twitter is better or using other websites are beneficial for them. The management needs to bring forward the customers that Twitter is superior service as they provide additional features and are the pioneer of the services. For this Twitter has to take an aggressive attitude especially while advertising and should ensure that they clearly educate the public about the uniqueness of their product in comparison to other (Buckstein, 2010). Building & Retaining Customer Loyalty: Intensifying competition and increase in the number of alternatives available to the customers with regard to sending buls messages has made them jump from one brand to another. This requires that Twitter looks towards having some customer retention program. This thereby makes it difficult for Twitter to differentiate thir product or services from others. This will require that Twitter develops some new loyalty programs which is different from other competitors so that customers look towards using the services of Twitter due to additional facilities and features which they can avail (Buckstein, 2010) Focus on Cost Efficiency: The manner in which all economies are experiencing a difficult time to sustain growth and increasing cost is also putting pressure on Twitter as it is no exception (World Bank, 2010). This has increased the burden on their financials and has increased the cost for the business. This requires that Twitter looks at concentrating on their core business and aims to develop other business through that. One way forward in this direction can be by adding new services in the same format so that the users are provided with additional features. This strategy will help Twitter to diversify their risk to a large extent and will help them to concentrate on their business and ensure that cost is reduced by better strategy (Thompson & Strickland, 1999). Developing strategy towards future growth: Twitter to sustain the competitive market needs to look towards developing strategy for the future. The manner in which new players are entering the market and the intensifying competition has made it all the more likely. This requires that Twitter looks towards developing strategies where they focus on entering the corporate sector and looks towards expansion strategy by having more features added to their services. Entering the corporate sector will provide Twitter to get an advantage as they will be provided with a niche sector. This will act as a helping hand for Twitter as this will help them to develop their business further at the same time ensure that better strategies can be developed which will help them in the future to improve their business. Thus, there are different areas highlights that Twitter need to focus on as developing this will help to ensure better strategies and help to develop their business to yield better effectiveness in their services. Area of Concern Twitter is faced with situations where it is important that the company looked towards identifying the major areas that they need to concentrate on. This will help them to improve the manner in which business is carried out and the company is able to move on a path where they are able to sustain growth and profits for longer period of time. The main area of concern for Twitter is to make changes in its strategies by looking towards understanding the changing demands in the market. The company needed to understand the changing technology on this front and has to look towards developing software where using the services of the company the users are able to communciate via text messages along with videos and other functions. Working and developing strategies which concentrate on these areas will help Twitter to ensure that they are able to keep with the changing business scenario and develop products according to the customer wants. This will help Twitter to ensure that they are able to stand ahead of their competitors and develop a mechanism which helps their business to grow. Recommendations Twitter should look towards both first and second level changes. The management has looked towards incorporating first level change to ensure better performance and result for the business. The first order change as seen in Twitter is evident from the fact that the new CEO has been appointed to take over the duties of the business and it has further looked towards ensuring that employees are hired as per the business needs. This is a first order change which the business has undergone and moving back would mean that the brand image would be affected as the selection of new executives or hiring of old executives again will be questioned. This will have an effect on their brand equity and shows that manner in which the first order changes have been implemented in the organization (Douglas & Edward, 2003). The company on the second level changes has to look towards diversifying their business and has to move from their core business to other business and is looking towards diversifying the risk by spreading it over different businesses. Twitter on this aspect neds to incorporate things from their competitor and look towards allowing video messaging along with other new facilities so that the customer base increases. These changes are huge and will have an effect on the manner the company works as these major changes will get reflected on the organizational culture and based on it the business will have to undergo wide changes (Boddy & Macbeth, 2000). This would mean that moving back from these changes seems like a high uncertainty and the business will have to continue their operations after implementing the changes that have been made in their strategies (Clegg & Walsh, 2004). Both the first and second order changes have to be made by Twitter after understanding the changing business environment and the manner it will have an effect on the business outcome. To ensure that they are able to meet the changes Twitter has to look at developing their training programs and providing different directives through which the business will be able to achieve their fundamentals (Gotsill & Meryl, 2007). Along with this Twitter should look towards conducting marketing research. Marketing research will benefit Twitter in formulating marketing strategies as it will help them to find out the customer requirements. This will help Twitter to reduce the risk associated with a developing a website which integrates both video and text mssages. This will also present before Twitter the different opportunities that exist in the market and will provide the direction based on which a new product or services can be developed. This will thereby help to develop a benchmark against which the success can be measured and will thereby help to reduce risk and reduce the chances of failure of the new services (Day, 2005). Conclusion Vodafone has thereby been able to build on the areas that will help them to render better services. The manner in which Vodafone has been able to yield efficiency is quite prevalent from the fact that the resources were used in the most efficient manner. This has helped them to ensure that their strategy of penetration also paid off. In addition to it the overall culmination and growth can be witnessed from the fact that the financials of the company has improved and overall the company has been able to perform well on all quarters. This has thereby ensured that the decisions taken by the management has been productive and has helped Vodafone to improve their performance. The decision making process for Vodafone is sound and the different parameters help to understand the manner in which the business has been able to improve its performance. References Boddy, D. & Macbeth, D. 2000. 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