Ch 1

Question 1

What is marketing’s role in the strategic process?

Answer 1

1) Business intelligence - Closest to customers, competitors, market shifts etc.
2) Driver of corporate growth - Usually called upon to implement tactical elements of a strategy
3) Differentiate & creator of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) - Lead in building & maintaining customer & brand equity
4) Curator of customer experience & relationship manager
5) Guardian of the corporate reputation – Social responsibility & ethical compass

Question 2

What are the two main questions when creating a business strategy?

Answer 2

• where to compete

- how to cmopete

Question 3

How decide where to compete?

Answer 3

Ansoff matrix

Question 4

What are ways of how to compete?

Answer 4

• Customer value proposition & value leadership
• Assets & competencies
• Functional area strategies & programs

Question 5

What are aspects of value proposition?

Answer 5

• Benefits to customer – functional, emotional, social, - self-expressive
• What is promise to the customer? Is it meaningful? Can it be delivered?
• Must be sustainable over time
• Attributes/features never replace benefits

Question 6

What are aspects of assets and competencies?

Answer 6

1) Strategic assets – critical resources which enable a co. to develop a SCA (financial, human, physical, legal, relationships, brand, knowledge)
2) Competencies – unique knowledge or process, what the org. excels at, what is strategically important to org.

Question 7

What is benefit of Functional area strategies & programs?

Answer 7

Can be leveraged to assist with achieving strategic goals

Question 8

What are characteristcs of a sustainable competitive advantage?

Answer 8

• Can be converted into sources of value for customers
• Are rare
• Difficult to copy/Not easily imitated
• Good substitutes for resource don’t exist
• Can be leveraged for advantage

Question 9

What are Criteria to select business strategies?

Answer 9

Is the ROI attractive?
Is there a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA)?
Survivability – over the long term?
Feasibility – does the org. have the appropriate resources?
Does the strategy fit with an org.’s larger/other strategy? Synergy?

Question 10

strategy only works if it has…? What are the parts to this?

Answer 10

VALUE!
Parts:
- Perceived benefits
- Perceived costs
- Perceived risks
- Customer’s perception of value changes as they become more experienced & as competitors reshape the landscape

Question 11

What is commoditization?

Answer 11

Consequence of mature industries where slowing innovation, extensive product assortment, excess supply, and frugal consumers force margins to the floor
= everything starts to look the same (same features, etc) so can only realy compete on price anymore

Question 12

What are some of the Forces feeding the changes?`\

Answer 12

Political instability
Digital & other technologies (AI)
Trends in the way people choose to live
Attitudes toward how companies behave & utilize human & natural resources
Development of new economic superpowers
Demographic shifts

Question 13

What is the pyramid of business things a company should have (from broad to specific)

Answer 13

1 vision (how change the world!)
2 mission (why, more action focused)
3 goals
4 objectives
5 strategies
6 tactics

Question 14

How goes the strategic analysis process?

Answer 14

1 External and internal analysisi
2 analysis output and external and internal assessment
3 create and adapt strategy
4 implement strategy
5 measure performance