Ch. 3 Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Question 1

Planning

Answer 1

the process of anticipating future events and determining strategies to achieve organizational objectives in the future

Question 2

Strategic Planning

Answer 2

the leadership and managerial process of establishing the organization’s objectives and then determining how to achieve them given internal resources and the evolving marketing environment

Question 3

Marketing Environment

Answer 3

the entire set of situational conditions, both internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats), within which a business operates

Question 4

Strategic Business Unit

Answer 4

a subgroup of a single business or a collection of related businesses within the larger organization

Question 5

Mission Statement

Answer 5

a statement of the business’s value based on a careful analysis of benefits sought by present and potential customers and an analysis of existing and anticipated environmental conditions

Question 6

SWOT Analysis

Answer 6

identifying internal environment of strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) as well as external opportunities (O) and threats (T)

Question 7

Environmental Scanning

Answer 7

the collection and interpretation of information about forces, events, and relationships in the external environment that may affect the future of the organization or the implementation of the marketing plan

Question 8

Market Penetration

Answer 8

a marketing strategy that tries to increase market share among existing customers by using existing products

Question 9

Market Development

Answer 9

a marketing strategy that involves attracting new customers to existing products

Question 10

Product Development

Answer 10

a marketing strategy that entails the creation of new products for current customers

Question 11

Diversification

Answer 11

a strategy of increasing sales by introducing new products into new markets

Question 12

Core Competencies

Answer 12

key unique strengths that are hard to imitate and underlie the functioning of an organization

Question 13

Competitive Advantage

Answer 13

the set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market as significant and superior to the competition

Question 14

Cost Competitive Advantage

Answer 14

being the low-cost competitor in an industry while maintaining satisfactory profit margins

Question 15

Experience Curves

Answer 15

curves that show costs declining at a predictable rate as experience with a product increases

Question 16

Product/service Differentiation Competitive Advantage

Answer 16

the provision of a unique benefit that is valuable to buyers beyond simply offering a low price

Question 17

Niche Competitive Advantage

Answer 17

the advantage achieved when a company seeks to target and effectively serve a single segment of the market

Question 18

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Answer 18

an advantage that cannot be copied by the competition

Question 19

Marketing Strategy

Answer 19

the activities of selecting and describing one or more target markets and developing and maintaining a marketing mix that will produce mutually satisfying exchanges with target markets

Question 20

Marketing Objective

Answer 20

a statement of what is to be accomplished through marketing activities

Question 21

Market Opportunity Analysis (MOA)

Answer 21

he description and estimation of the size and sales potential of market segments that are of interest to the business and the assessment of key competitors in these market segments

Question 22

Marketing Mix

Answer 22

a unique blend of product, price, place, and promotion, strategies designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanges with a target market

Question 23

Implementation

Answer 23

the process that turns a marketing plan into action assignments and ensures that these assignments are executed in a way that accomplishes the plan’s objectives

Question 24

Evaluation

Answer 24

gauging the extent to which the marketing objectives have been achieved during the specified period

Question 25

Control

Answer 25

provides the mechanisms both for evaluating marketing results in light of the plan’s objectives and for correcting actions that do not help the organization reach those objectives within budget guidelines

Question 26

Marketing Audit

Answer 26

a thorough, systematic, periodic evaluation of the objectives, strategies, structure, and performance of the marketing organization