Definitions Flashcards
What are core competencies?
the combination of skills and resources that combine together to provide competitive advantage in the marketplace. They are often seen as the total of an organisation’s collective knowledge
What are the 3 tests for finding out a core competency?
Relevance: why your customer chooses you over any competitor.
Difficulty of imitation: your offering must be unique and robust.
Breadth of application: your competency provides access to a range of new markets.
What is competitive advantage?
A strength held by an organisation that gives it an edge relative to the competition
the superior profits that an organisation earns by virtue of delivering superior customer value
What is analysis?
Process by which a complex system or structure is broken down into smaller easier to understand parts so that a solution or strategy can be determined.
The solution or strategy that is determined is the optimal means by which a set of objectives can be achieved.
What do marketer’s have to analyse?
The market itself
The organisation’s brand
The channels used to market eg. digital
What is the difference between market, brand and channel analysis?
Market analysis- Where do we operate?
Brand analysis- What do we offer?
Channel analysis- How do we promote and supply it? E.g. digital channels
What are core products?
Core products tend to result from the development and maturity of core competencies.
These are not necessarily the products that the end user sees but are key components that go into each of those user products. This is most obvious in companies such as Dyson where its core product of high speed electric motors is present in its vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and its fans, or at Honda where its combustion engine core product is present in its cars, motorcycles, outboard motors and generators. Once a company has established its core products it can use them to expand the number of end products to gain cost advantage through economies of scale and scope.
What is the resource based view (RBV)?
views an organisation as a collection of resources which are used to create competitive advantage
(Penrose, 1959).
What is a competitive advantage?
A strength held by an organisation that gives it an edge relative to the competition, and the superior profits that an organisation earns by virtue of delivering superior customer value
To achieve competitive dominance you have to seek dominance in which 3 areas?
Cost
• Performance
• Specialism
What factors may affect a sustainable competitive advantage?
Core rigidities
Sticky resources
Dynamic environments
Risks of Innovation
Define core rigidities
A way of describing when an organisation becomes too rigid with its core competencies.
Define sticky resources
To create competitive advantage, core capabilities must not be easily transferable from one organisation to another. This means they are ‘sticky’. When you are analysing your organisation, you need to consider whether your core competencies are ‘sticky’ or could be easily transferred to or copied by a competitor.
At the same time, bear in mind that sticky resources, because of their relative value to the organisation, may become a rigidity if the organisation becomes over reliant on them and reluctant to change strategy when the market changes.
What is a dynamic environment?
How capable the organisation is of adapting to a changing environment
A dynamic environment is rapidly changing. An organisation needs dynamic capabilities in order to adjust to short-term competitive positions
What do organisation need in place for a dynamic environment?
- Mechanisms in place to monitor macro and micro environmental changes
- The ability to consider the implications of the changing environment
- The ability and desire to adapt. For example, as we have seen, core rigidities will prevent this adaption, even if the organisation has seen the change
Define synthesize in marketing terms
Blend the knowledge of real events, academic know how and the experience of the organisation. Use history and earlier actions to decide how likely a strategy is to work
What is a technology risk
The technology risk is whether the
innovation itself will work.
What does VUCA stand for?
Why does it relate to marketing?
Volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous
Markets are all of the above
Successful organisations put the customer at the heart of their strategy-making process.
Key characteristics of a market-driven strategy is to be market-orientated.
Define stakeholder
Individuals, groups or organisations who can influence, or are influenced by, the activities of an organisation.
What are pressure groups?
Also referred to as causal groups, citizen action groups, advocacy groups or lobby groups, these have a single issue on which their members feel strongly. Their aim is to change opinions and attitudes. Examples are: Friends of the Earth and the League Against Cruel Sports. Some need no introduction – such as the RSPCA, while others may be less familiar: Surfers Against Sewage
What are sectional groups?
These represent the interests of their members. Notable examples include:
The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Trades Union Congress and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
What is a reaction strategy?
Here, the situation is allowed to continue unresolved until discovered, for example by enforcement agencies or consumer groups. When the problem becomes known, managers will often deny responsibility while, in the background, trying to resolve the issue
What is a defence strategy?
This uses defensive tactics to avoid obligations which the company might otherwise have. Lobbying government or legal manoeuvring would be suitable defensive measures.
What is the accommodation strategy?
This involves taking responsibility for the firm’s actions, and accommodating the views of the stakeholders. This might result from the activities of special interest groups, or impending government legislation.
