U3 The Position in the Market Flashcards
Case Study
Why Do We Exist?
The top level of an organization, the founders or the corporate level, formulate the guiding philosophy. This guiding philosophy defines?
the values of the organization and dictates how the organization should view itself.
It also formulates the future direction of the organization.
The guiding philosophy provides an internal orientation for?
the employees, guidance for their behavior, and motivation.
To the outside world, the guiding philosophy shows what the organization stands for. It is the basis for?
corporate identity.
Corporate identity
Corporate identity defines the identity of an organization. The identity is defined through all the characteristics of an organization that distinguish it from other organizations.
Mission
The mission is the heart of a strategy; it explains why?
the organization exists and provides clarity to its purpose.
It defines the organization to all who are directly or indirectly connected to it:
employees,
suppliers,
customers,
distributors,
shareholders, etc.,
otherwise referred to as stakeholders.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are individuals or organizations that are connected to or affected by the organization.
The mission answers the following questions:
=Why do we exist?
=What is our purpose?
=Why are we different from others?
=What do we want to achieve?
=How do we achieve it?
The Bar School provides us with?
an example of a good mission statement.
The first part:
“The mission of the Bar School is to inspire and empower students to become balanced, responsible and global-minded members of society,” answers the question of why the school exists and what its purpose is.
The second
part of the mission statement: “This is accomplished by offering a high-quality, internationally accepted education,” describes how the school will accomplish its mission.
Vision
While the mission statement looks at the purpose of ?
an organization from the present-day perspective, the vision looks at the future of an organization and where it aims to be.
The vision should inspire and unite everyone involved with the organization and should ?
challenge the organization’s resources.
The vision answers the following questions:
=What do we want to accomplish in the future?
=Where do we see our organization in five, ten, 15, or even 20 years?
The vision is the guiding philosophy of the organization, which must reflect the values of?
an organization and is influenced by the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
An example of a vision:
“We will provide the highest quality product\/service in the market.”
Values
The value statement communicates the values and principles of an ——————–. It defines its guidelines for conducting business. These values should not ————————————, as they provide the basis for each strategy.
organization
change or be adapted
The values of the Bar School are:
(1) Every person is of value and has unique potential, and
(2) Good conduct, teamwork, cooperation and respect are important factors for success; education is a partnership between students, parents, and teachers.
Goals
Many organizations have neither ?
a mission, vision, nor a value statement.
However, every organization has goals. Goals are specific to each layer or department of the organization, as illustrated in the following figure.
Figure 3: Goal Hierarchiesimage
Figure 3: Goal Hierarchiesimage
Figure 3: Goal Hierarchiesimage
The corporate or strategic goals should be?
specific to what should be attained.
They can be developed around many criteria such as:
1-market position goal (i.e. market share, sales volume, developing new markets)
2-profit goals (i.e. profit margin, return on sales)
3-financial goals (i.e. level of liquidity, credit-worthiness)
4-social goals (i.e. employee satisfaction, employment security)
5-goals relating to power and prestige (i.e. image building, changing dependency on other organizations)
These corporate goals are then translated into?
goals for the SBUs.
The SBUs are most often separate entities responsible for?
respective profits or losses, and therefore each SBU will have goals specific to their unit.
The corporate goals could also be translated into?
functional goals (e.g. human resource goals, financial goals, and production goals).
A functional goal for human resources could be?
to increase employee satisfaction.
Below the goals for the SBUs are the marketing goals specific to?
actions or measures.
These marketing goals are specific to activities within ?
the marketing mix.
Marketing mix
The marketing mix includes activities regarding product, price, distribution, and promotion.
These goals are?
more short-term and usually outnumber corporate goals.
These goals serve to guide the individual marketing activities of an organization and allow for?
the measurement of these activities.
Typical examples are the response rate to a specific mailing to customers, the increase in sales due to?
a special promotion, or the increase in brand awareness due to an advertising campaign.
The goals of the Bar School are specific to the original problem encountered by the school. The goals of the board were different from ?
the goals of the school’s leadership.
The board was concerned regarding the interaction patterns within ?
the school and the president was concerned about the performance of the students.
This led the school to set two goals:
1-All students display behavior that reflects the mission and the values of the school, and
2-The students’ performance in three years will be above the level of similar schools.
Integrating these goals into the strategic plan of the school helped to?
change them from conflicting goals to complementing goals.
The systematic approach of the strategic plan, which was designed by?
the entire school community, helped to reach the first goal after one year and the second goal after three years.
What is Our Position in the Market?
Each organization occupies a specific position in the marketplace in which it operates. The position depends on?
the market itself and the competitors operating in this industry.
This means that if the market changes, for example,
through technological changes such as introduction of the Internet, the position of companies operating within this market changes.
Organizations that adapt faster to the new technology gain a better position than those that adapt slowly. The better-adjusted competitors then put pressure on?
the strategic position of the organization.
To show the position of an organization in comparison to its?
competitors, companies draw positioning maps.
Positioning maps place the products or services of a company alongside?
those of their competitors on a chart.
The chart has two axes;
these axes may have different dimensions and depict specific characteristics or customer preferences (i.e. price, quality, speed of service, etc.)
which are generated through a thorough target group preference analysis. The distance of the products or services show?
fairly realistically the differences perceived by the target group.
Target group
A target group is a specific, homogeneous group of customers, which can be defined and reached with a specific marketing communication mix.
Figure 4: Positioning Map (Case Study: Palace Hotel)image
Figure 4: Positioning Map (Case Study: Palace Hotel)image
The development and implementation of a positioning strategy is a company-controlled method of ?
building a specific reputation in the market.
It is based on ?
customer experiences and preferences, and the communication strategy of the company.
Companies should actively manage ?
their reputation or image compared to the competition.
A clear positioning strategy gives organizations a?
competitive advantage.
Positioning a product or service is therefore a?
controlled process to build an image in the market place.
The position is defined and communicated to?
the main target groups.
Positioning is a strategic process that influences?
the actions of the organization and affects all functions of an organization.
Organizations with a clear market position are usually more successful than their competitors.
However, it often happens that companies make the mistake of giving up a?
clearly successful position.
The market leader for copying machines, Xerox, decided to?
enter the personal computer market a few years ago.
A great deal of financial capital and energy went into?
building the new business.
At the same time, the market share in the core business of?
the copying machine business continued to decline.
core business
The core business is the company’s main business, which usually also provides the largest financial contribution to the overall business.
Most companies offer several products or services. The complexity of a positioning strategy becomes evident in?
companies that offer several product lines. Lufthansa is a large organization.
It lends its name ‘Lufthansa’ to many areas of its business that reflect the Lufthansa image of?
high quality and exclusivity (i.e. Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo, etc.).
Other Lufthansa companies that do not match that image carry different names, such as?
the charter airline Germanwings, which is also part of the Lufthansa group.
When designing a positioning strategy, organizations should adopt a ——————————————————. This requires an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses and anticipation of trends and changes in the market using
————————————————– methods. Information should be collected internally and externally.
structured approach
quantitative and qualitative
In the process, the position or the desired position should be?
communicated through a positioning statement.
This positioning statement should be clear, understandable, unique, and reflect customer needs. It should be?
realistic and differentiate the product or service from the competition.
The customer needs are defined by analyzing their preferences. These preferences are evaluated for?
the company as well as for the competition and are projected onto the positioning map.
What Information Does the Company Need?
Quantitative Market and Customer Analysis
The first step in a thorough market and customer analysis is?
the quantitative recording of relevant data.
The quantitative analysis is fairly straightforward as the recorded data on?
customers and the market is usually available.
It does not require expansive and expensive research, as the data is usually available through internal sources or can be easily acquired
——————-. Internal sources are employees with —————————————————————————.
externally
market or customer data, sales information, distributors, etc
External sources are?
umbrella organizations,
government or business statistics,
industry experts,
annual reports of competitors, etc.