Week 2 - Marketing Information

Question 1

Define corporate strategy

Answer 1

• Specifying the organisation’ mission.
• Allocation of resources across the whole organisation.
• Portfolio of activities for the organisation.
• Defining organisational objectives.

Question 2

Define marketing strategy in relation to corporate strategy

Answer 2

• Competing in a product market
• Selecting market segments.
• Defining a mix

Question 3

How does corporate strategy influence marketing strategy?

Answer 3

• Guides
• Directs
• Controls
• Co-ordinates

Question 4

How does marketing strategy influence corporate strategy?

Answer 4

• Informs
• Achieves
• Operationalises

Question 5

What is the micro environment?

Answer 5

• Company
• Public
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Intermediaries
• Competitors

Question 6

What is the macro environment?

Answer 6

• Cultural
• Political
• Technological
• Economic
• Natural
• Demographic

Question 7

What is PESTLE?

Answer 7

A framework that assists in analysing the external (remote)
environment and identifying the existing opportunities & threats.

Question 8

What are the factors of PESTLE?

Answer 8

➔ Political Factors
➔ Economic Factors
➔ Socio-cultural Factors
➔ Technological Factors
➔ Legal Factors
➔ Environment Factors

Question 9

Political Analysis

Answer 9

• Current political issues
• Position of Political Parties and key influences
• Local and international analysis
• General industry and own sector
• Opportunities to influence change

Question 10

Economic Analysis

Answer 10

• Inflation
• Exchange rates
• Interest rates
• Growth rates
• Stage of economic cycle
• Forecast economic environment
• International factors

Question 11

Sociocultural analysis

Answer 11

• Income distribution
• Demographics
• Labour & Social mobility
• Consumerism
• Purchasing habits
• Lifestyle changes
• Attitudes to work and leisure
• Education
• Changes in culture and fashion
• Health & Welfare

Question 12

Technological Analysis

Answer 12

• Areas of current and forecast change
• Potential for cost and value-added
  innovation
• Economics of technology
• Research, development, scale
• Whole supply chains
• Changes in physical sciences
• Internet
• Energy use and costs
• Rates of technological obsolescence
• New discoveries

Question 13

Environmental Analysis

Answer 13

• Emissions controls, packaging materials
• Energy costs, transport costs
• “Eco”- aware spending young people
• Lean burn engines, recycling
• Laws, impending and suggested

Question 14

Legal Analysis

Answer 14

• Possible legislation
• Compliance
• Enforcement
• Competition law
• Health and safety law
• Employment law
• Liberalisation of trade law

Question 15

Porters Five Forces for Competitive Analysis

Answer 15

• Bargaining Power of Suppliers
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Threats of new entrants
• Threats from substitute products
• Competitive rivalry

Question 16

Types of Analysis of the Internal Environment

Answer 16

• Resource audit
• SWOT Matrix
• GE Model

Question 17

Types of Resource Audits

Answer 17

• Financial Resources,
• Human Resources,
• Physical Resources,
• Intangible Resources (e.g., corporate image, brand names, reputation…)

Question 18

What is a SWOT Analysis?

Answer 18

Integrates the internal and external environment by identifying strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.

Question 19

Generic Strategy Model Components

Answer 19

• Cost leadership: ALDI
• Differentiation: Waitrose
• Cost focus : Iceland
• Differentiation focus: Whole foods

Question 20

What is cost leadership and what are its drivers?

Answer 20

Cost-leadership strategy involves becoming the lowest-cost organisation in a domain of activity.

Drivers:

• Lower input costs
  *Economies of scale
  *Experience
  *Product/process design

Question 21

Differentiation strategy and its two key issues.

Answer 21

• Differentiation involves uniqueness along some dimension that is sufficiently valued by customers to allow a price premium.
  ……………
  Two key issues:
• The strategic customer on whose needs the differentiation is based
• Key competitors – who are the rivals and who may become a rival.

Question 22

Focus Strategies and what are the types?

Answer 22

• A focus strategy targets a narrow segment or domain of activity and tailors its products or services to the needs of that specific segment to the exclusion of others.

Two types of focus strategy:

• Cost-focus strategy (e.g. Iceland Foods)
• Differentiation focus strategy (e.g. ARM
  Holdings for mobile phone chips).
• Is focus strategy valid anymore? It is a necessity rather than an option.

Question 23

Primary vs Secondary Data Collection

Answer 23

Primary data:

• Primary research involves collecting new data information to answer a question
• Can be exploratory, descriptive or causal

Secondary data:

• Secondary research is based on published information
• Can originate within or outside the organisation.
• Most problems can be solved with secondary data…which is cheaper to get!

Question 24

Types of Secondary Data Collection

Answer 24

• Published materials
• Computerised databases
• Syndicated services

Question 25

Types of primary data collection

Answer 25

• Direct observation - This is a method to learn how people behave : NB the qualitative/quantitative debate.
• Focus groups - Is a method to obtain in depth information
  on a given topic
• Surveys - Enable us to learn peoples’ opinions/interests
  etc.
• Experiments - Are methods use to establish causality
  between means and outcomes.

Question 26

Ways that brands can collect data in both internal and external research:

Answer 26

– Purchase intentions vs. sales data…
– Accounting and financial data
– Internal reports from different departments
– Panel data (e.g., Nielsen)
– Business or trade publications – e.g. Marketing Week
– Surveys
– ‘Mystery shoppers’
– Social networks (Facebook; Twitter; Instagram; LinkedIn etc.)