Week 3 Microenvironment

Question 1

Define microenvironment

Answer 1

Factors or elements in an organization’s immediate area of operations that affect its performance and decision-making freedom.

Question 2

List the players within microenvironment (SIPCCC)

Answer 2

• Suppliers – provide the resources needed to produce goods and services.
• Intermediaries (marketing) – promote, sell and distribute product. Eg resellers, distribution firms, marketing agencies.
• Publics – any group that has or has a potential interest or impact on achieving org. objectives. Eg financial firms, media, government. Action and community groups.
• Company – Gropus within the org. itself – other departments. Eg purchasing, operations, accounting.
• Customer Markets – most important. We need to serve, and create relationships. 5 types – consumer, business, reseller, government, internation markets.
• Competitors – need to gain strategic advantage by positioning offerings strongly against those of competitors.

Question 3

A SWOT analyses an objective and can be done on a product, industry or person. Draw one.

Answer 3

Question 4

List the different types of competition

Answer 4

• Same product, same target market, same production
• Products in the same product category - eg foods
• Products that deliver the same service
• Products competing for the same spending power

Question 5

Porters 5 forces is a qualitative tool to analyse the competitiveness of an industry and thus the attractiveness of a market. Draw one.

Answer 5

Question 6

Competitive strength analysis

Answer 6

1. Define your industry - scope and nature of the industry
2. Determine who your competitors are
3. Determine who your customers are and what benefits they expect
4. Determine what the key success factors are in your industry
5. Rank the key success factors by giving each one a weighting - The sum of all the weightings must add up to one.
6. Rate each competitor on each of the key success factors
7. Multiply each cell in the matrix by the factor weighting.

Question 7

Competitor analysis - list the headings in profiling

Answer 7

• Background
• Financials
• Products
• Marketing
• Facilities
• Personnel
• Corporate marketing strategy

Question 8

A BCG matrix can analyse a competitors products. Draw a Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Answer 8