L6 CIM Marketing - Strategy & Planning

What are 2 ways to conduct market analysis?

Quantitative - data to estimate market growth and do forecasting
Qualitative - own judgement looking at comparisons and frequency of types of comments

What is digital analysis?

A process of data collection and analysis from online marketing channels.

What are the 8 areas of digital analysis?

1) Website analysis
2) Search engine optimisation (SEO)
3) Search engine marketing (SEM)
4) Pay per click advertising (PPC)
5) Content marketing
6) Email marketing
7) Affiliate marketing
8) Social media marketing (SMM)

What are 3 ways digital analysis helps with?

1) See what marketing channels are most cost effective by looking at click rates
2) Understand what channels are more successful at creating a higher lifetime value (like an email leading to repeat purchases)
3) See what customers are more engaged and likely to be susceptible for up-selling 

What is a sales funnel?

Visual representation of the steps a customer goes through to become a paying customer. It represents the conversion rate at each step.

Analysis on visitors who turn into paying customers allows you to see what?

What channels are most effective.

What does Rust et al think is important to have at the heart of a strategy?

Customers which is a market-orientated strategy rather than one focused on a product or sales.  

What 5 factors underpin a market orientation?

1) Long-term profits
2) Strategic approach over tactcial
3) Customer orientation to understand and create value for your customers
4) Competitor orientation to  understand competitors and their abilities.
5) Inter-functional co-ordination which uses all the companies assets and capabilities to create value

How does culture effect strategy?

Although it’s hard to analyse, strong culture have a huge impact on the ability for managers to implement a strategy.

What is culture?

Shared beliefs, values, and behaviours 

What are Doyle and Smith’s leadership styles?

1) Transactional - focuses on the task and people do it to get paid
2) Transformational -  the leader inspires and shares their vision
3) Participative - focuses on learning through sharing and collaboration among team members to make decisions.

What are the 5 attributes that turns leadership from transactional to transformational?

1) Perception
2) Communication
3) Empathy
4) Conviction
5) Resilience

What is a resource-based view (RBV)?

A bundle of resources developed over time that gives an organisation a competitive advantage over others.

In a resoruce-based view, what did Day 1994 believe?

Resources are both tangible and intangible assets:
Tangible = physical resources such as factories and machinery
Intangible = financial resources such as cash and access to capital OR assets such as brands, knowledge, patents, and trademarks.  

Aside from profits, what is equally important in measuring business success?

Social responsibility and customer social demands that include issues such as the environment, human rights, poverty and hunger, education, health and disease, and water. 

What is CSR?

• Corporate Social Responsibility

• Companies integrate social & environmental concerns into operations

• Goes beyond legal compliance to ethical responsibility

Why is CSR important?

• Builds trust with stakeholders

• Supports long-term sustainability

• Balances profit with positive impact on society

What are 4 key benefits of an organisation adopting CRS?

1) Enhanced corporate reputation
2) Stronger customer relationships
3) Improves stakeholder relationships
4) Improves employee relationships

What is used to measure and evaluate a businesses’ increasing interest in social justice? 

Triple bottom line: people, planet, profit - measures the health and quality of a business’ impact. 

Understanding customers and competitors is important to gain competitive advantage. How can companies gain competitive advantage?

• By satisfying customers better than rivals

• Through low costs or developing products their customers value more

What does the VRIN test do?

Test whether a resource or capability can create competitive advantage. Is it…

• Valuable (V) → Helps exploit opportunities or reduce threats.

• Rare (R) → Few competitors have it.

• Inimitable (I) → Hard/costly to copy (history, culture, complexity).

• Non-substitutable (N) → No alternatives give same benefit.

What is the macro environment?

The external environment the organisation has no control of. This needs to be assessed so the strategy can be devised. 

What is used to assess the macro environment?

PESTELE…

Political
Environmental
Social
Technical
Environmental
Legal
Ethical

What is the micro environment?

Closer to the organisation so Managers have more control through collaboration. Porters 5 forces is used to analyse this.

What are Tompson et al’s 4 types of tangible and 3 types of intangible resources for analysing the internal environment?

Tangible: physical, financial, technology, and organisational resources
Intangible: human assets, innovation, and reputation.

What are 4 benefits of online marketing campaigns?

1) You can easily track data
2) You can highlight instantly when someone’s behaviour changes
3) It’s more efficient
4) It’s more accurate

What are the barriers to achieving competitive advantage? 

1) Complacency 
2) Poor team work
3) Poor cross team functionality
4) Lack of leadership
5) Lack of strategic alignment
6) Risk aversion 

What are the skills and challenges in gathering and analysing information?

1) Market analysis skills
2) Judgement
3) Interpretation
4) Research
5) Shared understanding
6) Concluding

What happens to companies that fail to adapt to digital transformation?

They risk being replaced by digital disruptors (e.g., Uber, Airbnb), even if they currently have high market share or growth.

What is social connectivity in marketing?

• People express their social selves online

• Online communities spread ideas and news quickly

• Can influence real-world behaviour (positive or negative)

What is the difference between resource and competencies?

• Resource is an asset owned or controlled by the company.

• Competency is an ability or skill that, when applied to a resource, helps generate a capability.

Why is it risky for managers to identify capabilities based on the functions within the business?

They may overlook cross functional capabilities. To avoid this, they should identify capabilities based on resources (resource-based view).

How can marketers identify resources and capabilities that will sustain their organisations competitive advantage?

• Apply the VRIN/O framework

• Find valuable and rare resources that are not imitable or substitutional

• Have dynamic capabilities

What research methods could you use to audit the marketing environment? 

• Company records

• Desk research

• Shared research

• Bespoke primary research

What are the main uses of scenario planning?

Test strategies, identify risk, and anticipate major changes in the external environment

List 4 advantages of online research

1) Access data around the world
2) Minimum investment of time and money
3) Central pool of facts and figures
4) Efficient tool for collecting data

What is the primary reason for investing time and resource into environment scanning?

Allows you to analyse every aspect of the external market allowing you to plan for the organisations future

What are the 4 dimensions to a core competence?

1) Values and norms
2) Skills and knowledge
3) Technical systems
4) Managerial systems

What is a sticky resource?

Sticky resources are firm, specific resources that are heavily invested in and which become hard to escape from.

What are core rigidities?

Core rigidities are when there has been an over reliance on a core competency, resulting in the competency becoming obsolete and losing a competitive advantage.

What is a dynamic environment?

A business environment that’s constantly changing. Customer preferences and attitudes keep evolving and require managers to adapt quickly.

What are Porter’s generic strategies?

1. Cost Leadership → Lowest-cost producer in a broad market

2. Cost Focus → Lowest-cost producer in a niche market

3. Differentiation → Unique products/services valued in a broad market

4. Differentiation Focus → Unique products/services valued in a niche market

5. Stuck in the Middle → Failure to commit → weak performance

How does the BCG Matrix classify products based on market share and market growth?

1. Stars → High growth, high market share → Need investment to sustain but are future cash cows.

2. Cash Cows → Low growth, high market share → Generate steady cash, “milk them”.

3. Question Marks → High growth, low market share → Uncertain potential, either invest or phase out.

4. Dogs → Low growth, low market share → Weak and often phased out.

What are the four growth strategies in the Ansoff Matrix?

1. Market Penetration → Existing products, existing markets

   • Increase sales, gain market share.

2. Product Development → New products, existing markets

   • Innovate/improve offerings.

3. Market Development → Existing products, new markets

   • Expand to new segments/regions.

4. Diversification → New products, new markets

   • Highest risk, but potential high reward.

What are Chaffey’s 6 C’s of digital marketing?

1. Content → Relevant, engaging information for your audience.

2. Context → Placement where it reaches the right people at the right time.

3. Connection → Building relationships and engagement with customers.

4. Community → Fostering interaction among users and brand.

5. Customisation → Personalising messages or experiences.

6. Communication → Two-way dialogue with your audience.

What are the 7 levels of digital capability to ensure a digital strategy is successfully built?

1) A strategic approach
2) A performance improvement process
3) Management buy-in
4) Resourcing and structure
5) Data and infrastructure
6) Integrated customer communications
7) Integrated customer experience

What are the 5 characteristics to define nature of service?

1.    Inseparable – service is consumed at the same time its performed

2.    Intangible – the service does not have physical substance

3.    Heterogenous – Standardisation is difficult because of the numbers of factors that influence service delivery

4.    Perishable – unlike products, services can’t be stored

5.    Not ownable – it’s not physically owned by the customer

What are 4 ways of measuring value added?

• Value Chain Analysis → Examine activities to see where value is created for customers.

• Shareholder Value Analysis (SVA) → Measures how actions increase shareholder wealth.

• Customer Value → Assess value from the customer’s perspective (benefit vs. cost).

• Accounting Value → Financial measures like profit, ROI, or added revenue

What is meant by strategic drift?

The gradual change in strategy that occurs when an organisation fails to adapt to its environment