Chapter 2: Strategic Planning and The Marketing Process – Vocabulary Flashcards

What is Strategic Planning?

  • The managerial process of creating and maintaining a fit between the organization’s objectives and resources and evolving market opportunities to achieve long-term goals.

What is a marketing plan?
  • A written document that acts as a guidebook of marketing activities for the marketing manager.

Defining the Business Mission

  • Mission statement – A long-term view, or vision, of what the organization wants to become.

  • Provides a clear direction for the strategic planning.

What Businesses are we in?
  • Businesses must be viewed as a CONSUMER-SATISFYING process and not a goods-producing process.

  • Marketing myopia: This concept emphasizes that products are transient and basic NEEDS are not. The key is to have a “market definition” of your business and not a product-based definition.

    • Example question: Is Xerox in the photocopying business? (Consider a market-definition approach rather than a product-focused view).

Strategic Business Units (SBUs)
  • Key business units within diversified firms, each with its own managers, resources, objectives, and competitors.

Setting Marketing Plan Objectives

  • Marketing Objectives: These must be:

    • Realistic

    • Measurable

    • Time specific

    • Consistent with the organization’s priorities

    • Example: “Our objective is to achieve 10 percent dollar market share in the cat food market within 12 months of product introduction.”

Conducting a Situation Analysis (SWOT Analysis)

  • SWOT Analysis: A framework for evaluating a company's competitive position.

    • Strengths: Things the company does well (Internal factors).

    • Weaknesses: Things the company does not do well (Internal factors).

    • Opportunities: External conditions that favor strengths (External factors).

    • Threats: External conditions that do not relate to existing strengths (External factors).

Competitive Advantage (CA)

  • The set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market as significant and superior to the competition.

Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage
  • Sustainable CA: An advantage that can be maintained over time.

  • Goal of Tools and Techniques: To create sustainable competitive advantage.

Mechanisms of Competitive Advantage
  • Cost Leadership Strategy: Offering comparable value at a lower cost.

  • Differentiation Strategy: Offering greater value at higher realized prices, not competing on price.

Porter’s Five Forces Model

  • Summarizes five competitive forces that influence planning strategies:

    • The threat of new entrants

    • The bargaining power of buyers

    • The bargaining power of suppliers

    • The threat of substitute products

    • Rivalry among competitors

  • Strategy implication: Focus on sustainable CA and barriers to entry, supplier/buyer leverage, and differentiation.

  • Internet’s Impact on Competitive Forces (illustrated):

    • Internet reduces barriers to entry (Potential New Entrants)

    • Internet creates new substitution threats (Threat of Substitute Products)

    • Internet blurs differences among competitors (Rivalry among Competitors)

    • Internet tends to increase bargaining power of suppliers (Bargaining Power of Suppliers)

    • Internet shifts greater power to end consumers (Bargaining Power of Buyers)

Describing the Target Market

Target Market Strategies
  • Target Market Options:

    • Entire Market

    • Multiple Markets

    • Single Market

  • Implications: Scope of marketing effort and resource allocation.

The Marketing Mix (4 Ps)

  • Elements of the Marketing Mix:

    • Product: Goods or services offered.

    • Price: The amount consumers pay.

    • Place: Distribution channels.

    • Promotion: Marketing communications.

Levels of Strategy

  • Corporate Level

  • Business Unit Level- SBUs (Strategic Business Units)

  • Functional Level- Marketing

Market Share and Relative Market Share Computations

Market Share
  • Definition: A company's sales expressed as a percentage of the sales for the total industry.

  • Formula (concept): MS = \frac{Sales{company}}{Sales{industry}} \times 100\%

  • Illustrative Example:

    • Three firms in the market: L James, King James, James

    • Sales: L James = 40 units, King James = 50 units, James = 10 units

    • Total industry sales = 100 units

    • Market shares:

    • L James: \frac{40}{100} = 0.40 = 40\%

    • King James: \frac{50}{100} = 0.50 = 50\%

    • James: \frac{10}{100} = 0.10 = 10\%

Relative Market Share
  • Definition: Relative market share = (Market share of specific brand) / (Market share of the leader in the market).

  • Purpose: Compare a brand’s performance against the market leader.

  • Formula (concept): RMS = \frac{MarketShare{brand}}{MarketShare{leader}}

  • Illustrative Example:

    • 2015 market shares in tradesmen segment: Makita 50% (leader), Milwaukee 10%, Black & Decker 5%

    • Relative shares:

    • Makita: \frac{50\%}{50\%} = 1.0

    • Milwaukee: \frac{10\%}{50\%} = 0.2

    • Black & Decker: \frac{5\%}{50\%} = 0.1

Boston Consulting Group’s Growth-Share Matrix (BCG Matrix)

  • Axes: High Relative Market Share (horizontal) vs. High Industry Growth (%)

  • Quadrants:

    • STARS: High relative market share, high industry growth (require heavy investment to finance growth; eventually become Cash Cows).

    • CASH COWS: High relative market share, low industry growth (generate more cash than they need to maintain market share; provide cash to fund Stars and Question Marks).

    • PROBLEM CHILD / QUESTION MARK: Low relative market share, high industry growth (require a lot of cash to hold their share; management must decide to either invest to grow into Stars or phase out).

    • DOGS: Low relative market share, low industry growth (have low potential for future growth and often generate low profits or even losses).

Market Growth Strategies (Competitive Growth Strategies)

  • Market Penetration: Present market, present product (Increase sales of existing products to existing markets).

  • Product Development: Present market, new product (Create new products for existing markets).

  • Market Development: New market, present product (Introduce existing products to new markets).

  • Diversification: New market, new product (Introduce new products into new markets).

  • RISKS associated with each strategy (execution, synergy, and market conditions should be considered for each).