Business Strategy Dimensions of Marketing Mix Management

Question: Discuss about the Business Strategy for Dimensions of Marketing Mix Management? Answer: Introduction: Business strategy is the tool by which a company can achieve the result. A typical business strategy takes three to five years. It is involved in the decision-making process of leaders. Business leaders often use competitive strategies to develop new products and making it productive to compete in an aggressive market environment. Corporate strategy has its target to produce products that are different from rival offerings. Business strategies are effective in achieving long-term benefits from a service or goods. It involves challenging the assumptions and taking effective measures to counter it. It also includes personal goals, and individual targets respect to the organization. The strategies are directed to long-term benefits, which can only be seen after two or three years after implementation (Rahardjo et al. 2013). Key terms Definition Examples Mission Mission statement is meant for employees, which defines the purpose and primary objectives of the firm. American Express's mission statement is "We have a mission to be the world's most respected service brand. To do this, we have established a culture that supports our team members so that they can provide exceptional service to our customers." Vision The vision statement of an organization gives direction for employee behavior and helps to inspire. Vision statement for Feeding America is "A hunger-free America." Objective Objectives are used in organizational practice and professional literature. The objective of WHO is Support the Community Goal The goal is a particular target, and it is a result of a dream. It is a step for winning a vision for an organization. The goal of British Airways is to increase their customer service experience. Core Competencies Core competencies help an organization help a firm to differentiate its product from rival companies. Dells core competency is to target high-value and low-maintenance consumers who use database technologies. There are five factors for successful strategic planning, Engagement: It provides insight into issues, challenges, concerns and opportunities. Senior management will not amend strategies but employees will. They engage the employees, and strategic success ratio would increase drastically. Communication: Strategic planning processes are trustworthy when top and bottom level of workers communicate to each other well. Proper communication between employees and management gives a transparent thought process. Innovation: The Strategic plans need innovation. Innovative ideas make the difficulties half. Many companies invest in RD to extract more innovations. Project Management: The managing of any project is a critical task. Every organization needs to manage their work accordingly. Culture: Organization culture is the most vital thing in a firm. The organizational culture should be disciplined and flexible. Disadvantage and advantages of Cultural factor: Advantage Disadvantage Disciplined corporate culture is a proven technique for success. Undisciplined culture leads to failure of an organization. The culture of the organization should be friendly and transparent. More friendly approach sometimes lead to breakdown of rules Respect giving, work appraisal, and recognition are the key advantages if it is done correctly. Organizational culture if is very strict and goal-oriented it would demoralize the employees. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the techniques, which are used when developing strategic plans for business: There are many techniques available for developing strategic plans. These plans are effective as well as useful for planning procedure. The techniques are Boston Matrix, SPACE, Ansoff Matrix, etc. (Grnig and Khn 2015). One of the most well-known techniques is BCG Matrix. It is also known as Boston Consultancy Group Matrix. It is a widely used and one of the most efficient strategic tools. It was developed in the late 1960s. It is a four-segment matrix, also known as growth-share matrix model. It has made an enormous contribution to the strategic management, and it has continued to be effective. The four characters are STARS, QUESTION MARK, CASH COWS and, DOGS. Examples of companies can be given in this regard. For a brand like Coca Cola if this model is used then Star will be Thumbs up as it has the highest market share. Limca has a huge market share although it has little growth; Limca is the Cash Cow of Coca Cola. Sprite would be in the question mark category as it has a potential for growth but has low market share. Georgia has a little market share as well as low growth, so Georgia is a Dog (Gayle and Luo 2015). BCG matrix is more than useful to analyze the growth and share for a particular brand in respect of others. The vertical scale defines the market growth, and the horizontal scale represents the market share of a company. Strategic business units often describe the products grouping and activities. The size of the circle indicates relative significance of every business group. One big advantage is the ability to provide a representative image of positions of compact different business units. It helps to create a balanced portfolio. However, some argue this tool is too simple to analyze the market problems. It is sometimes difficult to determine market share and respective growth patterns of various business units (Baranenko et al. 2014). Organizational audit Corporate audit program helps to change every nature of business. It discusses the structure of the organization, internal strengths, and weaknesses. It gives an ideal business process, designs core teamwork, plans transition and implementation of new designs (Grnig and Khn 2015). SWOT analysis of McDonalds can give an insight of McDonald's strength, weakness, Threat, and Opportunities. Strengths: Strong brand image Moderate market diversification Standardized processes Weaknesses: Limited process flexibility Low product diversification Vulnerable to western markets Opportunities: Expansion in under-developed and developing countries Market development in the Middle East Product diversification Threats: Aggressive competition Healthy lifestyles trend GMO trend and regulations Value chain analysis: It is a useful tool for creating value for the customers. In business, it adds value to do something worthy. It helps to understand the cost and value of the company. Benchmarking: It is a procedure to measure the qualities of a company. It uses performance matrix to analyze the credentials of a firm (Gayle and Luo 2015). Environmental audit of McDonalds Environmental audit means the external factors of the environment primarily. These environmental factors help to analyze the company with respect to several factors related to the environment. PESTEL analysis is a defining tool for analysis of external factors. Porters five forces model is also an effective tool for environmental analysis. It has five factors they are, bargaining strength of suppliers, Threat of newer entry, Industrial rivalry, Threat of substitution and bargaining power of buyers. It helps to determine the competitive intensity in a marketplace, and it reflects the overall profitability of a firm (Grnig and Khn 2015). PESTEL analysis Political factor: A legal issues once happened to McDonald's in 1993. Law passes in Russia, which said all the shops to have Russian names. They had to translate their names into Cyrillic alphabet. McDonalds changed its name to MaKudonaldo. Economic Factor: McDonalds often faced pricing issues. It is known that McDonalds has a higher price value. It serves quality food items. However, in some developing countries the prices of McDonalds food items were stated as quite expensive. It caused a fall in sales of the food items. They solved this problem by maintaining the same price rate in every country. It proved effective for the growth of McDonalds (Killing 2012). Technological Factors: Technological factors are a big boost to the growth of any company. This factor can provide a cutting edge over other factors. McDonalds is very approachable in embracing new technology. It proved a deciding factor in market positioning of McDonalds. They introduced new machinery, production vehicles and refining techniques to float above its competitors (Lippert and Govindarajulu 2015). Socio-cultural factor: McDonald's gave a huge push in maintain its brand as a family food chain. They emphasized on one family one meal tagline. It was an enormous success in the US in 1960s 1970s. Their socio-cultural strategy created a liking for the mass. It appealed to the normal office-goers of U.S. They introduced new recipes in different countries with respect to their ethnicity and food habit (Alheritiere et al. 2013). Environmental factor: The climatic conditions and physical terrain of a country are important for creating significant effect a company. In high altitude areas in Peru or Bolivia, it is difficult to sustain, but in regions like sub-continent and European countries, it is easier to run a business. McDonalds also gave preference to environmental features and safe environment initiatives. They reduced the use of plastics and Styrofoam packaging. They also funded many initiatives to make a name for themselves. Legal factors: Legal barriers also created a hindrance for market entry to many countries. In West Asian countries and Gulf nations McDonald has faced many difficulties. In these countries, the government banned their non-vegan items. They even faced legal barriers for breaking religious beliefs. However, they fought it out to make their presence felt (Morris et al. 2013). Significance of Stakeholders claims for analyzing new strategies: Multinational companies value their public and stakeholders highly. Stakeholders play an enormous role in making a brand valuable. They directly effect to the choice of audiences. They increase the brand image of a particular brand. A high number of stakeholder base is a huge bonus for brand functioning. Stakeholders help in various ways as if they change the perception of the clients; they help in market positioning and market segmentation of the product. Stakeholders change the public portraying of a brand. A good rapport with public has affected positively for McDonalds. Figure 1: McDonalds Business Model (Source: Xu 2014) Figure 2: Business Stakeholders (Source: Al Badi 2015) Stakeholder analysis is a systematic process to analyze the power and interest of stakeholders. High-interest rates, high power, are the two keys to stakeholder analysis. Stakeholders engagement and interested parties planning are two important parameters to show the effects of stakeholders. Stakeholder analysis has four sub-parts; these are high influence low interest, high influence great interest, least influence low interest and profound influence high interest (Xu 2014). Analyze the appropriateness of alternative strategies relating to market entry, substantive growth, limited growth or retrenchment for Marks Spencer Alternative strategy making is a process of determining the direction, resource allocation for achieving desired goals. It is procedure to know the future of the organization. Some alternative strategies can be shared vision if stakeholder is accountable, stakeholders' involvement, tools and skills, behavioral outcomes and measure and processes. The important alternatives are limited growth, substantive growth (Russ 2012). Limited growth: Market penetration in a deliberate attempt to build market share or to protect a loyal client base is far ahead. The organizational development opens up a new range of opportunities. To, expand their market share in the overseas market too company should rely on their existing customers. Product development is also needed to make an impression on the client preference. Different clients of different nationalities have their particular tastes. Companies should make it an important parameter if they want to hit the global market. Marks and Spencer can achieve substantial market growth by innovative and diversified culture. It can be an influential factor for them. Marks Spencer can reach its objective by improving consumer focus and management (Khan 2013). Substantive growth: horizontal and vertical integration are the two techniques to analyze functional growth. In horizontal integration, it merges with a direct or indirect competitor. In the case of vertical integration, the firm's link with another company in the supply chain. Related diversification is about moving into a region where marketing and technology go hand in hand. Two companies often merge by merger, by acquisition or strategic alliance. The high amount of risks is involved in entering new markets, producing new products and new technologies. Marks Spencer can launch new products and services to manage organizational growth. Retrenchment: It is a basis for the turnaround of a firm in a difficult situation. Another thing is organic growth that is involved with internal investment to develop new component products. After evaluating the strategies, the growth prospect can be identified with critical parameters (Rohn et al. 2014). The business strategies implemented for Marks Spencer are justified below: Changes in operational requirements and priorities and the inability of the current cloud service provider are made to balance the given budget. They embraced the new technologies to improve internal factors. Now it has managed to increase the speed. Marks Spencer cultivated the existing market offerings. They expanded their market to further expansion. Changes in government policies and regulations also allowed them to change their tactics according to that. They withdrew several ongoing services and introduced new service policies to serve better the needs of the customers. Honda strives to enhance corporate governance as a primary task. They impressed upon in fundamental beliefs to strengthen the trust factor of the shareholders, customers and investors. Honda tries to improve soundness and transparency of the management. The corporate culture in Honda makes a decision with respect to important business matters because of speculations. The boards of directors delegate some authority to Members of the regional council. The board is responsible for making decisions on established criteria. They ease out the risks and execute the plans as a counter ploy to eradicate the ill effects. The board of directors offers advice the personnel who are assigned to job of handling the crisis. BOD is also responsible for monitoring and supervising the duties of conduct. The company appoints outside directors to offer advice on several corporate responsibilities. Based on fundamental beliefs and a long-term perspective Hondas Business Operations are tied with strong lin ks with regions around the globe. Based on several standards reports are made periodically to corporate auditors on business status (Huang et al. 2013). Honda Motor Company Ltd is a famous Japanese motoring company, which is known for motorcycle and automobile. It is one of the largest automobile companies in the world. Honda plans for years to implement a strategy for the future benefit of the customer. Honda invested in starting prototype model in 2011. On May 2011, they begun to plan process activities. By the end of June, Honda Motors started marketing of their motor products and launched their cars and bikes in South East Asian market and the Middle East. They developed speculation date and years to nullify the disadvantages they might face. In this phase, any defects are found then the late work would increase, and it would eventually affect their business in future. A descriptive research method is used for designing a plan. Honda has made different questionnaire sets and sample data to analyze where they are lacking. Two kinds of data set i.e. Primary and Secondary datasets are made to use for the personnel examining their be st effective plan for business development (Hirvonen et al. 2013). In order to reach the strategic objectives, every company needs to set goals. That can be short term, long-term and more immediate milestones that stretch the company to reach its full potential. Honda uses SMART approach for goal setting. These five letters are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Responsible, and Time-specific (Nag 2014). The specific target for Honda is to hit their perspective market to catch the market share of the automobile market. Honda has managed to capture the global audiences of India, Pakistan and other South East Asian developing industrial countries. The measurable market for Honda has reached an overall height. It has managed to sell volumes of motorcycles and cars to its Asian audience. They have till date achieved respectable market share. In last 20 years or so Honda merged with Indian Bike Company Hero to create Hero Honda, which was the largest selling motorcycle company in India (Hirvonen et al.). Honda had set realistic goals to achieve their targets. They understood the market reality, and they invested much in the developing economy of Sub-continent and Indonesia. Time bound target was always Hondas forte. They always utilized their business plans accordingly to meet the requirements of the clients. They have gained good amount of market share in last two decade or so (Nag 2014). Conclusion: In conclusion, it can be said that the strategy implementation would be effective if it is well approached and well directed. Vision and mission statements are effective to help the consumers to understand the needs and goals of the organization. Internal and external audits are required to understand the loopholes of a company and it contributes to take some steps to eradicate the shortcomings. Alternative strategies are recommended for Marks and Spencer to develop their growth pattern. The board of governors and the strategic implementation team of Honda motors have managed to maintaining their quality and market positions for years. References: Al Badi, K.S., 2015. The Dimensions of Marketing Mix.Management and Organizational Studies,2(1), p.p136. 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