Analysis
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Strategy
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Execution - marketing mix
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Evaluation
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Marketing process
Starts from the top of hierarchy - the board
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Layers depend on complexity of business
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Need to know how brand strategy dovetails with other, overarching strategies
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Corporate strategy - company
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Business strategy - business unit
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Function strategy - marketing
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Portfolio and brand strategy - brand
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Influence is top-down and bottom-up
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Levels of strategy in an organisation
Must understand background to create appropriate output
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Elements of vision and mission sometimes combined to create statement of goals, purpose and values
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Purpose - why do we exist?
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Values - what do we believe in?
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Smart goals (tomorrow)
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Goals are longer-term
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General directions for movement
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Vision - where are we going?
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Smart objectives (today)
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Short-term
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Mission - what you do and for whom?
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Future steps
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Strategy - where do we want to be?
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Context of strategy
What makes the company sustainable in the long term
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Relevant for individual and group assignment
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Developing and sustaining CA is driven by top-down and bottom-down influences
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Will have impact on overarching corporate brand
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Needs to be meaningful
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Clear statement about the distinctive value the firm offers
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Brands as conduits for consumers to process and retrieve info about that distinctive value
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Will be overarching VP (e.g. Unilever) and one for each brand
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Creates positive attitudes and feelings towards the product/service
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E.g. Ikea
Value
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E.g. Kiki K
Appealing design
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E.g. Aesop Skincare Niche specialist
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Provides the consumers with a reason to buy
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What you offer: Value proposition
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How is a brand a source of SCA
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Sustainable competitive advantage
1: Role of Strategy
Sunday, 15 August 2021 3:42 PM
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E.g. Aesop Skincare
Different to positioning strategy
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Internal facing
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Nuance of the combination of values creates distinction
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Not just one distinctive
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Being global
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Attribute/benefit
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Design
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Systems solutions
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Corporate social programs
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Customer intimacy
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Niche specialist
□ Value
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Quality
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Brand familiarity
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Emotional self-expressive benefits
□ Sources
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Underlie the strategy
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Rare, not easily imitated, and good substitutes for the resource do not exist
Depending on their strength relative to competitors
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Critical resources that produce SCA
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A resource the firm owns or controls that can be leveraged in the design or implementation of a firm's strategy
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Financial
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Human
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Physical
□ Legal
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E.g. Strong brand reputations, customer relationships, knowledge
Marketing
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Strategic asset
▪
Competencies leverage assets to perform activities important to firm's strategy
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Through organisational processes
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What a business unit does exceptionally well
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Has strategic importance to the brand
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Based on knowledge or a process
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Strategic competency
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Competencies add to strength by improving customer relationships and brands
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E.g. Distributors
A strong brand provides firm with trade leverage over other members of the value chain
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Reduces marketing costs
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Provides firm with time to respond to competitive threats
□ Benefits
▪
E.g. Toyota sharing manufacturing plant across brands and countries
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Assets and competencies leveraged across multiple product markets offers synergies that can be a source of SCA
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Marketers can enter a company and identify assets and competencies that aren't being leveraged
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Basis of competition: Assets and competencies
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Product strategy
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Positioning strategy
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Manufacturing strategy
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Distributor strategy
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Functional area strategies
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The way you compete
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VP, assets and competencies require support of functional activities to succeed
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E.g. IT, marketing
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Strong brand reduces marketing costs for communication strategy
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Strong brand permits a price premium to be charged in some markets, enhancing profitability
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Functional area strategies
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Ansoff matrix
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Brands help identify segments
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Brands provide a platform for growth
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Coles moving into insurance - diversification
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Virgin into gyms
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Samsung into telecommunications
□ Examples
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Risk increases as you move down and across
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EXISTING PRODUCTS
NEW PRODUCTS EXISTING
MARKETS
MARKET PENETRATION
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
INCREASING RISK
V NEW MARKETS MARKET
DEVELOPMENT
DIVERSIFICATION INCREASING RISK ->
Product-market selection/investment
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Competitor selection
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Where you compete
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VP that is appealing to customers might be too expensive
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Is the ROI attractive?
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Is there a sustainable competitive advantage?
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Can it survive threats
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Can it adapt to changing conditions
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Will the strategy succeed in the future?
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Internally consistent with other organisational characteristics
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Within financial and human resources
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Is the strategy feasible?
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Does the strategy fit with the other strategies of the firm?
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Criteria to select business strategies
Provides a basis for sustainable advantage over competitors
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Desirable
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Sustainable competitive advantage
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Asset or competency required to compete in an industry or market
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Essential
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Key success factor
• SCA vs KSF
Cannot develop a strategy without a clear understanding of where are at now
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E.g. Don't need to include Legal in PESTL analysis
○
Only include what's relevant
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A thorough and up-to-date understanding (understanding and assessment) of our internal and external environment is crucial (Aaker)
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Diagnosis precedes strategy
Customer is the heart of marketing
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Understanding customer value is key to any marketing success
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Segment market
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Select target market/s
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Seek to understand consumer at a deep level
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Empathy map from week 5
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Succinctly capture insights and describes typical customer
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Profile/persona
○ Many tools
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Customer is the heart of marketing
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