...Positioning and Differentiation Strategies Concerning positioning and differentiating a new product such as Sherwin-Williams makeup “Face Paint” it is important to understand the target market. The positioning strategy must align with the product differentiation strategy. This means focusing the product on delivering a valued and distinctive product to a specific market and delivering in a way that customers accept. The product they have developed is different from what is available from competitors, but it is a very mature market segment, one that can be difficult to break into without a very unique approach Sherwin-Williams has a well-known and strong brand in its current market, paint and painting accessories. They should be able to take that brand power and apply it to the positioning strategy for the new makeup line. Sherwin-Williams has more than 3000 stores throughout the United States, positioning within the stores will be important to ensure that the new product line is visible and placed in a logical location. Considering the target market is for females aged 12 – 24, the largest consumers of makeup and makeup tools, it would be a good decision to place the makeup line in a well-lit area close to the front of the store. This way women would not need to walk through the greater part of the store to find the products they are pursuing. . Differentiation from what is already available was created within the product itself. This does not mean that Sherwin-Williams...
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...Developing a competitive strategy can take on many avenues of approach. For Apple, Inc., a few competitive strategies can be pursued in the Brazilian market. Those strategies include a product differentiation strategy, a pricing strategy, and/or a market segmentation strategy. However, determining which strategy will be ideal can only be determined over time, but an initial path needs to be taken based upon identified strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it is recommended that Apple, Inc. move forward with a competitive pricing strategy in Brazil. A product differentiation strategy would not be conducive in the Brazilian market because several other businesses already operating in the market provide products that either meet consumer needs, wants, etc. Although Apple, Inc. does provide quality products and services, they are not really ahead of the competition in Brazil. A market segmentation strategy may or may not work for Apple, Inc. in the Brazilian market. While focusing on a specific market may seem like a viable option, it would be rather difficult for Apple, Inc. to benefit from it because they focus on all users of their products and services. Apple, Inc. may be able to focus on providing products and services for high dollar amounts in the United States and other countries; however, this strategy is viewed negatively in the Brazilian market. Not to mention, there is no specific market that would really produce a significant enough profit for Apple, Inc. in...
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...School and Legal and General The Strategic Positioning of Coca-Cola in their Global Marketing Operation Examines how Coca-Cola has strategically positioned it self within the world’s soft drinks market. Given that they operate in over 200 countries, they are faced with a clear choice of whether to standardise their product offerings globally and reap the potential benefits of economies of scale, adapt their offerings to a particular market (which may facilitate increased market specific penetration), or adopt an integrated approach utilising both approaches simultaneously (Vrontis’ AdaptStand approach). There has been much literature written regarding the external and often uncontrollable factors which may impact upon a firms positioning strategy; this paper looks at these externalities and the internal controllables in order to derive a ‘best fit’ strategic and tactical approach. Moreover, this paper looks at the strategic international positioning of Coca-Cola by utilising a number of models. Keywords: Coca-Cola, global, international, strategy, positioning, adaptation, standardisation, AdaptStand, AdaptStandation, international, marketing, Introduction If we consider business to be akin to war, then perhaps there is no better starting point than the writings of Sun Tzu [circa 400-320 B.C.]. ‘The Art of War’ is the oldest formalised writing focusing on the concepts and principles of warfare and military strategy. Written over two millennia ago, it is still...
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...[gview file="http://file.coursepaper.com/20131002214624535.pdf"] BS3100 Business Strategy Summary report “Ryanair – The Low Fares Airline” Ryanair – The Low Fare Airline Being founded in 1985 by an Irish businessman, Tony Ryan, Ryanair today is Europe’s first and largest low fares airline (Thomson and Bade-Fuller, 2010). Since 1991 with Michael O’Leary taking a position of CEO of the company, Ryanair in 2008 had served about 50.9 million passengers in around over 25 European countries with a total number of 163 Boeing 737-800 planes (ibid). The low-cost model airline is pursuing seem to be successful, resulted in continuously increasing margin rate and overwhelming competition with other major airlines, like easyJet and Lufthansa (ibid). The predominance of Ryanair as Europe’s largest low cost carrier is a consequence of the following cost advantage sources. Homogenous fleet, frequent short-haul flights, high seating density and planes filled to capacity due to cheap early bird tickets allow Ryanair to benefit from economies of scale (Thomson and Bade-Fuller, 2010). Standardisation and simplification of jobs results in economies of learning and residual efficiency. Process design, that includes 96% card only online bookings, fast boarding, short haul flights, use of homogenous fleet with simplified aircraft design, low number of staff, use of secondary airports and departures before 9pm leads to efficient service delivery (ibid). Ryanair product design is aimed...
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...with the best products and high quality services. Mission: What is good for the community is good for the company. We are committed to delight our customers with the best quality products in geographic dispersed markets using the most advanced technology, and keep recruiting, developing, and motivating our employees. We are concerned for the survival, growth, and profitability of the company through adhering to the ethical and environmental standards. The social spirit of our firm motivates us to keep enriching the lives of our people. Opportunities and Threats: Opportunities: 1. Sanita took advantage of the weak service of international companies in the sector of baby diapers. 2. Conferences & Exhibitions: Sanita sponsors regional United Nations conferences devoted to industrial topics, local exhibitions related to its core business activities, and exhibitions/events for children, scouts, and sports clubs. 3. Sanita has great opportunities to expand and go global. 4. Manufacturing and exporting blue tissues to England, which are common there. Threats: 1. High cost of utilities (Electricity and energy) 2. High cost of clearing and forwarding the goods at the Beirut port. 4. Limitation of...
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...the market of luxurious jewelry is the successful American brand Tiffany& Co. In the following analysis, the customer-driven marketing strategy including the market segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning are the ones I would propose in case I would take on the position of the leading marketing manager in the specific company, mostly focusing on a specific product, the famous diamond rings. 1. Suggest how to segment the market. The topic of segmenting the market is not an easy task to accomplish and it could be better defined as a compilation of multiple factors. Therefore, Tiffany& Co. should try through multiple variables to see which give the best segmentation opportunities. We are discussing the case of consumer marketing, so the major segmentation variables are geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral. The analysis of each category is vast, but it would be more advisable for the specific brand to narrow the analysis into the most concrete level as to reach our goal more accurately, which is no other but the utmost accurate market segmentation. Tiffany& Co. can segment its customer market based on geographic criteria, in other words divided into different geographic units, such as nations, regions, states, counties, cities or even neighborhoods. Being a brand originating by the United States of America, it could be argued that it targets solely the specific geographic market. This is not solely true as nowadays, thanks...
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...Levels of Product Differentiation in the Global Mobile Phones Market The sixth product level called compliant product is a connecting element between the physical product characteristics and the strategy of the producer company Stanimir Andonov* The article discusses the differentiation among the product offers of companies working in the global markets, as well as the strategies which they use and could use in that respect. The main idea of the paper is that the principle “differentiate or die” (Jack Trout) has died. Today the global brands don’t strive to differ from their competitors in everything and at any cost. As an example, let’s have a global look at the business of mobile phones. In June 1998 Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Psion established their own International Strategic Alliance, a private independent company called “Symbian”. Symbian Ltd. is an independent, for-profit company whose mission is to establish Symbian OS as the world standard for mobile digital data systems, primarily for use in cellular telecoms. So, the three biggest mobile phone companies at that time and Psion, a mobile PC company, created a new way for competing and differentiating. Today Symbian Ltd. is owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. Figure 1 shows the percentage of shares of each shareholding company: Figure 1 Shareholding companies of Symbian and their percentage of shares Source: Symbian Ltd. – Company Ownership, http://www.symbian.com/about/ownership...
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...Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. I. Analysis of the Problem Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has experienced abundant success as the fastest growing restaurant chain in the United States and has dominated a large share of the fast-casual Mexican market. Chipotle was ranked eighth in a list of fastest-growing chains in 2009 and third in 2010 based on increases in U.S. sales during that time period. In order to sustain growth and build on accelerated success, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. must implement a variety of strategy over the next five years to account for the new competitive market, new technologies, developments via the Internet and eMarketing, and new segmentation and positioning imperatives. Culinary artist and line cook Steve Ellis established Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. in 1993 in Denver Colorado after noting the popularity of taquerias and other Tex Mex food items in the San Francisco area (wikipedia.com). In 1998, McDonald’s made an initial minority investment in the corporation and become its largest investor by 2001 (wikipedia.com). The investment from McDonald’s granted Chipotle the opportunity to quickly expand from 16 restaurants in 1998 to 837 locations in 2009 (wikipedia.com, slideshare.net). While Chipotle is one of the fastest growing restaurants in North America, the corporation faces competition from corporations such as Moe’s Southwest Grill, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill, Panchero’s Mexican Grill, and Baja Fresh (wikipedia.com). In...
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...2/27/12 Generic Competitive Strategies - eNotes.com Generic Competitive Strategies Generic Competitive Strategies Three of the most widely read books on competitive analysis in the 1980s were Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage, and Competitive Advantage of Nations. In his various books, Porter developed three generic strategies that, he argues, can be used singly or in combination to create a defendable position and to outperform competitors, whether they are within an industry or across nations. Porter states that the strategies are generic because they are applicable to a large variety of situations and contexts. The strategies are (1) overall cost leadership; (2) differentiation; and (3) focus on a particular market niche. The generic strategies provide direction for firms in designing incentive systems, control procedures, and organizational arrangements. Following is a description of this work. OVERALL COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY Overall cost leadership requires firms to develop policies aimed at becoming and remaining the lowest-cost producer and/or distributor in the industry. Company strategies aimed at controlling costs include construction of efficient-scale facilities, tight control of costs and overhead, avoidance of marginal customer accounts, minimization of operating expenses, reduction of input costs, tight control of labor costs, and lower distribution costs. The low-cost leader gains competitive advantage by getting...
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...characteristics . A company may have identified its target market, but selling its product may entail identifying even smaller, better defined target groups.A target audience and a target market can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender, or marital status. Target audience is specific group of people at which product is aimed at. Target audience determination is important part of the marketing strategy and has a direct impact on the advertising efforts . Examples * CVS Caremark's target market is women since they make up 80 percent of the pharmacy chain’s customers. CVS has marketed its stores to aid women who are constantly multitasking. They recently redesigned 1,200 of its 6,200 stores to appeal to women, including shorter wait times for prescriptions, wider and better-lit shopping aisles, and more beauty products. * If a company wants to sell a diet program for men with heart disease problem the communication may be aimed at the spouse who takes care of the nutrition plan of her husband and child. The companies often develop different marketing strategies for different consumer needs . the process by which they do this is known as target marketing . and it involve four basic steps . THE TARGET MARKETING PROCESS 1) IDENTIFYING MARKETS Target market isolates consumers with similar lifestyles , needs and the like and increase the companies knowledge of their specific requirements.Identifying markets need to aggregate consumers with similar needs. Demand...
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...extent that it became a brand statement as such, with people ordering “Absolut and Tonic”. Originality combined with consistency in marketing were key elements in the achieved success, leading to repeated two-digit increases in sales, year after year and positioning Absolut as the 5th largest selling spirit brand in the world. In the past few years V&S Absolut Spirits has experienced a strong increase in demand from, among other places, the quickly growing Global Travel Retail market, which, combined, is the second biggest market for ABSOLUT VODKA. Background --: The name "Absolut" was introduced in 1879 by the entrepreneur Lars Olsson Smith. Smith introduced fractional distillation that produces liquor without fusel alcohol in Sweden. In 1917 the Swedish government monopolized the alcohol industry in Sweden. Vodka was then sold nationwide under the name "Absolut Renat Brännvin". The name was later on cropped to Absolut vodka in the year 1979. Much of Absolut's fame is due to its long-running advertising campaign, created by advertising agency based on the distinctive bottle shape. In the 1970's, American consumers accounted for 60% of the vodka purchased worldwide. However, 99% of the vodka consumed in the United...
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...Executive summary This business report introduce the Colgate company’s general situations, the following elements the report introduced. The Colgate company’s history and current situations The Colgate company’s Microenvironment The Colgate company’s major competitors The Colgate company’s possible market segments The Colgate company’s targeting The Colgate company’s Positioning and Differentiation Introduction Colgate was founded in 1806, William Colgate made his name registered a company. In 1890, Colgate out of Native American to expand global business. Now, after nearly 200 years of ups and downs, this company's productions have been sold to the world more than 200 countries and regions, into a $9400000000 global consumer company. Colgate Palmolive Co. Ltd. is a domestic leading consumer company, has more than 40000 employees in more than 200 countries. This performance should be attributed to its more than 100 years to promote oral health education all over the world, promoting the series of activities to educate people in oral health consciousness. “Our goal: no cavities.” Behind a simple slogan has a lot of investment.Through close cooperation with governments and professional organizations, to carry out the oral health education activities in the world, these activities let the tens of millions of people to remember the brand of Colgate in the heart. This report will introduce two types of toothpastes, first one called 360 ° Colgate toothpaste which is suit...
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...Introduction: In their 1981 book, Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout describe how positioning is used as a communication tool to reach target customers in a crowded marketplace. Regular use of the term dates back to 1972 when the same authors published a series of articles in Advertising Age called "The Positioning Era." Not long thereafter, Madison Avenue advertising executives began to develop positioning slogans for their clients and positioning became a key aspect of marketing communications. Positioning: The Battle for your Mind has become a classic in the field of marketing. The following is a summary of the key points made by Ries and Trout in their book What is Positioning? Positioning is a platform for the brand it facilitates the brand to get through to the target consumers. Positioning is act of fixing the locus of the product offer in the minds of the target consumers. In positioning, the firm decides how and around what parameters, the product offer has to be placed before the target consumers. The significance of product positioning can be easily understood from David Ogilvy’s words; the results of your campaign depends less on how we write your advertising than on how your product is positioned. Most authors define positioning as the perception that a target market has of a brand relative to its competitors. This definition raises two points. First, positioning is perceptual. In other words, positioning is not factual; instead...
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...I. The positioning of United Cereal (UC) a. The vision of United Cereal We accompany you to embrace every delicious and hopeful morning. You inspire us to pursue forever innovative and vigorous winning. ------- United Cereal In a study (James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras, 1996), James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras proposed that a well-conceived vision consists of two major components: core ideology and envisioned future. Core ideology defines what we stand for and why we exist. The envisioned future is what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create- something that will require significant change and progress to attain. 1. Core ideology Core ideology consists of two distinct parts: core values and core purpose. While the strategies and practices will adapt to the changing environment endlessly, core values and core purposes remain fixed in the companies which enjoy enduring success. As a set of guiding principles, core values are the essential and enduring tenets of companies and have intrinsic value and importance to those inside the organization. UC’s two time-tested values-customer and market oriented, and constant innovation- which can be summarized from the company phrases, are embodied in its vision: ● Customer and market oriented (“You inspire us”): It is customers who lastingly gave UC inspiration to do innovation and led UC to become a pioneer in the use of consumer research and focus group. UC listens to the customer, spots the trend, and holds the high...
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...Strategic Positioning and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Food Industry Abstract Purpose – This paper examines the concepts of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) and strategic positioning (SP) and seeks to develop a framework on determinants of SP and SCA in the food industry following the case study approach. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyzes the concepts of strategic positioning and sustainable competitive advantage and their interrelation. The qualitative study of three beverage producers is conducted. Cases are analyzed based on the theoretical models discussed in the first part of the paper. Findings - This paper provides comparison of positioning strategies and SCA of three international beverage producers. The theoretical framework on determinants of these concepts was developed and applied for case study. The concepts of SCA and SP are interchanging, but from the case study it was not possible to conclude whether one leads to another. There is no single theory found which would be universal in explaining the success of the brands. Companies are complex structures and their success depends on many different elements which should be analyzed in combination. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based solely on the case analysis of three unique beverage companies. To generalize conclusions the research of other companies in food industry on possession of SCA and their positioning strategies is needed. Not all firsthand information...
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