Market opportunity analysis and consumer analysis

• strategy is a plan for reaching a specific goal.
• When creating marketing plans, start with broad strategies and support them with specific tactics.
• Planning is the process of predicting future-events and conditions and of determining the best way to attain the goals and objectives of the organization
• Strategic planning is a management process of creating and maintaining fit between the objectives and resources of the organization and the changing marketing opportunities.
• The very goal of strategic planning is the long-term profitability and growth of the company
• Strategic planning is designed to provide an organization, its dlivisions departments or even individual players with a game plan or road map to achieve specific goals and objectives.
• Strategic planning identifies interal and external effects and opportunities to consider in the creation of strategies and tactics.
• The marketing plan would detail more specific objectives for the marketing department to monitor and report on
• the term strategy actually is the thinking process required to plan a change, course of action, or organization.
• Strategy defines, or outlines, the desired goals and why a company should go about achieving them.
• Tactics are the specific actions to be taken in implementing a strategy.
• Tactical planning is short range planning that emphasizes the current operations of various parts of the organization
• Tactical plans are usually developed in the areas of production, marketing, personnel, finance and plant facilities
• A well-worked-out mission statement provides employees with a joint sense of purpose, irection, and opportunity
• Industry scope is the industry or range of industries in which a company will cooperate
• Products and applications scope is the range of products and applications that a company will supply
• Competence scope is the range of technological and other core competencies that a company will master and leverage.
• Market-segment scope is the type of market or customers a company will serve.
• Vertical Scope is the number of channel levels starting from raw material to final product and distribution in which a company will play a part.
• Geographical scope is the range of regions or countries in which a company will operate.
• Major competitive scopes:

  • Industry scope
  • Products and applications scope
  • Competence scope
  • Market-segment scope
  • Vertical scope
  • Geographical scope
• Environmental scanning is the, collection and interpretatien of information about forces, events, and relationships that may affect the future of an organization.
• Environmental scanning allows a company to constantly look for threats and opportunities before they are fully apparent
• Players in the internal environment are suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors, publics, and others which may work with or against the company.
• Major external environmental forces such as demographic, economic, natural, technological, political, and socio-cultural can shape marketing opportunities pose threats, and affect the company's ability to build customer relationships.
• SWOT model is an excellent tool for internal analysis, since it encourages you to think about your organization and only your organization.
• Managers use the word goals to describe objectives that are definite with respect to magnitude and time
• Measurable goals make possible and uncomplicated management planning, implementation, and control.
• In order to be effective, goals must be attainable, consistent, comprehensive and intangible.
• Overall cost leadership is where the business operates to realize the lowest

  production and distribution costs in order that it can price lower than competitors

  and gain more market share.
• Firms practicing this strategy must be good at engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, and physical distribution.

  Overall cost leadership
• Middle-of-the-roaders are firms that do not pursue a clear strategy which do the worst
• These firms could fall upon hard times because they do not stand out as the lowest in cost, highest perceived value, or best in serving some market segment

  Middle-of-the-roaders
• Differentiation is where the business concentrates on achieving superior performance in a vital customer benefit area, like being the leader in service, quality, style, or technology, but not leading in all of these things
• Focus here the business focuses on one or more narrow market segments.
• It should be applied to each marketing program to determine whether it is likely to produce sufficient results to justify the cost.

  Activity based cost accounting
• activity based costing is a costing model that aids a company in determining the cost of certain activities involved in producing a product/service and distributing that product/service to a customer
• This stage requires the giving of specific tasks and timelines to individuals and groups

  Implementation
• The firm requires to track the results and monitor new developments in the internal and external environments

  Feedback and control
• Peter Drucker pointed out that it is more important to "do the right thing" than "to do things right